Back catalogue: Industrial/Noise

Review: Boris Barksdale's Eternal Remorse originally saw the light of day on Portugese label Eye For An Eye as a digital release back in 2018, and now it's getting a vinyl pressing. A physical release feels appropriate for this pointedly dusty release, which leans in on synthwave influences to create a thoroughly dark and gnarly atmosphere. '5.0.5' steps out on a tough, dishevelled rhythm section, with seriously degraded synths falling apart behind the jackhammer drums. '7.0.8' takes the intensity up a notch, hitting with an industrial bite, while 'Sentier' channels even more of that Ministry-flavoured malaise with its disturbing yelps and screams. 'Sramota' has the hallmarks of a mid 80s bedroom beatdown from a blackened soul, 'Take Notes' delivers yet more pounding, percussive punishment, and 'Geezer' rounds things off with a bleak and troubled slab of EBM dragged from the underworld to stalk amongst all nightcrawlers and ne'er-do-wells.

Review: This Bristol based imprint is onto its third edition after smashing previous 12"s from homegirl Shanti Celeste and the mysterious Fred. Not much is known of next debutante Chekov either but if this EP is any indication: he's certainly on to great things. He could be a Bristolian, if the slowburning and bass heavy roller "Bierce" is any indication: it has a gritty industrial aesthetic to it too. "Rotlicht" (which translates into red light from German) is a dirty, late night house jam powered by dusty analogue elements and a lo-fi vibe. On the flip "Toothru" is the most mellow offering on the EP, where a woozy arpeggio is set adrift above a broken beat and some hypnotic pads letting this less is more approach really shine.

Review: Yu Asaeda's been putting out a whole range of quality, bass-centric sounds under the name ENA since the late 2000s, but these have come out on a rather sporadic basis. Appearances for the infamous 7even Recordings was followed by material on Samurai Horo, the excellent Hidden Hawaii and, more recently, the Samurai label's offshoot, Horo. Divided: Body is so much more than a mere 'bass' EP, and it actually manages to veer off into some pretty strange and imperceptible sounds that remind us of the material emanating from the PAN consortium. For instance, the opening "11th Divided" manages to create a raw, loose groove out of fractured synth sounds, which is followed up nicely by the swarming drones operating in the higher ends of "12th Divided". Over on the flip, "13th Divided" launches a subtle yet hefty groove made up of what sound like bass pops made from a monophonic synth, which leaves "14th Divided" to linger in its dreary pool of fuzzy drones and washed-up sonics. A massive, merited TIP!

Review: The next release on Persephonic Sirens comes from Inventory With Hamilton, which is the new project of label chief Michael Wollenhaupt (aka Ancient Methods) with Wahiba Khadri - who collaborate for the first time since 2018's The Jericho Records. Parting Galaxies On A Forlorn Leaderboard features four diverse sonic excursions that are presented in a singular style, yet still consistent with the label's dark aesthetic. From the electrifying imaginary film score of 'Petit Oratorio Des Oiseaux Migrateurs' which leads into the pitch black EBM pulse of 'Angstblute' over on the flip, and ending with the haunting cold wave of 'Lethe' - prepare to enter the void!

Review: Ever-changing Slovenian collective Laibach seems to have mellowed with age, with the band's inherent desire to court controversy (see their 2015 performances in North Korea for a relatively recently example) currently curtailed. Love Is Still Alive, which marks their first new music since the release of last year's well-received album Wir Sind das Volk, is actually an "extension" of the music they wrote to soundtrack the 2019 film 'Iron Sky -The Coming Race'. It is, they say, a "trip through space music genres of recent decades" (albeit with bonus nods to country, pop and so on) that loosely tells the story of a spaceship full of post-apocalyptic survivors making their way across the solar system. It's a lot of fun, all told, with the band expertly showcasing the breadth of their musical knowledge as well as skip-fulls of imagination.

Review: This 7" from Yao Bobby & Simon Grab is as esoteric as it gets. If you don't like noise, you won't like this, it's that simple. The two tracks are taken from their recent album 'Wum' on LAVALAVA. It is some of their most abrasive and confrontational music to date. 'Nyagblodi' is an attack on corrupt African politicians with a loud, guttural voice and frazzled synth over heavily distorted drums. On the flip, 'Church' has a broken beat rhythm, hardcore industrial texture and more powerful vocal chants. These are two hard-as-nails tunes with a powerful message.

Review: Jason Barton is one man, London based experimental project BArTc. Insubstantial As Ghosts is his 14 track debut album and it comes on the label run by Colin Potter, who is well known for weird electronics thanks to his time as a member of Nurse With Wound. Barton has said that influences include Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson and industrial legends such as Coil, Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten. The music is built in many layers of synths, found sounds and environmental recordings. It results in organic and experimental sounds that are heavily distorted with various effects.

Review: When it was first released in 2007, "Part 2: The Endless Not / TG Now" was Throbbing Gristle's first studio album since 1982. The pioneering industrial band had been drawn together again in 2004 to mark the passing of friend John Balance with a rare performance, and spent the next two years sporadically recording new material. The set was produced slightly differently to the all-analogue early works, with greater use of sampling and digital instrumentation. Yet despite the new toys and techniques, the music remained as antagonistic, forthright, intense and otherworldly as it had been two decades before. In other words, it's a proper Throbbing Gristle album, made by the original members to their original ethos, with a slightly different production approach. For that reason it remains a must-have for all fans of industrial music past and present.

Review: Since its inception, Shifted's Avian imprint has gone from being a murderous, straight-laced techno imprint to what has now become a source for some of the best and most multi-faceted industrial music from the European quarters. We're not sure of Verge's true identity; it could either be one of the label's existing artists, the mysterious Shifted himself, or even an artist like Blawan riding incognito (don't quote us on that, though!) Solitary and crest-fallen, this magnetic collection of tunes feed off one another with utter ease and simplicity. They're not merely a selection of sound experiments but rather a unitary cloud of sonics which leave the listener with a powerful mental image. The feeling of dusk, the water dropping off the leaves, the cold breeze of Autumn. This is a blinding foray into the darkest corners of contemporary industrial experimentation.