Institution D.O.L. – Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World

Institution D.O.L. – Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World CD TORM Ent. 2019

Three years on from 2016’s Exzess (reviewed here), Institution D.O.L. have returned with a new album and which features a title previously utilised as a manifesto tag line on the last release. To then mention some early pre-release promotion, I remember reading that this would be the final album from the project, but I am also not sure on the current validity of that statement. But onward with the review.

In wasting no time, Invocation blasts forth from the speakers with loud and digitally crisp industrial textures, which are counterpointed by (sampled?) religious choirs and chants and dour organ melody. Throbbing oscillations then characterizes We Are The Black Ones, mixed with a decent dose of echo and raw junk metal crunch and shattering glass, while processed vocals and samples of crowd riots and gunfire ratchet up tension. Structured around mechanized loops and sharp spitting textures You Are All Lost, these tones bleed into the following Abschlachtung, but which is differentiated by deep melancholic sub-orchestral synth pads which underscores the majority of the track. Absolute Hell delivers more heady power electronics, which sonically spans the both rough and clean sonic textures, yet the latter half deviates completely though the use of a tragic toned piano line, which is offset with an evangelical preacher sample. In Dust and Death is by far the most rhythmic track on offer, but it is of a crude and simplistic style and not at all of a dance floor ‘rhythmic industrial’ type, while the title track rounds out the album and is the longest offering by far at twelve minutes. The first segment features brooding overblown noise and cavernous echo, but by the two minute mark the piece opens out into widescreen cinematic tones synths and from the five minute mark shifts to a beautifully melancholic piano melody which extends through to the end of the album (with only subtle noise sweeping and panning in the background). Perhaps the only slight drawback of this track are the vocals, where the emotional overwrought style of delivery detracts from the overall mood, although I am clearly missing the meaning of the words as they are being spoken in Austrian.

As with earlier albums the production sound is top notch but at only 37 minutes this is a very short and to the point album. But even so, it crams a wide variety of styles and sounds into the mix, while still managing to sound as a cohesive whole. Certainly being a solid album, if you have liked prior output of Institution D.O.L, you would no-doubt like this.

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Code Neda – Tomorrow Double The Body Count

Code Neda – Tomorrow Double The Body Count MC Unrest Productions 2018

For context, Code Neda’s debut tape from 2017 can be broadly bracketed under a death industrial sound tinged with ritual heavy electronics (reviewed here). However, on this follow up it features a more direct heavy electronics sound, where ten track make up an album length tape.

The streamlined approach is immediately evident when the opening track The Devil and the Child bursts forth from the speakers with grinding bass emissions, sweeping static and heavily processed/ morbidity toned vocal proclamations. System is another display of honed simplicity, with a central mechanised ‘beat’, blended with layered bass pulsations and again with the treated vocals. In its maintenance of a strikingly direct  heavy electronics approach, sonic variation is delivered with air-raid sirens (Europe Was Lost), corkscrew spiralling drones (Jackie Duddy), subdued power-electronics menace (Confession) and fast-paced rhythmic pulsations (Blood On Your Hands), while the tape concludes with the subdued Bloody Ritual with is stilted and repetitive loops and morbid vocalisations.

Clearly Unrest Productions is pretty much a perfect label for material of this fare, and while clearly working within the broader parameters of its chosen genre, Code Neda has demonstrated a wealth of ideas and skill of sonic execution which makes for a excellently honed heavy electronics release. Pro-printed tape and cover round and the physical packaging. You know what to do.

Graustich – Morality Ends

Graustich – Morality Ends LP Tordon Ljud 2018

As an introductory comment, I must admit this album was very much a slow burner for me. After I tracked down a copy of this debut album from this obscure and anonymous project, I gave it a few spins and thought it to be a quite OK example of German toned heavy electronics, but then promptly forgot about it with a mountain of other new material to listen to. In fast forwarding a few months I then kept seeing people online singing its praise as one of the best albums of 2018, which raised my interest me revisit and reevaluate, which I am really glad I did as this is a truly excellent release.

To speak broadly of its sound, Morality Ends is built around molasses thick bass structures, which in slow laborious loops forms the broader sonic approach. Yet subtle variation in both structure, sonic intensity and sampling maintains interest across the album’s eight tracks. Gralsritter opens the album in relatively subdued bass toned loops, prior to the real action commencing with Let the Guns Begin, which steps up with squall and static and a number of nationalistic styled samples through the later half. Our Justice reminds of a particular windswept heavy electronics sound prevalent German project in the early 1990’s (think early Predominance sans keyboard melodies), while Greensboring is a complete standout by virtue of it its pulsing bass, mechanized metallic loops, short wave radio static, ominous programmed beat and semi-buried crowd and dialogue samples (which I am assuming relates to a 1979 incident in Greensboro, North Carolina when five members of the Communist Workers Party who were participating in a ‘Death to the Klan’ rally were shot to death by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis).

Side B presents a further four quality tracks, with Puppet of Masters being another standout cut framed around a militant thudding beat, orchestral styled drone, building washes of distortion, and yet more semi-buried samples. To then make reference to the variety of chosen samples, a number of these begin to paint a vague conceptual framework which focuses on the racial divide which underscores American society both past and present, but like any good underground post-industrial music, the use of such samples raises clear questions about meaning, message and intent. Drilled to Kill is one of the most animated pieces of the album, and while it stops short of being blood boiling it is certainly amped up compared to other tracks given its grinding loops and fast paced pulsing structures. This mood continues with the faced paced panning between speakers on Church of Death, which creates a very disorienting effect, while Noble Hate closes out the album with vigorous layered loops, mid-toned static and prominent current affairs sampling addressing the KKK and the White Power movement.

Given I am now singing the praise of Morality Ends, credit needs to be given to those individuals who highlighted on social media platforms as being an excellent release, as otherwise the LP would have been relegated to a semi-forgotten release on my shelves. Ultimately, I think my initial impression was perhaps more of a case of sonic fatigue at the time, yet in the re-listening Morality Ends clearly benefits substantially form significant volume in order to bring the deeper semi-buried elements to the foreground. As for the physical presentation, a no frills black and white cover rounds out a very solid release.

Am Not – Incursions

Am Not – Incursions MC Zaetraom 2018

Tamon Miyakita’s project Am Not is very much a current ‘leading light’ in the underground. With a sound built upon an established bedrock of the post-industrial scene, Am Not have also developed a highly recognisable approach within a heavy electronics/ power electronics/ noise industrial style. In then noting that the key releases from the project being able to be counted on a single hand, Am Not’s discography is already extremely focused, meaning the project is yet to disappoint. This new release continues this established modus operandi, and pleasingly contains an album’s length of new material (approx. 40 minutes).

The tape opens with the track Into Hostile Space and features an archival sample of George Bush Jnr, which in today’s context is far more interesting given the current US political climate. Musically speaking it features all the hallmarks of the best elements of project, where roughly hewn metallic tones are offset against crushing loud and sonically thick loops and mid-toned tensile drones, as the heavily process vocal barrage rounds out a storming opening track. But in moving away from a now recognisable sound Am Not, Incursions is noteworthy for its willingness to experiment and push into uncharted territory. Once such example is Feindes Land with its initial blending of neo-classical and dialogue sampling, which quickly gives way to a swaying, electronica tinged industrial track, completed with spoken vocals courtesy of Hermann Kopp. As for another significantly deviating track, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet could perhaps be playfully described as an unnamed Soviet era project trying to emulate Kraftwerk! Continental Drift III is also sonically differentiated from the rest by the fact of how subdued it is, and is framed around deep sub-orchestral drones, passive echo treated junk metal sounds and spoken Russian female vocals. Elsewhere a perhaps more ‘typical’ highly composed power/heavy electronics sound of the project is employed (i.e. top notch), but one striking example is Irruption where the rabidly intense vocals are immediately recognisable as that of S.T.A.B. Electronics.

Thematically speaking prominent dialogue samples are strongly represented, while guest vocals are employed and feature on a number tracks, where I was later informed that Tamon’s (English) lyrics on the opening track are repeated in different languages on three other tracks (including: German, Gaelic, and Russian), thereby subverting its meaning and message from a singular perspective. Thus, apart from the outstanding strength of the music featured on Incursions, part of the enjoyment of engaging with a release such as this is carefully listening, picking apart and interpreting both samples and lyrics (where detectable). To that end at a most simplistic level the thematic preoccupations of Incursions could be interpreted as a multifaceted analysis of nationhood, identity, sovereignty and associated political influence in a globalised context which has emerged following the Cold War (but as always there are likely to be elements I have perhaps either misinterpreted or otherwise completely missed). Seemingly not short on sonic or conceptual ideas, Am Not are going from strength to strength, where Incursions is yet another mandatory release.

Pterygium – Concealing The Past

Pterygium – Concealing The Past CD Tesco Organisation 2018

The relatively new Australian project Pterygium have returned with their second full length album Concealing The Past, which follows the 2017 debut Grip (issued on a small cassette run on Algebra Of Need and reviewed here). Also of note, Pteryrium had a track on Tesco Organisation’s 2017 Projekt Neue Ordnung II 4xLP boxset, where Tesco has now subsequently issued this new and admittedly excellent sophomore album.

In noting the dual sonic approach of Grip, which blended minimalistic melodic tones with sharper distortion squalls, that approach has been both repeated and further honed here where the tonal range has been further refined and sonic depth amplified. As an album Concealing The Past is structured around nine distinct and individual pieces of between three and seven minutes each, which on the most part follow an understated melodic and minor keyed compositional framework. Being effectively an instrumental album, a variety of discreet sampled ethnic/ religious framed vocals provides an ethereal touch, as does the melancholic elements (such as piano lines, neo-orchestral strings etc.), which evokes a detached yet strongly emotive resonance (such as is immaculately displayed on A Vacant Regret). Yet there is still a willingness to let loose on select with heavy menacing drones and higher-toned noise squalls such as displayed on Entry_Exitpoint which has a raw tonal sharpness which perhaps is indicative of a live in studio recording technique. A pair of late album tracks (Siphon Like Parasites & And Love Became A One Way Street) both balance on a knifes edge between the dual sonic approaches, on the one side featuring crude distortion blasts and choppy loops, which on the other are offset against bass addled drones and swelling sub-orchestral melodies.

Thematically Concealing The Past clearly fits within the broader post-industrial network, but to its credit does not sound in any way typical or derivative of a particular sub-genre. Rather, it draws extensively from various elements to create its own internalized sound and logic and is all the stronger for it, but for comparative sake the multi-faceted sound displayed by Prurient on Frozen Niagara Falls is perhaps a reasonable reference point.

Although some people continue to complain that the post-industrial music is broadly redundant for lack of new ideas and approaches, and further accuse newer projects of being mere copyists of the originators, Pterygium is the effective antithesis of that opinion. Solo member Henry Gillet clearly understands the underground scene Pterygium operates within, but armed with a wealth of musical ideas he has creates a strong and individual sound which sidesteps being in any way derivative of genre confines of noise, industrial, dark ambient and power electronics. If the current and next generation of projects can match the creativity displayed on Concealing The Past, there is still much new ground to be explored and much to look forward to and be celebrated. A resounding recommendation from these quarters.

Am Not – Unpunished : Appendix

Am Not – Unpunished : Appendix 10” EP Unrest Productions 2018

In its first version Unpunished : Appendix was issued in an extremely limited edition of 24 deluxe cassette box-sets. Only being available at a live performance in Paris, needless to say it sold out immediately, so having a repress of the four tracks on 10” vinyl is certainly welcome. Although the title refers to this being an ‘appendix’ I don’t get the impression that this is leftover material, rather new material which builds upon the themes and concepts explored on 2015’s exceptional album Unpunished (reviewed here).

Sonically speaking, the four tracks follow the now recognisable sound of Am Not, which, while being meticulously composed power/heavy electronics, does not forgo a suitably rough and raw industrial sonic edge. Opening track And Then We Shall Know commences relatively calmly with two intertwining loops (deep throbbing bass and higher modulated tone), which soon gives way to heavy and raw pounding industrial structures, and the proclamation-style rough vocals, achieving the typical blending of Am Not’s sound. Dark Star Kinshara follows and is another track of rough industrial-tinged heavy electronics that ups the intensity slightly and is also underscored by a dour organ-style drone. Intriguingly this track is: ‘dedicated to the ongoing Congolese space program’, which it turns out is an actual thing, but one with a lengthy and chequered history with alleged links to Nazi scientists and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era. Side B offers another two distinct tracks, with Extremophilia II being a mass of thick pulsing loops and swirling mid-toned textures, with prominent dialogue samples and a rough vocal barrage framing the lyrical theme. The final of the four tracks, the instrumental State Funeral, is the most surprising of the lot, blending rough junk metal timbres with highly cinematic, neo-classical elements. With its stoic martial industrial percussive leanings and central dour organ melody, this on first listen is not immediately recognisable as Am Not, yet is a stunningly great track all the same.

As for presentation, the packaging is as slick and considered as the music, including four postcard inserts and four-panel booklet with mini interview to provide further information on the group and its thematic/lyrical preoccupations. Another mandatory release from Am Not and Unrest Productions.

Announcement: Spectrum Compendium book cover released!!

I am extremely proud to reveal the finalised cover of the Spectrum Compendium book!

After a couple of design options, in the end it was decide to go with a cover design both keeps and builds upon the feel and aesthetic of the original Spectrum Magazines, which to my mind has come out as a very strong and striking visual.

The book layout is still being worked on by the publisher, but evidently I will have a copy to proof and approve this month (October, 2018).

More details on publication date will be announced later when known but getting very close now!!!