Folks, we have a very long wait for JOHN 3:16’s next opus (April of 2024), but judging based on how good the samples have been so far, this is going to be the band’s most profound release yet. The tension on the album reminds me of early, more Industrial-era Laibach with elements of the Swans, but with a more cinematic feel to it. Be patient, the whole thing will come to be soon enough.
Illinois-based label Somnimage has been on quite a roll producing some of the best post-Industrial and experimental music coming out of the United States. Today’s offering pairs Dan Burke (who won fame as the chief focal point of Illusion of Safety) and label owner Mykel Boyd (who has also performed with such luminaries as The Anti-Group and post doom romance). There are two tracks on this album – the first being a solid sample lasting 7 minutes giving a fine taste of what is coming, and a full track clocking in at nearly an hour of shifting drones, pulses and…
The indie world lost a giant on April 21st with the passing of Mark Stewart. In his honor, I share a compilation album featuring the crème de la crème of alternative, industrial, reggae and dub music coming out in full force to remix and cut up Stewart’s works. Featured on this compilation are Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, K.K. Null, Stephen Mallinder and Eric Random among others. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “VS. is a unique collaborative project helmed by Mark Stewart, a vocalist, producer and songwriter who’s been an anarchic, pioneering figure on the frontiers of Post-Punk, Industrial, Avant-Dub and Electronic…
Dirk Serries has kept his Industrial/Fourth World project Vidna Obmana alive since 1984, but this release for metal label Relapse Records will be his coup de grace. Loosely based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, this 3-CD set covers all the music genres Serries has worked in over the past four decades. From his Bandcamp site: “An almost his 25 year existency as VIDNA OBMANA Dirk Serries never shied away from challenges, sometimes to the regret of many of his fans, but it’s when he was offered a record deal with the renowned metal label RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT Vidna Obmana took…
Bruce Licher is an icon in the art-punk/post-punk/post-Industrial music scene. He was a member if the seminal band Savage Republic, runs Independent Projects Records and Independent Projects Press for his graphic design work. Though we’re a bit early to the party, so to speak, Bruce will be reissuing an album called Tape Excavation, which has been supplemented with bonus material and will feature the gorgeous letterpress artwork he and the projects he works with are known for. I am sure that this will sell out very quickly, so you’ve been warned – now is a good time to pre-order this…
With the passing of Richard H. Kirk last year and Stephen Mallinder keeping himself busy with his own projects, Cabaret Voltaire will be no more. This final album, basically with Kirk alone programming the music, is a fifty-minute track that has much more in common with it’s early Industrial past than it does with the techno-funk sound that made them so popular in the 1980s.
This release, by No Part Of It Records, is a fine label putting out quality discs, and this archival album combines Dan Burke of Illusion of Safety and Z’ev, two of America’s foremost Industrial musicians. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “What we have here is a potent cocktail of scrap metal, processed field recordings, modular synthesis, and plenty of aptly placed intermittent percussive clatter. The overall impression I’m left with is a very calculated sound collage that still feels like the sonic equivalent of a deep epiphany, or maybe a catalyst for one. What seems like a casual interweaving of…
This gem is from one of Romania’s strangest composers. The music sounds made by Rodion Roșca range from a more industrial-era Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide to the wilder music of Giorgio Moroder. He passed away in March of 2021 at the age of 68, but he left a truly unique body of work behind, including this wonderful record. Derek Anderson of Derek’s Music Blog wrote a long and deep tribute to Rodion, and Derek was responsible for helping get his name out to the international public. A commendable article and truly, a commendable record.
It seems like Donny Vegas has been listening to all the right post-punk records for my taste. One can hear influences of early Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide, a touch of Throbbing Gristle, and yet, by some odd miracle, it sounds both fresh and lo-fi. A quirky release, but I like this. Thanks to Filip of Z Tapes for the magnificent suggestion.
With the death of Richard H. Kirk last year, my hopes are dashed for new material from Cabaret Voltaire. However, Stephen Mallinder is carrying the torch of mid-period Cabs by combining a dark soundscape with rough electro-funk. From his Bandcamp website: “Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder’s second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and “wonky disco” into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our age of escalation: tick tick tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity,…