Latex Records

Proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for Cancer Research and Wellness

PROMOTIONAL COPY TRACKLIST ONLY

NOTE: for a complete track list of all 5 CDs please visit Metropolis Records.

Disc 1-Diagnosis and Insurance (4 of 17 tracks)

02 – Stromkern – Notes From A War
04 – Interface – Never Say Farewell
05 – Chemlab – Solar Max (The Jimmy Semtex Coil)
09 – 16Volt – Things Unkind

Additional artists on disc: SMP, Boole, Bow Ever Down, The Gothsicles, Terrorfakt, Rein[Forced], Ego Likeness, Burikusu!!!, Inure, Cesium_137, Cyanotic, Silent Auction, & Terror Firma Sky

Disc 2-Chemotherapy and Radiation (5 of 17 tracks)

01 – The Dark Clan – Beat It, Kill It
03 – genCAB – Version 2 (Aesthetic Perfection Mix)
07 – Assemblage 23 – Impermanence (Flight AC-112 Mix)
08 – I:Scintilla – From A Wasteland To A Dream
10 – ThouShaltNot – Sick

Additional artists on disc: The Azoic, Christ Analogue, Prometheus Burning feat. Jimmy Semtex of Rein[Forced], Boxed Warning, Imperative Reaction, Combichrist, Sonik Foundry, XuberX, Mindless Faith, Cyber Strukture, vircon, & Jordan Decay

Disc 3-Surgery (4 of 16 tracks)

01 – Deathline Int’l – Breaking
02 – Encoder featuring Jimmy Semtex of Rein[Forced] and Patricia Wake – Jim’s Song
04 – backandtotheleft – Maybe Today
09 – System Syn – Blood (2009 Edit)

Additional artists on disc: Vicious Alliance, Nachtmahr, Null Device, Suicide Commando, Agnes Wired For Sound, Acumen Nation, Aesthetic Perfection, Dismantled, FGFC820, Everything Goes Cold, Leæther Strip, Mordacious, & Flesh Field

Disc 4-Recovery (4 of 16 tracks)

01 – Noisuf-X – White Noise (Gift Mix)
03 – The Atomica Project – Transmission
07 – Alter Der Ruine VS Premeditated Light – Dawn
13 – Hypefactor – The Sweetest Soul (Rex Mix)

Additional artists on disc: Hardwire, Massiv ini Mensch feat. Mind.In.A.Box, SD6, Obsenity Trial, nolongerhuman, Iris, Debutante, Andraculoid, Deviant UK, Freezepop, Spahn Ranch, & Caustic

Disc 5-Bonus Medication (Digital Download with physical CD purchase)

(no tracks represented in promo version)

Artists on bonus disc: Wreckcreation, Borderlines, AimOniA, Beloved Dead, Derek C.F. Pegritz, Molecule Party, Patricia Wake, Neurobash, Jon Zaremba, Less Like Flesh, EVP, Surviving The Odyssey, Retar-D2, The Hose Face, Sachem Orenda, & TowerOpensFire

REVIEW:
Generally, I must say that a 5 disc compilation project is not only a daunting task which deserves much respect for Metropolis Records for completing it but it’s downright intimidating. I mean, even to the consumer. It’s also a VERY bold move but one I hope will meet with much success! What I mean by this is that most music listeners these days try to get as much music as they can for as little money as possible, preferably free if they can, most often to the disatisfaction of record labels and musicians alike. Even without the bonus fifth disc, a 4CD compilation project is huge for fans. However, it’s being offered for the approximate cost of only 2-3 CDs so it’s a HUGE BARGAIN! If you buy the physical CD even moreso because you get the additional bonus disc of material as a download with the purchase that you do not get if you only purchase the Digital copy. Thus, it’s a HUGE undertaking to complete a project this size for the label but it’s also a great bargain for fans of Industrial music.

With this compilation you will see many of the most popular names in the current scene as well as many other older staples plus a smattering of new artists. If the tracks on the promotional copy are good representation of the overall project, which I think they most likely are, then this is one kickass collection for both old and new fans of the genre!

I must also add, as a label owner myself who has attempted compilation projects, this project is VERY well conceived. I am excited to see a compilation project with a solid theme and all associated tracks with appropriate lyrics and content. Personally, typical genre compilations are only good when that genre is new. This, however, is a project specifically dealing with the topic of Cancer and was produced to benefit Cancer Research. Jim Semonik (Distortion Productions), Cancer survivor and long time promoter and DJ, has assembled 83 artsits from around the world for this project in association with Metropolis Records. I love themes and this is definitely a worthy one with a worthy cause!! The most impassioned tracks, in my opinion, on the promo are ThouShaltNot’s “Sick”, which is a desperate plea for help, and “Maybe Today” by BackAndToTheLeft, which shows the every day, every moment struggle one lives with.

From a strictly musical perspective, there is a wide range of Industrial music represented from Harsh Electro and somewhat Caustic Noise to EBM & Trip-Hop, influenced tracks etc. In fact, I was so impressed with the promotional copy that I’m off to get the full thing myself, the physical version if there are any left!! This is a limited release so get yours while you still can. They will likely run out soon and then only the Digital versions will be available. I’d actually go so far as to say this is THE BEST Industrial compilation to come out in a long time!

I tried to stick to thematic compilations for Latex Records myself and I’ve also been doing so for my Podcast lately. I hope that others will pick up the torch and start doing more thought provoking compilation projects instead of just Tributes and very loosely themed releases. I absolutely love the fact that the artists jumped on this bandwagon for this cause and really put some time and effort into creating uniquely designed tracks for this specific project! KUDOS TO EVERYONE!

Great Piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Electronic Saviors.

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Dismantled at Metropolis Records

On the 2010 season of American Idol we heard Andrew Garcia perform a wonderful acoustic version of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” during Hollywood week. However, back in 2005 in the EBM music scene, mastermind Gary Zon, the mind behind the band Dismantled, released a playful cover of the song on his EP “Breed To Death” on Metropolis Records. Having started as a Front Line Assembly sound-alike, this release was a fusion of 80’s, Electroclash, and Trance alongside traditional Electro elements and harsh synthetics. The title track was meant to exaggerate and stereotype the new wave of Electro, as well as balance the edge and complexity inherent in Dismantled’s music.

After seeing the American Idol episode, I just had to post something to help bring this excellent cover into the light! I’ve been a fan of Dismantled from the start and continue to enjoy the structural changes Gary has made with each progressive release. You can hear a sample of Dismantled’s version of the song as well as purchase a download copy by clicking the album artwork above.

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01. No Afterparty
02. All Pain Is Gone
03. I Want Your Blood
05. Can’t Change The Beat
06. Sent To Destroy
07. Spit
08. New Form Of Silence
09. Scarred
10. The Kill V2
11. Get Out Of My Head
12. Today We Are All Demons
13. At The End Of It All

The opening track is actually a recording of a voice message from someone who is going to jail for carrying a concealed weapon and needs bail. The speaker casually mentions that a female friend is in the hospital for attempting suicide. Clearly showing the sort of aggressive dark humor Combichrist is known for. LapPlegua opens the with the track “All Pain Is Gone” and you know he’s back with another pounding hook-heavy, beat-driven dance floor stomper. However, on the second track, “Kickstart The Fight”, you can tell he’s expanding the sound a bit as this is more Punk sounding while still maintaining the hard and heavy beats and Techno-esque rhythms. I personally love the addition of the female vocals. Reminds me a bit of KMFDM at the best of times, only better! Another favorite track is “Sent To Destroy”, which is what you’d expect from this project. The funniest track is “Spit” (fucking whore moms). Love the samples used for this!! The entire album is excellent and you will not be disappointed by the upbeat energy portrayed. The only exception to the overall tempo is the title track. This one took me by surprise as it starts out slow and dark and includes a bit of piano. Vocally, it sounds more like his work with Icon of Coil. The only negative, which is totally personal, is that with the release of the “Heat EP” the track “Can’t Change The Beat” now seems a bit redundant and overplayed to me. Overall, another great release for Combichrist.

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01. Momentum
02. The Deepest Place
03. Souls In Ice
04. (Mehr Als) Der Absprung
05. Lead and Feather
06. Zeitfalle
07. A Cell
08. Awakening
09. Lightwave
10. I Am
(A Thought In Slow Motion)
11. Sinus
12. Your Cut Feather
13. The Spoken Mirror
14. Crepusculum

Project Pitchfork is often mislabeled in the goth/industrial scene as being in the Electric Hellfire Club arena when in actuality it’s more unique than that and ‘pitchfork’ is not a euphemisms for a Satanic influence. In fact the band is practically quite the opposite. Beginning as a music project formed by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber, two guys who met at a Girls Under Glass concert, and has become a project with a philosophic perspective over time. ‘Pitchfork’ was actually a word randomly chosen from a dictionary. The band is known for such albums as Dhyani which blended EBM with Darkwave, Lam-bras which produced their first club hit, and Entities whcih was more atmospheric than dance oriented and designed as one single long piece. This album was also the beginning of their metamorphosis from simply machine-music to a world view and as thier site says, “without forcing the listener’s sensibility”. The song “Souls” from this album proved to be a major breakthrough in Germany. The follow-up release was Alpha-Omega which returned to the Pitchfork sound and hit the top 30 in Germany. They then releases a maxi called simply CH’I. Other releases include Chakra: Red and Eon: Eon. With the release of Daimonion they hit number eight on the national Media Control sales charts.

Now I don’t normally put so much discography and bio in a review but in this case I felt it appropriate to show the band’s extensive career so far as well as to list a few release titles. The titles alone should give one a clue that these guys are not just about mindless dance beats but music with much thought and spirit behind it. Their music combines various elements of the Goth/Darkwave/Ethereal scene with Industrial/EBM and a multitude of rock elements as well as early Kraftwerkian, or as some say ‘Teutonic’, sound structures and beats.

I think Pitchfork is a band that while it has a large following already it is often overlooked by fans of the underground music scene. The band, like many in the Industrial and EBM genres, utilizes both English and German lyrical elements in their song structures as well. I think too many people assume by the band name alone that the band is just another shallow dark electronic project when in actuality it is not but instead a philosophical project as well as one with a great mix of musical elements and talent.

Take these lyrics for example. I’m sure any pagan, metaphysical minded, or alternative spiritual thinkers will readily get what this is all about. In “The Deepest Place” the words ‘Everything which moves in time must die, Nature is the largest spell we know, Listen to the alarm in your heart’ ring a clear Truth and I love how they are not preachy about what they say they just throw ideas out there for the mind to ponder. Also check out “Souls In Ice” – ‘Where is your center, Where is my voice, Does a stone move your heart, or a soul of your choice’ and follows with, ‘Your are existing…You are emotion…You are flexible…Feel yourself – locate yourself…close your eyes’. Words like these are exactly what I try to point out in the underground music like this to fans of this site. This is what RhythmUS Network is all about. It is not about religion or dogma but about searching the self – looking inward to discover universal truth. Pitchfork gets a major thumbs up for not just musical but lyrical content as well!

While I know it may seem odd to talk ‘spirituality’ when discussing underground or alternative music I also think this is simply a natural result of the openness that musicians like this must have in order to be true to the self and their art and not just be mindless mainstream music. It is about music with intelligence and music with heart and music with soul. While I know the band is not saying “here is our spiritual philosophy, listen to what we have to say” I do believe that Truth comes out through the creative process and this is simply a sign of a band that has really opened themselves to universal rhythms of existence and the result will inevitably come out with a spiritual Truth that can be utilized and accessed by anyone in any walk of life, global region, religion, race, gender, etc.. There is a lot more of this in the underground than many people realize and that’s sort of what I want to display with this site and my label but enough about my views and rants… This is an awesome album that does not just follow some “what’s cool now” formula even in the underground and maintains an originality that remains true to Project Pitchfork.

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Prayer, Praise & Profit
02. Riot, Religion & Righteousness
03. Salambo
04. Whore
05. Flesh Fest
06. Black Brothel
07. Disrupt, Degrade & Devastate
08. F.O.M.
09. A Fete Worse Than Death
10. Cry Baby
11. Inside
12. Saved (Locust Remix)

Raymond Watts is a one man industrial powerhouse not usually in the limelight himself but responsible for creative additions to the current KMFDM incarnation, Neubauten, Psychic TV, and previously knows as Raymond Scaballero in Foetus.

In this incarnation you will recognize the combination of heavy industrial percussion in combination with orchestral pieces similar to his Foetus works. While you may have heard some of this since he’s been with KMFDM you will also hear similar heavy guitar and electronic rhythms he has elaborated on since working with Konietzko. Personally I find tons of similarities between Raymond Watts overall sound and that of En Esch both vocally and musically. They both have a bizarre knack for combining obscure musical elements into their heavy rock-industrial pieces as well. You’ll even find that song titles are beginning to sound like they could just as easily be property of KMFDM with titles such as “Riot, Religion & Righteousness” for example. Even the guitar samples are similar like on the track by the same name. Thus, if you are a KMFDM fan I don’t see how you couldn’t like Pig also, especially this most recent release as the two projects have become so tightly infused. What you do not find is appearances by KMFDM members unless you count Gunter Schulz. Further in the release, with “Salambo”, we run across some of that afore-mentioned bizarre musical compination. This song combines Salsa or Sambo music with Industrial. Now that’s a combination I thought I’d NEVER hear in my lifetime. The vocals on this track remind me to Tom Waits too. The chorus is like Ricky Martin joined KMFDM. Insane and sort of scary! I’m not sure whether to love it or hate it to be honest. It’s too funny to hate. That song at least is not representative of the rest of the album. I really like “Flesh Fest” as it’s sort of a return to the Matt Johnson-like vocal style that Raymond use to use on his earlier Feotus project with a bit of KMFDM influence as well. Oddly “Black Brothel” and “Inside” are ambient pieces. Not what you’d expect from Raymond but it’s cool. “F.O.M.” is full on guitar KMFDM thrash, nice! I know PIG sort of helped amp up the guitars a bit for KMFDM but admit it – the sound is now associated more with them than him. However, if you like the heavier metal guitar of KMFDM – Pig has plenty of it. Another cool and unique track on this disc is “Cry Baby” which has foreign female vocals (I’m unsure of the language) and a slow suspense groove to it. Lastly this United States version has a US Only mix of “Saved” which makes for awesome industrial club-play!

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. DIY
02. Attak/Reload
03. Dirty
04. Ultra
05. Boots
06. Yohoho
07. Find It Fuck It Forget It
08. Sturm & Drang
09. Megalomaniac
10. Flesh
11. Wrath
12. Hothole
13. Spit Sperm

This incarnation of KMFDM is Sascha Konietzko, Raymond Watts, Lucia Cifarelli, Bill Reiflin, Joolz Hodgson, Andy Selway, and Steve White. This is the first live album by KMFDM recorded in June of 2002 in Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. What you get on this release is lots of angst KMFDM style with Sascha as the head man now that En Esch is no longer with the group and it is supplemented by Pig frontman Raymond Watts instead. You also get more of a live sound (obviously) of KMFDM but what this means to those who are not as familiar is that you get more live drums and guitars instead of samples laid out neatly in a studio thus the rock edge hits a bit harder. The ‘new’ KMFDM comes off as a very well produced Excessive Force with just enough of the old KMFDM style to keep fans in the audience and buying the albums. However with the addition of the new member elements and the special guests appearances and such you get an interesting mixture which pulls you in with a bit of a surprise element sort of like a Pigface production or show. Now with this being a live album you do get a bit of crowd noise but I must say the engineering is very expertly done and you still get very clean and crisp sounds from the instruments and not some cheap mix of the music but instead a full studio quality production. For KMFDM fans who want a bit more of a hard-edge rock/metal guitar feel you’ll love this! I remember the Angst live tour was awesome because of the 3 or 4 live guitars on center stage and this album tends to portray much of that same energy without losing the heavy industrial electronic edge either. On of the cool things about this too is that there are tracks like “Boots” which were unavailable except if you bought the single. All the members of KMFDM have been in the music scene and industry for some time and have various other projects that they’ve worked with prior to their work here. I believe this helps support the power, energy, and heavy creative driving force that is KMFDM.

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Date of Expiration
02. This World
03. History
04. Obscure Pictures
05. Compulsions
06. Prisoners of War
07. Final Thrill
08. Fallen Man
09. Stolen Thoughts
10. Lugner
11. Faster Life
12. Red Queen
13. Refugees (US bonus track)

Funker Vogt continue to deliver non-stop hard-hitting EBM destined for club play with a throbbing pulse of electronic rhythms. The main theme of this album seems to be that time is limited, life is short, and the the world won’t last forever. The first track “Date of Expiration” speaks about a disease without a cure but that Love has no date of expiration. So there seems to be a positive message hidden in here as well. A message that is close to my heart as a pagan is “This World” which states “A World all made of battlefields, A world all drowned in blood, A world which will not last forever is all the we have got”. This speaks very heavily of the ill-content of the human soul and the warlike nature we’ve lived by for centuries and the need to nurture our own planet, our home, our mother earth. It also hints at a continuation of this process of destruction of mankind with the line “And now we take the battlefields far out to the stars”. Like much of this album it is a wake-up call that our friends at Dystopian Records would be proud of as this album speaks heavily on the ‘siren sound’ of the spirit of Industrial music. A song that will likely attract some attention as did “Body Count” from the previous album in the wake of the September 11th incident is “History” – “Call it a holy war – it’s the sum of your fears. They are fighting for oil at the present time….History repeats itself, The war will soon begin, It’s already ten to twelve, We are almost within…A new war just started to aveng their nation, The war against terror – our new obligation. We are in a tunnel with no llight at the end. The war is not over, there is more to defend.” I think that clearly speaks for itself! With that I think you can obviously get the idea behind this album. Man is destructive and warlike in nature and we ‘must’ change our ways. It is the uspoken anthem of industrial music as a whole since it’s inception. Funker Vogt are a band that portray this aspect of the genre in a much clearer way than ever before and with much more style using much of the same old military garb and imagery but with a new edge and a heavy EBM pound.

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Monochrome
02. Call the Ships to Port
03. Bullet
04. Invisible & Silent
05. Prometheus
06. We Stand Alone
07. Rising Sun
08. Winter Comes
09. We Want Revolution
10. Scared
11. Atlas

Covenant is one of those EBM bands that seem to never be quite satisfied with their sound and thus tend to keep modifying it and tweaking it with each new release. Because of this they have also been faced with some criticism in the scene and I myself much preferred the older releases to some of the most recent ones. However with their latest release Northern Light they show that their ‘pop-like’ experimentations were not for naught. They have recreated their sound with a much smoother blend of industrial, EBM, pop, and other elements to create a sound that is much more ‘theirs’ and original. I was also shocked and pleasantly surprised to find such symbolic and heartfelt emotional elements appearing more prominently in their music such as the chorus for “Bullet”, “as the water grinds the stone, we rise and fall, as our ashes turn to dust, we shine like stars”. This of course is of interest to someone like me who finds elements of their own spiritual perspectives in the most mundane and obscure of places. While some songs are very emotional and almost anthemlike as in “Invisible & Silent” there is no lack of fun energetic synergy like that in “We Want Revolution” & “Call the Ships to Port”. Strangely enough though the track “Prometheus” while sort of ambient in overall tone and texture has this really funky grinding bassline which sets tracks like this way apart from anything close to standard EBM. In fact with this release I think Covenant are showing that they can and are anything but typical. If any track on this release was going to be accused of being a VNV Nation sound-alike it would have to be “We Stand Alone”, an awesome track. Stangely the lyrics to this song begin, “stand before the gates and watch metropolis, empires come and go we live forever, and eternity is in your hidden eyes, take my broken wings teach me to fly again, I stand alone, we stand alone”. Wonder if they might be subconsciously referring to their label? Probably not but I guess we’ll have to see if Covenant outlives the Metropolis Records label or not. It should be interesting to watch all the same especially since Metro has become such a power-house in the scene.

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Opened
02. Drive
03. Blindhammer
04. Cocoon
05. Document
06. Fallen Down
07. Horizon
08. Light
09. Maps of Reality
10. Lullaby

Tom Shear returns with his third installment with Metropolis Records and another heartfelt album complete with very personal lyrics and upbeat EBM. Interestingly this album is mastered by Da5id Din (Din_Fiv, Informatik) and the cover artwork is by our friend Steph Dumais at Raisinlove Graphics. One of the things I always like about Assemblage 23 releases is the mixture of musical elements and styles and this one is no different. The tracks range from as little as 70bpm toas much as 150bpm and combine various elements of different forms of industrial with various aspects of synthpop to create a new smooth blend. I’ve also always like how personal Tom’s lyrics are. He has a tendency to not just talk shop like most industrial musicians but instead speak directly from his own heart and personal experience about very personal issues from the trite, like “Drive”, to the more severe and serious like “Blindhammer”. Back to “Drive” I say ‘trite’ but that is not an accurate term. It’s more like an adolescent thought pattern, “Sometimes I drive to run from all my demons, Sometimes I drive so I can be alone, Sometimes I drive to see the world in different light, Sometimes I drive for no reason at all”, simply reminds me of what we’ve all probably felt in our teens. However the personal closeness of these lyrics and his entire works is what I thinks truly touches his fans. The song “Cocoon” is a real moody piece that makes me wonder what inspired these words, “It opens all the scars on me, it leaves me shaken in my belief, it takes my hand just to drag me down, it makes me a stranger in the crowd”. The tempo however is drastically picked back up with “Document” and we can again get our aggressive dancing spirits moving. This song give me chills as I can totally identify as I’m sure anyone who is an artist of any type or who has any purpose in their works. With my projects I too wonder if I will be remembered long after I am gone – will my words have any effect to push for positive change in this world at all? I’m sure it’s a question we may all ask ourselves. It is songs like this that I believe are building a rapid fan base for Tom Shear’s music and words in the underground scene. Afterall I’ve always felt music, art, whatever you do should be about something. Listen for yourself and tell me what you think. I personally find just about ‘every’ song by Assemblage 23 ripe with rather intense human emotions. Overall I find this album a bit darker than his previous release. However on the opposite side of the spectrum “Light” has a bit more of a rock edge and displays the attitude in which he will stand firm without budging after being battered and bruised and will not play the role of saint but instead cast the pain and torment back at his oppressors. “To the ones who want me on my knees, You cannot control my destiny. There is light that flows throughout my veins, And there is darkness for the ones who bring me pain.”

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Regret
02. Logic
03. Whispers
04. First Light
05. The Quiet
06. Living Dead
07. Echoes
08. Hope Again
09. I Follow
10. Always
11. Christina
12. Ember
13. Wires

Bella Morte The Quiet definitely shows the band exploring different possibilities when it comes to their musical styles. The first three tracks shows them shifting their musical direction towards a fast beat darkwave electronica, very opposite to their 80’s loud gothic/punk like sounds. I wonder if the first three- tracks are an indication of what their style will be like in the future. It is hard to dictate what the band’s next move will be since mid-way through the album, the band switches back to their “Where Shadows Lies” sound. The production quality for this album has definitely improved from previous releases.

© Copyright 11/2002 Sabbatha Black. All Rights Reserved

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