Latex Records

01. Televised
02. Reminders
03. Slow Cascade
04. Forgiven
05. The Debate
06. Ruin
07. Sentinel
08. Stand Up
09. Hindsight
10. Delete

Light it Up features guest appearances from Frank Spinath of Seabound and Victoria Lloyd of HMB, Monochrome and Claire Voyant. Founded by J. Ned Kirby in the early 1990′s, Stromkern (including Kelly Shaffer) have created a unique sound in the Electro-Industrial genre by combining hip-hop vocals and ryhthms with classical compositions and post-industrial rock.

One of the things that really stand out to me personally on this album is not just the danceable rhythms combined with the hard electro-industrial themes and styles, but also the addition of piano to this mix. As a fan of keyboard music in general, be it electronic or acoustic, I absolutely love the way Ned combines these elements. I’ve been looking at various tracks by several artists who have used piano in unexpected ways with music styles that it might not normally be associated with traditionally and find Ned’s to be one of the most appealing combination to me personally. There are not many in the Industrial genre who have done this and the first you might think of is Trent Reznor. However, Ned’s work does not become so melodramatic and instead is a smooth combination where the piano accompanies the Electro rather than taking over the mood of it. I hope he continues this with future releases as I’m a huge fan of it. The most melodramatic track, and also a great standout, is probably “Hindsight” featuring Victoria Lloyd of Claire Voyant. However, the softer side of the female vocals and piano is contrasted by heavy rock guitar. Love this track!!

This album is by far my favorite so far by Stromkern and is the one that turned me onto the band to begin with causing me to buy all his previous releases. However, this one stands out far and above his previous releases and I believe he will only get better. As for his use of hip-hop vocals, do not let this confuse you into thinking this is anything but pure hard electro-industrial because it is not some candy-coated hip-hip BS at all. Instead, think of Uberbyte as an example maybe. Though Stromkern’s “Stand Up” came first! Don’t forget it!

This is an excellent album for the Electro, Industrial, and EBM genres and is not only my favorite by Stromkern but is actually one of my favorite releases in the genre overall. This will likely go down as an all-time fave!! Definitely worth checking out!!! This is very well put together and the contrasting elements cleanly combined while maintaining a hard edge.

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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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The Belgian Alfa Matrix label (home to Front 242, Ayria, Leaether Strip,
…) has been chosen to release the newest album by Nitzer Ebb, “Industrial
Complex”, for Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Italy and Luxemburg (in
collaboration with Major Records).

This special “Belgian” edition released by Alfa Matrix will feature a bunch
of exclusive remixes not available on any other version of “Industrial
Complex”. The list of all featured remixers on this album edition will be
revealed in the next days. You can expect many big names from the EBM scene
and remixes going from extended versions in the band’s best tradition to
pure electro rehashes sounding like a mix of Nitzer Ebb, Depeche Mode and
Chemical Brothers.

On top of that, Alfa Matrix offers a free extra label compilation with each
order. Good to know, oldschool ebm fans will be delighted to learn that one
of the songs included on this compilation is a brand new track by Pouppee
Fabrikk.

Below are the various packets you can order now for the new Nitzer Ebb
album:

* Nitzer Ebb – “Industrial Complex” CD (incl. 6 bonus tracks + FREE CD)
* Nitzer Ebb – “Industrial Complex” CD (incl. 6 bonus tracks + FREE CD) +
“EBM – my way of life” T-shirt

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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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