Industrial music reviews

Now we're talking. This enormous album starts of with "fatal attraction" a erotic thought about someone you wish to have. The second track is a high-pace dance-able beat, the third track. It's a classic song of the back when you hear the vocals, blah blah blah blah blah.. Great album overall! nothing beats the last song.. I have both version of pleasure and crime but nothing sounds as good as this version!

Fun dance album for anyone who loves to dance. This is a must for any serious industrial collection.

"Prog. Rock" is often considered to be a crossover between classical and rock music. Certainly many of the best "prog" bands have leaned heavily on both genre's. Yes, ELP, Peter Gabriel's Genesis and solo work. This work falls in that genre, but with a significant diffrence.

For starters it is, if anything, more complex. It is more closely anchored in the classical side and borrows from a much broader range of classical styles. It certainly has some of rock's styles and sensibilities and particularly instrumentation. But to my ears it uses that to add power and precision and variety and depth of timbre to the classical compositions rather than, as with the others, using classical structures to add interest and variety and complexity to rock music.

To the best of my knowledge they have never toured the US and that is, frankly, America's loss. When I was in the UK I saw them about once a year and the experience was always a mixture of awe at their music and fun at their lighthearted attitude towards it. A bit like Ian Anderson's attitude to the Tull's music. They just seemed a little embarrassed about being so good and tried to cover their embarrassment with self deprecating humour.

In the Region of the Summer Stars was their first record and I still enjoy it the most of all their work. The original recording was a concept piece with the tracks representing various of the major arcana from the Tarot.

There's an incredible amount of variety and imagination involved in these tracks. The musicianship is phenominal and all the musicians were expected to be somewhat versatile. On stage there was a lot of moving around between instruments as, for instance, the drummer might leave his kit and play a simple backround line on keyboards while the bass player moved to a pair of concert cymbals to add the only piece of percussion required for that song.

This album is fully instrumental and is all the better for it. Robert-John-Godfrey's vocals are pretty weak and other albums that feature that are spoiled by it I think.

The CD remix has a couple of extra track on and a new intro. There's some good in that, though the new tracks aren't as strong as the base material and, more important, don't seem to fit well.

One disappointment is that I have the original on vinyl and have seen them live and there were some twin guitar features, cleverly orchestrated interwoven lines and effects, which seem to have been lost.

On the other hand, that's not nearly enough of a distraction to knock a point off it. I miss my annual Enid fix and I think it's wonderful that some Americans are starting to notice them.

If you like "prog rock", even just a little, you will love this album. If you're a purist that get's cranky at the merest hint of orchestration then avoid this like the plague.

PS. This album is probably the one that least literally sound like it includes an orchestra. None of them actually do. When it sounds like that it's usually because 3 or 4 members of the band are playing different keyboard parts. Back in the early days they used to stack up the keyboards a la Rick Wakeman and if you were standing in the right place it looked, at times, like one keyboard player with eight arms.

A truly magical experience.

Great debut album !! For me it's one of the best debut albums of the whole prog scene, despite of remaining anchored to simple structures and also classical rock stuff in some circumstances:naturally it's enriched with lush and charming atmospheres,by means of stunning and underrated orchestral keyboard arrangements!! It takes shape very slowly, by starting with some gentle romantic moods, afterwards leading the listener to an aggressive powerful meeting between the organ riff and some sensible guitar lines too("The falling tower"), as long as the concept is completed. It is a sort of communion between the complex and the mellower atmosphere in the same time ... "Death, The reaper" remains always mellow, nevertheless by introducing such a particular legendary theme They want to seduce the listener and lead him afterwards to the next following album (this theme will be recalled)... "The lovers" instead is their most symphonic track, but always remaining at its mellow side. Instead "The devil", in the opposite, is very energetic and quite typical in the UK 70's rock scene.The majestic theme of side 2 represents here their leading main concept theme, with its reprisal during several passages all along side 2. However the most classical music oriented, regarding of their symphonic tracks, is that one inspired by "Dies Irae" -the famous Mozartian composition - here entitled "The last judgement", which leads in progression to a grandiose section, based upon an epic choir and a mellotron as well, which are never banal!! Then you find the main refrain of "The sun" once again,here supported by a good trumpet - within a sort of short interlude -before playing the best track of the album, the title track, combining the medieval moods with a powerful guitar theme, till the conclusion and the final catharsis of the reprisal, regarding such concept theme, "The sun".

Highly recommended !!

In a world where the entertainment industry devours art like a cancer, Controlled Bleeding are one of a handful of truly devoted experimental musicians.

"Inanition" is a splend example of their work. 16 tracks on 2 CDs spaning 14 years of their history(?), for a total of 2 hrs and 34 mins of music.

Although it contains elements of both I would find difficulty in filing this album under ambient or industrial. The presence of soft tranquil vocals and intelligent guitar work seem to negate the industrial theory. And the diversity with in each song is to great to be considered purly ambient by most. None the less it remains heavily synthesised and the label of "electronic" seems adequate.

Highlights include CB's cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" (Else where in this collection Pink Flyod's influence is not as obvious but certainly evident), "Tormentors's Song/Reprise", "Scourge-Remix" (BTW: I have a hard time believing that this was composed in 1981, Typo maybe?) and the awesome "Our Journey's End"(35 min long!)

Placid yet overwhelming, dark and forboding "Innanition" is a true work of art, and one of my top ten favorite albums ever. It lacks the complexity of Download's "Furnace", the oddity of Coil's "A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room" and the enginenuity or Einstuerzende Neubauten's "Ende Neu" yet it has a certain appeal which I can't quite put my finger on. Go out of your way to buy this album. (Rating: 4.6 out of 5)

"Inanition" is one of my favorite albums of all time! The tracks run the gamut from liquidy, oceanic sounds to full-bodied, rich vocals as in "The Tormentor's Song". I would highly recommend this CD to anyone interested in a new dimension of ambient music - this collection will transport you!

I had never really heard industrial music before this... just some pop electronica/techno (Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Aphex Twin, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk), pop punk rock (Green Day, Rancid, Screeching Weasel, AFI, The Offspring), and european classical (Satie, Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Wagner); this collection of songs really transformed my listening habits, because most of them get TO THE POINT, which is total auditory overload accomplished through bizarre use of synthesizers, voice-distortion systems, and even mass-produced factory objects (hence the 'industrial'): you are meant to feel and act like a piece of machinery, an oddly liberating concept, i've found. Anyway, disc one is the best, since it has the 3 best songs on the entire collection: tracks 1, 8, and 13 (Laibach's "Die Liebe", Controlled Fusion's "Disregards", and Neotek's "Pink Noise", respectively), but really all these discs are great and almost all the songs are too. In short, if you were ever facinated with the modern world of advanced technology and curious about its applications to human culture, this is a pretty good choice to start learning with.

This collection of Industrial Music is by far the best I've heard. Classic Industrial songs that never die, as well as the best Industrial Song ever recordered to this day... "Desert Storm" by Klute. If you are a big fan of Industrial Music, this is a "must have" for your collection. No collection is complete until you have this!

This is one of my favorite releases from Einsturzende Neubauten. It is a bit of a sampler of many of the atmospheres explored by the band, ranging from melodic and beautiful to sparse and eerie to aggressive to claustrophobic-- often all in the same song! The English remix of "the Interim Lovers" is great, a slightly aggressive track that walks a fine line between synth pop and industrial (in terms of sound, that is; EN was never a band to rely on synthesizers). "Salamandrina" is a sparse and eerie piece that is very melodic; however, one of Blixa's infamous screams/screeches manages to disrupt this somewhat. "Three Thoughts" is one of a series of many different related songs that the band has done, and the version on this album is my favorite. It is a dark, moderately aggressive song with a somewhat claustrophobic feel to it. "Ring My Bell" seems to be EN's version of drum and bass with some spoken word mixed in with it; it is an incredibly brief little piece that is highly entertaining. The Interim EP ends with a collage of noise/cut-ups from the band's previous releases titled "Rausch," which is mainly an introduction to the original German version of "the Interim Lovers"; this original mix of "Interim" is a bit dry, but still entertaining to listen to. All in all, what this album offers is extreme diversity and creativity. Will appeal to lovers of classical, alternative, industrial, goth, and experimental music as well as anyone who appreciates artistic creativity.

It's usually very disappointing when an experimental band releases an album of "accessable" music, but in this case there's nothing but good news. This recording is lush, tuneful and filled with beauty (and also almost entirely in English, with surprisingly good results). It's a long way from "Halber Mensch" territory, but hardcore EN fans need not be afraid: this is a wide-ranging, strong recording with plenty of new noise. The lyrics are less claustrophobic than Blixa's normal fare, but more universal in scope. Buy it if only for the English version of "Interimsliebenden".

Bamboo Crisis is a diverse techno band, reverberating echoes of Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Afrika Bambaata, all with their own driving rhythms and profound lyrics.

Houston recently has had several great bands bursting into the goth/industrial scene, one of the best is Bamboo Crisis. I have seen them live several times at a high profile event in Houston known as "The Vampire Ball". Get their CD, and you MUST see them live!

The snarly veined beginnings of the extraterrestrial fiends. Nik, Ms. Fiend & company really pop out from behind their facepaint to have a good-time screamalong. Who can listen to Wardance and not want to pop out of their seat and jump around like a 5 year old playing 1-little-2 little-3 little indiannnns!? "I Walk Alone" and the ever-popular-fiend-anthem "Drive My Rocket Up Uranus" are excellent stand-outs!

Nick and crew, are the undisputed kings of sneak experimental. They will assure you that they will end the song like any other cardboard cutout band would, but then it reaches over and throws a pot of boiling cream corn in your lap. And then here comes that smile.

The snarly veined beginnings of the extraterrestrial fiends. Nik, Ms. Fiend & company really pop out from behind their facepaint to have a good-time screamalong. Who can listen to Wardance and not want to pop out of their seat and jump around like a 5 year old playing 1-little-2 little-3 little indiannnns!? "I Walk Alone" and the ever-popular-fiend-anthem "Drive My Rocket Up Uranus" are excellent stand-outs!

Nick and crew, are the undisputed kings of sneak experimental. They will assure you that they will end the song like any other cardboard cutout band would, but then it reaches over and throws a pot of boiling cream corn in your lap. And then here comes that smile.

This CD is very cohesive...it can be listened to the whole way through. You can hear the angst and tension this band seems to want to convey, but there are no breaks during this tension. The guitar work is to be admired. Vocals fit so well with the instrumentation.

Coming straight out of Sweden! This band is ex-members of Starmarket, and can these swedes rock. The sounds are very driving and the vocals are very melodramatic and intense. This record will have your head bobbing and feet stomping. Think Samiam meets Fugazi meets Swervedriver meets Sonic Youth! Woohoo! Here's another review I found which does the album justice from Splendidezine.com:

In order to atone for the Cardigans' terrible sins against the music world, Sweden has given us Kevlar. In sharp contrast to the aforementioned band's bland musical stylings, Kevlar deliver razor sharp, phaser drenched punk-meets-shoegazer soundscapes. Let Me Worry Some More sits somewhere between Jawbox's Grippe and Swervedriver's Mezcal Head, the brash rhythms and lyrical prowess of the former combining with the shimmering, spaced-out guitar pyrotechnics of the latter to form swirlingly crunchy space punk nuggets. Songs like "Laughing Stock" and "Accidental Scene #2" bristle with ferocious energy and lilting melodies, while Johann Sellman's J. Robbins-like vocal delivery glides over the top. An album of apparent contrasts, Let Me Worry Some More proves that opposites do attract, while at the same time allowing Sweden to once again walk proud in musical circles.

I don't know how to describe this CD. They're not entirely original, and but they're really good. It reminds me of the "Mind's a Terrible Thing to Taste" era of Ministry mixed with a little Puppy and a little NIN. For a low budget band, they have a high production sound and a lot of energy. If you like the harder and guitar driven industrial, it's safe to say that you'll love this CD.

As I said, the sound isn't strikingly original, but I don't get the feeling that it's contrived either. It sounds like Unit 187 really enjoy the music that they're making...and so do I!

I can bore you with words, but I wont. I will just tell you that this album is incredible. It is unfortunate that greatness has been lost in the depths of the underground; but, maybe someday this band will get the attention they deserve.