Die Krupps celebrate 30 years (1981-2011) of “True Work” by a joint European tour with Nitzer Ebb. This is a limited CD and it has been sold exclusively during the “Join In The Rhythm of Machines tour” at the merchandising booth. The CD contains two Nitzer Ebb and two Die Krupps tracks, each re-arranged by the other band. Die Krupps re-worked “On The Road” and “Blood Money” while Nitzer Ebb delivered their versions for “High Tech Low Life” and “To The Hilt”.
Good to remember there were bands doing this three decades ago, good to listen some good-old fashioned EBM/industrial, absolutely classy and with style and taste. And well, pretty good to see them still pumping alive and surprisingly – or not – sometimes they are fresher than many of nowadays “born dead” products… Read more Die Krupps and Nitzer Ebb – Join In The Rhythm Of Machines (2011)
industrial
Thot – Obscured by the Wind (2011)
Thoth was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. Thoth was often considered to be the heart which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is the seat of intelligence or the mind and tongue of the sun god Ra, as well as the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech. He played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities who stood on either side of Ra’s boat, the other being Ma’at, who was also his wife. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
In the early 90s I’ve get interested in Tarot and by that I have been reading a lot about Egyptian mythology and several other books linked to this subjects, one of them being “The Book of Thoth : A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians”. That book describes the philosophy and the use of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, a deck of Tarot cards designed by Crowley and co-designed and painted by Lady Frieda Harris. On the other hand, the “original” “Book of Thoth” is a book containing powerful magical spells that appears in an ancient Egyptian story from the Ptolemaic period which reflects the Egyptian belief that the gods’ knowledge is not meant for humans to know.
But for sure you must know about Thot – the band – is another nice discovery bring to my attention by Aurelien Dubois-Pham of Domino Media Agency. Gregoire Fray from Brussels, Belgium, guilty of unleashing this beast, created a quite exciting and unique mixture of electro-rock merging industrial, darkwave and indie/alternative rock elements. Read more Thot – Obscured by the Wind (2011)
I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
Belgium gave to the world a few quite exciting artists. Well, my first “acquaintance” at age of 6 was René Magritte. Few years later I was crushed by Front 242, after a while, a Dutch friend of mine introduced me TC Matic (the former band of Arno Hintjens), dEUS are still on the top of my favorites list, and there are a few others as well. Kingdom of Belgium might be a small country – 11,787 square miles (30,528 km2) – , but it’s only prove that “size don’t matter” in some particular cases. Still, Belgium is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU’s headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.
In addition, I had in my mind “In Bruges”, the black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh in 2008. And somehow, in my subjective perception, the Belgian art scene delivering mainly pretty gloomy stuffs. Some like it hot, while others chosen the darker path. ITP makes no exception.
I, The Pheonix is a project born in Brussels, the brainchild of Jean-Paul Frenay and Vincent De Puydt, as they call it: “an organic platform”. ITP – far as I heard – is quite an unique something. Label it industrial seems unfair. Rather is a disturbing mixture of dark-wave, garage and gothic rock, a twist of psychedelic and progressive rock, some tasty spices of noise and industrial and lot of creativity. Read more I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
In an interview in June 99 they said: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. They were talking bout them self, but it’s quite true generally speaking. From the moment when information is overflowing and filtered, truth stops existing and I believe, that was the end of democracy as once Greece defined it. “Genocide Organ have provoked reaction from listeners – be those extremists who perceive the group have certain sympathies that align with their own, or vocal detractors labeling the group as racist, fascist, or more crudely – hate mongers. likewise for those listeners intelligent enough or otherwise uninterested in making such simplistic and polarized views of Genocide Organ, merely the extremity of sound can likewise provoke reactions from revulsion through to pure pleasure, the pleasures received in pain is an amply adage here.”
Formed back in 1986, Genocide Organ explore the borders of industrial and power electronics, sometimes reminds me of the 80s militarist Laibach, the pioneering Slovenian band which majorly influenced the German electro/industrial scene and being the source of inspiration for the so-called Neue Deutsche Härte fulminating by the outbreak of bands such as Rammstain, but as well, Genocide Organ reminds me of some experimental moments of the Chicago based Martin Atkins’s Pigface. Read more Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
Proyecto Mirage – Slaves Of Capital (2011)
Reminds me of Atari Teenage Riot and their latest release, “Is This Hyperreal”, “Sleves Of Capital” is the 6th full-length album by this duo from Madrid, Spain, consist of Alicia H. Willen and Francisco Planellas. Proyecto Mirage was founded in 1990 and took off from the sound and style of the classic electro-pop bands of that time. Influences comes from bands such as Esplendor Geometrico, Whitehouse, SPK and in the journey to found they own sound, Proyecto Mirage merged both pop and industrial orientations of industrial music with drum´n´bass, techno and Rock elements delivering harsh, hard electronic music.
Once again, the spanish duo delivered an excellent album full of noisy, extremely explosive techno-industrial, complemented with classic ebm, hardcore techno, 80’s electropop and contemporary electronica components. Read more Proyecto Mirage – Slaves Of Capital (2011)
Omega Lithium – Kinetik (2011)
“Kinetik” is the second full length album by this four piece Croatian band and they melt down dark, epic metal into the Rammstain masterd, so-called Neue Deutsche Härte industrial metal while the band is fronted by female singer Mya Mortensen. Her band-mates are Malice Rime – Guitars and Synthesizers, Zoltan Harpax – Bass and Torsten Nihill – Drums, Percussion. The band was formed in 2007 in Umag, and is signed to Drakkar Entertainment, a part of Sony BMG.
The band’s debut album, “Dreams in Formaline”, was released in 2009 and its first single, “Stigmata”, was played on the MTV rock chart and peaked to the 4 place on the MTV Adria Rock chart, receiving a constant airplay for more than 2 months. The video also appeared on other European and worldwide TV stations in their daily charts. On YouTube Stigmata received more than a quarter of a million views, which is the highest viewing number for a debut song in this genre. Read more Omega Lithium – Kinetik (2011)
Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)
Generalizing, Dexessus might be the Russian answer for Rammstein. Metalic, heavy riffings, electrifying sampler layers, deep and strong male vocals mainly spoken and spiting the words and as a nice addition, some smoother female vocals, and this dialogue offering them a special sound, makes the difference. Marching tempos, aggressive guitars, colorful textures and the catchy themes full of adrenaline are the winning schemes of Dexessus. It reminds me – obviously – of the collaboration of Rammstein with t.A.T.u.. “Ðакажи Ð¼ÐµÐ½Ñ Ð»ÑŽÐ±Ð¾Ð²ÑŒÑŽ” (Punish Me with Love) is an absolutely correct industrial metal album from this band from Odessa. Read more Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
Marcus Miller once said: “that one of the problems with making contemporary music is that you never know how it will be judged in the futureâ€. That’s true, but still, I believe it really doesn’t matter what anybody think about it, who and how judge it. I’m conscious that I disappointed most of my fans from the 90’s, but I always felt like I have to move on and I’m kind of pathologically scared not to repeat myself. Under the moniker “Mr.Pan[k]sament” I’m exploring extremely different areas of musical expressions from electronica to metal and from punk to jazz, it might be confusing, I’m aware of it, but this is who I am. Writing recently about Queensrÿche and reading some of the fans comments about their latest release I was thinking about one more aspect: a band should play what their fans demand or what they actually feel? Some great artists such as David Bowie with each release moved on in some other direction while bands like AC/DC played the same riff for decades but both are just great exactly for what they did. So, it’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. On the other hand, thinking about music exclusively in genres, I think it’s definitively wrong and leave us with a very narrow horizon… Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
The Last Elephant
Yesterday was the last time when I released a new song, here we go again, I’ve got another one: The Last Elephant. Maybe I’m not a creative genius, but still, I’m at least productive. 😀 Written for the same album, “The Ghost of the Absent Father”, this is a more darker song with kind of aggrotech/EBM resonances, industrial textures. It has a slow-grinding passage colored nicely with a gentle piano and a string orchestra, but still, this is pretty intense I guess. Not too sophisticated, straight and pumping. Read more The Last Elephant
PAIN – You Only Live Twice (2011)
Peter Tägtgren started playing drums at the age of 9 and later learned to play guitar, bass and keyboard. After he’s first band Conquest disbanded, he went to the United States where he became part of the death metal scene, participating in practice sessions with Malevolent Creation’s guitarist, Phil Fasciana. After spending three years in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Tägtgren moved back to Sweden in 1990, he formed the band Hypocrisy, at this time a one-man project, and played all instruments himself. Get the attention and signed a recording contract with Nuclear Blast and since released eleventh studio albums. Although Hypocrisy is his main focus, he has also worked on many other Swedish metal projects. These include PAIN (industrial metal), for which he performs all instruments and vocals and composes all songs, Lock Up (grindcore/death metal), in which he was the vocalist, The Abyss (black metal), where he performed drums, bass and vocals, War (black metal), where he performed drums, and most recently Bloodbath (death metal), also with him on vocals. He also appeared as a live guitarist for the bands Marduk and E-Type. Read more PAIN – You Only Live Twice (2011)
