Review: Formed in 1975, the British industrial group Throbbing Gristle - Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson - had pushed sonic and cultural boundaries over the edge, with their transgressive performances, experimental electronics, and confrontational aesthetics. After disbanding in 1981, TG's reunion in the early 2000s was met with both excitement and skepticism; rather than nostalgia, they continued evolving, creating new works like Part Two: The Endless Not (2007), which managed to scupper expectations beyond the mere expectation that they scupper expectations. This Berlin performance, on the cusp of a new year, captures their raw, improvised power, in the space of five tracks which would be released on the 2007 record. Haunting, mechanical, and utterly uncompromising.
Review: Gothenburg trio Amateur Hour is Hugo Randulv, Julia Bjernelind and Dan Johansson, and Gar I Kras is their fourth album. It builds on the expansive Krokta Tankar Och Branda Vanor from back in 2022, and though still experimental and out there, it might also be their most accessible and polished work yet. Dreamy lo-fi pop meets gritty electronics and sound collage throughout as damaged linger above humming basslines and grimy guitars underpin detached vocals. It's a haunting but beautiful soundtrack for outsiders who like music from the fringe but that retains a sense of human warmth and soul.
Review: English experimental group, Current 93, was founded in 1982 by David Tibet and set out to explore industrial music with abrasive tape loops, droning noises and distorted vocals. As Real As ScareCrows is a haunting new chapter in Tibet's arcane vision, and it was released alongside four other LPs to mark recent Channellings in London and Hastings. Ritualistic and esoteric, the album feels like a spectral transmission or "ScareCrow scaring crows away after Menstrual Night," as Tibet describes it. It's a deeply unsettling and bleakly poetic work that is unmistakably C93 in its mood and mystique. Each copy includes a signed risograph print of Tibet's painting, making it as much an art object as a musical release. A beautifully eerie offering from one of Britain's most enduring and enigmatic cult acts.
Review: Another of five LPs by Current 93 (David Tibet) through his own audio-esoterica label Cashen's Gap, this brilliant yellow and green hued LP nods to the universally recognised colour of earth-ground wire, and comes in the wake of a recent two part set of "channellings" (live performances) in both London and Hastings. As ever, Tibet steers the dream ship through surreal poetics and creaking soundscapes, and offers us a risograph print of his artwork, titled MayBe Skeletal RainBow, or perhaps Building The RainBow PainBow Preparing For Menstrual Night (we're not sure).
Review: Dawn Yawns is one of five new 12" records released at the same time, documenting one or two - if not more - furtive live sets performed by Current 93 (David Tibet) between London and Hastings in early 2025. On this quintet of new transmissions, dream and daylight are heard in grisly merger, on the back of an umbral awakening from a polar slumber, where the blood moon never sets, known to C93 fans only as the "Menstrual Night". Be warned, however, these eerie recordings have a sure capacity to mark the soul in unprecedented ways.
Review: Laibach revisits two iconic tracks from their 1987 opus, bringing new intensity to 'Leben heiBt Leben' and 'Geburt einer Nation.' Originally reworked for live performances, these versions merge theatrical drama with sharper sonic edges. The second disc ventures further, with original producer Rico Conning layering remixes that strip back and reimagine the band's audacious sound. This project doesn't just reframe the past; it grapples with it, offering both a homage and a provocative challenge to how we hear Laibach today.
Review: Broken English Club is the alias of techno veteran Oliver Ho and here he explores his signature industrial wave and post-punk sound with unflinching intensity as he lands on Dekmantel's UFO Series with Songs Of Love And Decay. It is a raw, brooding album dedicated to the late Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant with tracks like 'Crawling' and 'Death Cult' echoing his tribal techno roots. 'England Heretic' meanwhile channels eerie synthwave and Giallo vibes and 'Vessel Of Skin' delves into distortion-laced post-punk that contrasts with the stark futurism of 'Pacific Island Kill.' Ho blends cinematic textures with club energy throughout so makes for a dark, emotionally charged tribute that pushes beyond typical boundaries and is sure to resonate in the club.
Friday Afternoons, Op. 7: A New Year Carol (part 2) (3:00)
Challengers: Match Point (3:21)
Compress/Repress (2:25)
Review: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, known for their remarkable work with Nine Inch Nails and film scores like The Social Network, deliver a techno-charged soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino's tennis-themed love triangle drama Challengers. The score is a pulsating mix of electroclash, synth-pop, and driving techno, expertly weaving traditional instruments with electronic beats. Reznor and Ross take Guadagnino's vision to heart, crafting a soundtrack that not only drives the narrative but also challenges expectations with its bold, rhythmic energy. Tracks like 'Compress/Repress', co-written with Guadagnino and featuring Reznor's vocals, showcase their ability to blend artistic expression with the film's themes of control and power. Overall, this is a excellent soundtrack that works well to support the visual or just listening to it without having seen the movie.
Review: Swedish EBM icon Celldod returns to Electronic Emergencies with a new album pressed on striking transparent magenta vinyl. Pa Liv Och Dod is a superbly emotionally charged release that channels the raw energy of D.A.F. and Front 242 while blending dark electronic beats with intense lyrical themes. It has collaborations with Leroy Se Meurt and Michael Zodorozny, plus Anders Karlsson's haunting Swedish vocals exploring death and life's meaning also appear across tunes that are both urgent and dance floor directed. Pa Liv Och Dod will force you to confront fear and chaos head-on while offering a soundtrack that offers some catharsis from it all.
Touch The State Of That (with Jennifer Touch) (7:15)
The Motion (with Mutado Pintado) (6:16)
Review: When it comes to wresting maximum emotion and energy from analogue electronic instruments, few artists can match acid revivalists Paranoid London. They've certainly made their machines sing on Arseholes, Liars & Electronic Pioneers, their third full length excursion. Kicking off with the EBM-meets-acid growl of Joe Lewis hook-up 'Love One Self', the set includes such gems as 'People (Ah Yeah)' (an ambient acid number featuring Bobby Gillespie on vocals), the hard-wired acid trippiness of 'Up Is Down' (with DJ Genesis), the squelchy and spacey excellence of 'Start To Fade' (with Josh Caffe), the acid-electro brilliance of 'GRINDR' and a genuine future anthem in Mutado Pintado collab 'The Motion'.
Sexual Behavior In The Human Male (Remaster 2022) (4:45)
Track 9 (Remaster 2022) (3:32)
Ensam I Natt (Remaster 2022) (2:00)
Track 11 (Remaster 2022) (3:51)
Sexual Behavior In The Human Male (Gero 30 mix 2022) (4:46)
Review: Japanese industrial noise duo The Grogerigegege are something of an urban legend within the underground music scene. Apparently meeting at a sex club where a shared appreciation for envelope pushing sex acts, punishing aural sonics and a bizarre avant-garde perspective on art would lock them together for ensuing decades of musical mayhem. Known for incorporating nudity, violence, broken glass and hoovers into their live set, the pair would even take a lengthy respite while one of the members simply disappeared for years on end before reconnecting with his counterpart. As If It Had Always Been Determined Since This Day Was Born transports listeners back to the pair's earliest forays into calculated extremity with blown out, overdriven remixes taken directly from the master tapes of their first 7" single released back in 1988. This includes the long sought after remaster of 'Mistress' originally used in the legendary Enoshima Beach Flexi Burning Live (which the pair opted to burn all original pressings of rather than make readily available). You do have to remember these are the same lads who sold dried out octopus tentacles in cassette cases during one tour as a limited release, and smashed up the master recording of another work and put the broken pieces in a metallic box that the listener shook to hear the album, hence the title You Are The Music Maker. If the utter lunacy of The Grogerigegege isn't detailed enough here, well this pressing comes complete with 5500 word essay-style liner notes penned by 55 year old Gero himself (Juntaro Yamanouchi).
Review: Current 93's latest album, Sketches of My Nightmares, is a collection of fractured musical scribblings that evoke a sense of dreamlike wonder and disorientation. The album is a tapestry of skittering sounds, strange tape loops, and other outlandish noises that weave together to create a haunting and evocative atmosphere. One of the highlights of Sketches of My Nightmares is Tibet's haunting vocals. His voice is both ethereal and powerful, conveying a sense of vulnerability and longing. The lyrics, which are often cryptic and enigmatic, add to the album's dreamlike quality. Overall, Sketches of My Nightmares is a masterpiece of avant-garde music. It is a record that is both challenging and rewarding, and one that will leave a lasting impression on the listener.
Review: American guitarist, singer, and lead songwriter for legendary rockers The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed also had a distinguished solo career, including Metal Machine Music, which remains one of the most radical and controversial albums ever released. First issued in 1975, its wall of feedback and distortion defied all musical convention, splitting critics and fans but earning cult status for its uncompromising vision. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, this landmark work returns for Record Store Day 2025, having once been described by celebrated critic Lester Bangs as "the greatest record ever made in the history of the human eardrum," and who are we to argue.
Review: Swedish duo SHXCXCHCXSH distort club music by using a refined, idiosyncratic palette that challenges functionality. As logophiles, they twist language into fragmented, barely recognisable sequences, reflecting their experimental process. Their new album marks their debut for Northern Electronics and showcases a broader exploration of sound. Spanning 15 tracks in style, it combines drone elements, shredded vocals and chaotic melodies to make for a dark, intense atmosphere. Interspersed with brooding yet effervescent breaks, ......t is their most focused and comprehensive work to date and it also pushes their sound into new territories.
The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim (The Great In The Small) (19:49)
Review: The reissue of Current 93's Nature Unveiled brings back an iconic album that first captivated listeners with its avant-garde sound. This album features two striking tracks: 'Ach Golgotha (Maldoror Is Dead)' and 'The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim (The Great In The Small).' 'Ach Golgotha (Maldoror Is Dead)' stands out as an irreverent celebration of orthodox liturgical rites, inspired by the demon Maldoror, a creation of French poet Lautreamont. This track, with its dark and mystical aura, reflects the early influences on Tibet, including the magician Aleister Crowley. Fans appreciate the eerie and otherworldly appeal of this piece, which retains its power and impact decades later. 'The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim (The Great In The Small)' complements the first track with its own haunting soundscapes. The album's ability to transport listeners to a realm of fantastic nightmares underscores Current 93's lasting influence in the experimental music scene. Pressed on picture disc, this version is extra special for collectors who look for unique music and packaging.
A Dream Of A Cartographic Membrane Dissolves (6:16)
Review: Drew McDowall's latest album, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, is an exploration of electronic processing and traditional Scottish pibroch music. Co-produced with Randall Dunn, the album features a dynamic orchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold, creating an eclectic and transcending sonic experience. The album's four pieces move between shrouded electronics and enigmatic orchestration, surging into elegant crescendos and evoking deep animism. Tracks like 'Out of Strength Comes Sweetness' and 'And Lions Will Sing with Joy' feature keening strings and disorienting drones, while 'In Wound and Water' sways with eerie cello undertones and lush layers of electronics. The album reaches its climactic peak with A Dream of a Cartographic Membrane Dissolves, where processed voices and grand orchestral stabs converge to create a haunting and cathartic finale. Throughout, McDowall's music explores themes of sacredness and profanity, creating a journey that lingers long after the music fades. A Thread, Silvered and Trembling is a testament to McDowall's ability to blend traditional influences with experimental electronic soundscapes, resulting in a thought-provoking work.
PATT (Party All The Time) (Adam Beyer, Layton Giordani & Green Velvet remix) (5:52)
PATT (Party All The Time) (Adam Beyer, Layton Giordani & Green Velvet remix) (5:52)
Review: Second time around for some time Deep Dish man Sharam's 2006 anthem 'PATT (Party All The Time)', a canny combination of dark Italo-disco bass, mind-mangling TB-303 acid lines and celebratory vocal snippets (back then, you couldn't escape the sampled "my girl wants to party all the time" vocal refrain). This time round, Adam Beyer has joined forces with fellow Drumcode artist Layton Giordani and Chicago legend Green Velvet - who delivers typically evocative spoken word vocals - to give the track a massive new big room techno spin. Pitching the track up while retaining the original bassline and acid lines, the trio stretch out this hard-as-nails groove before finally unleashing the glassy-eyed vocal sample and some suitably dark and brain-melting electronic refrains. To say it's 'big' is an understatement.
Review: UK noise maverick Russell Haswell has had an impressive, star-studded career, and we're pleased to see that he's sticking close to the underground thanks to his recent friendship with Powell's Diagonal imprint. After a series of appearances for the lo-fi imprint, Haswell comes through with an album, a whopping seventeen tracks of brutal power electronics and quasi techno. This is the sort of shit you can stand back and be thrown backwards by, or exactly the sort of gear you can layer over DJ sets for added damage. There are pieces such as "Wholly Unaware" and "Gas Attack", which do verge onto the 4/4 sphere. In any case, this is some serious stuff and it comes hotly recommended
Review: It's been a delight to see Oliver Ho's Broken English Club project develop artistically over recent times, with some fine records for Jealous God and Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax label along the way. Suburban Hunting sees Ho deliver his debut Broken English Club album, featuring some 11 tracks of primitive electronics and cinematic pseudo techno cuts. Tunes like "Vacant", "Derelict", or "Scum" all share a loose techno framework, but the real aesthetic is much vaster than that, verging on remnants of post-punk, industrial and all that goodness and hybrid class that came out of the late 1980's. It's another fine addition to the sublime Cititrax discography, and we recommended it just as much as the previous numbers.
Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!
Review: Liaisons Dangereuses self-titled debut album was not an immediate success on its' release in 1981, but its' influence would spread far and wide. Almost entirely made up of synthesized rhythms, chords and melodies - with the addition of stylish vocals from all three band members - it would help define the "electronic body music sound". It quickly became a big record in both Detroit and Chicago, inadvertently helping to inspire the nascent techno and house scenes. Listening again to this reissue, it's amazing how well the music as aged. While heavy on stylish posturing, it still sounds thrillingly futuristic and alien. It should be an essential purchase for anyone with even the smallest interest in the history and development of electronic music.
Review: After a fairly overwhelming 2013 of archival releases that was topped off with that excellent Patrick Cowley compilation, Dark Entries seemingly are maintaining that momentum this year with a clutch of new projects. The first is this reissue of the classic Signals From Pier Thirteen EP by Crash Course In Science, which is a name that should be instantly recognisable to fans of minimal wave thanks to "Flying Turns". The track featured on the Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1 compilation curated by Peanut Butter Wolf and Veronica Vasicka and has been reworked by Jamal Moss, J Rocc and Ricky Villalobos in recent years. "Flying Turns" of course features on this EP, and this Dark Entries issue is the first time Signals From Pier Thirteen has been reissued on vinyl since the early '80s and is a must for anyone who likes crude electronics and synthesised beats.
Study For Tape Hiss & Other Audio Artefacts (12:01)
Apparition 5 (2:14)
Review: Selected from a decade of recordings, this release showcases Bass Communion at its most experimental and texturally rich. Tracks are layered with analogue imperfectionsitape hiss, wow and flutter, static noiseithat are transformed into haunting soundscapes. The mellotron, buried beneath layers of imagined rust and dirt, adds an eerie, organic depth to the fragmented drones and spectral noise. The carefully constructed album feels like an excavation of forgotten sonic artefacts, with each piece offering a narrative rooted in decay and texture. Pressed on 2xLP, this is a striking addition to the Bass Communion catalogue, perfect for fans of sonic exploration.
Review: Kobe-based trio o'summer vacation returns with their second full-length of industrial noise fusions in the form of Electronic Eye. After several trips to Berlin and Munich, they've found a home with the Alien Transistor label and now drop plenty of guitarless noise punk with production by Shinji Masuko. It makes for an unmatched, hard-hitting barrage that leaves listeners breathless right from the opener, '(Shuku - A)' with its sizzling hi-hats and a unique lullaby from vocalist Ami. Tracks like 'Luna' and 'Anti-Christ Super Star' shift the album from mosh-inducing chaos to 30-second noise punk anthems, all of which embody the band's anti-racist, anti-war sentiments.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.