New releases last four weeks: Industrial/Noise

Review: Hamburg's Helena Hauff and F#X return resurrect their darkly experimental Black Sites project after an 11 year hiatus. Their first full length LP - for Berlin's techno institution Tresor Records, no less - pulls about as few punches as any of their material, improvised live and recorded straight to tape with minimal editing and post-production buffing up. 'BLOKK' has a touch of the distorted glories of Aphex's early Polygon Window work, 'C4' has a low slung bassline throb and supercharged kick meets radioactive cymbal rhythm track, and elsewhere skeletal electro and Throbbing Gristle-style industrial noise either does battle or teams up. Maximum toxicity!

Review: "Random, tense, scary and compulsively fascinating". That's how Chris Connelly describes the period in which the tracks on this album were originally written. As the main man behind some of the most iconic and influential industrial bands in history - Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Murder.Inc... - he's definitely well placed to make this kind of judgment. And it comes across even more understandable if you grasp the fact he's meaning all that in a good way. Throbbing Gristle should need no introduction, having pretty much written the blueprint for industrial musick in the nuclear age. A sound that screamed "get us out". Combine that oeuvre with this guy, then, and you have something which is uncompromisingly explosive and effective. Not to mention fitting, given half the people on the street seem convinced we're rushing headfirst into another atomic standoff, if not something much, much worse.

Review: E-bony's Digital Dawn album is about "defining his identity as an artist" and it comes through INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS. This 12-tracker welds together electro and techno with plenty of personal sound perspective and dark textures that keep it decidedly underground. Collaborating with Noamm on four tracks, their creative synergy adds depth and elevates the record's complexity with the likes of 'Matrix Kod' getting gritty and eerie, 'Aurora Noir' bringing snappy kicks and coruscated acid lines and 'Data Delight' fizzing with pixelated synth sugariness.

Review: Nadah El Shazly returns with her second album and first on One Little Independent and Backward Music. The Egyptian-born, Montreal-based artist blends experimental sonics with Arabic roots and improvisation on Laini Tani, and crafts music that slips between worlds and takes you with it. The whole record pulses like a hot night stretching into morning. It's sweaty, surreal, and endlessly alive and each track is a vivid fragment: defiant, euphoric or quietly raw. El Shazly's lush vocals and layered metaphors weave a dreamstate of meaning and mystery that bold and chaotic yet controlled so is a record to get lost in, then hit repeat as you try to decode its hidden truths.

Review: One of the most legendary female producers in history of electronic music brings out her sixth solo album - not to mention her numerous seminal recordings as part of Throbbing Gristle and Chis & Cosey - and the first in three years. 2t2 is an intimate yet electrifying statement, a dualistic journey through rhythmic propulsion and meditative introspection across nine tracks entirely composed, performed and produced solely by Cosey herself. With 2t2, she expolores personal loss and global upheavalm transforming them into a defiant sonic odyssey, weaving raw energy and introspective depth together. The beat-driven tracks pulse with kinetic urgency, echoing her industrial and electronic roots, while the ambient passages invite deep contemplation. Lead single 'Stound' exemplifies this balanceiCosey's overtone chanting evokes resilience and catharsis, grounding the record in both personal and universal strength. 'Threnody' pays tribute to Delia Derbyshire and Andy Christian, weaving echoes of past creative dialogues into Cosey's present explorations. Even in its darker moments, there's a lightness, a refusal to succumb to despair, in evidende and Cosey seemingly embraces sorrow as a path to joy, a reminder that resistance and resilience are acts of creation. With 2t2, Cosey Fanni Tutti once again defies convention, crafting an album that is personal and powerful.

Review: What planet were you born on? To be honest, it never really matters with Light Sounds Dark. Sent off in search of intelligent sounds from across the universe, the label has been amassing but never pillaging a vast array of tones from various corners of the known and unknown cosmos for time now, although the exact hour and date is really dependent on your relationship with the continuum. LSD 046 makes this point clear as ever. Numbered tracks are all your getting in terms of being able to catalogue and make sense of what's here, adding to the idea that your lost in a realm that's neither there nor there. Tunes fizzle and gargle, slow strings refrain, lo fi Kraut shouts beneath the crackle of analogue, intergalactic organs ring out into silence. And then we run out of words to possibly describe what's on the record long before the last episode.

Review: The most aptly-named record label in the world, Light Sounds Dark present another collection of wildly experimental bits and pieces cultivated in the lab of things that you simply don't hear in other places. Suitably christened 'Track 1', 'Track 2', and so on until 'Track 29', this is a huge point of entry for newcomers to the LSD realm and an excellent deep dive for veterans alike. Winds howl and thunder crashes before beautiful harmonies change the vibe from cold to warm, Gregorian chants echo in and out above dubby, stubby beats, and post punk guitars lunge forward beneath jerky, naive melodies. And that's just the first few parts here. A journey to the outer reaches of the musical universe, then back again, turning left at the industrial jazz and continuing through shoegaze, soundtrack, field and weirdo pop. Mind you don't get lost, now.

Review: Walhalla Records reissues Underground Wave Volume 4 from its exciting series that helps collect and release minimal synth gems from the 1980. Belgian acts dominate this expertly curated edition, including M Bryo, Schicksal, Ratbau and Bene Gesserit, each contributing tracks that pulse with analogue nostalgia and DIY grit. Schicksal opens the record with 'Power Hate Destruction', an exclusive track that sets a dark and brooding tone. M Bryo's entry is particularly arresting with Mark Burghgraeve's knack for eerie atmospheres. The Arch delivers 'Ice In Your Eyes',, a swirling track said to be their live concert closer in 1988, oozing with gothic tension. Side-B has 'Genetic Factor', a haunting 1982 cut by Richard Zeilstra that evokes early Klinik. Elektronische Maschine adds a refreshing 90s synth pop twist, while 'No Honey From These' stuns with a raw, Suicide-like energy. Paschen's Law channels YMO and Logic with intricate programming, before Bene Gesserit closes things with the mesmerising 'Les Aliens, a track that fuses eerie piano with an Attrition-style evolution. This compilation is a passionate preservation of underground history, led by Walhalla's curator Lieven De Ridder's deep archival instincts and unmatched dedication.