It’s a bit perplexing to think that Bryn Jones (a.k.a. Muslimgauze) has been dead for 20 years, and yet continues to ‘release’ music. He must have been far more prolific than anyone could ever have imagined. Thankfully, the quality of a good deal of this archival music has been excellent. Not everything holds up, but this release gives the fans of the man what they want – experimental beats with a techno sensibility, made for dancing with heavy boots, I suppose.
Industrial
[Music] Laibach – The Sound of Music — a closer listen
Much respect to captainfreakout at A Closer Listen to this great review of Laibach’s new album.
By now, you probably know this album’s story: avant-garde collective Laibach go to North Korea in 2015 and become the first Western band to play there ever since the country split in two. What they play is a variation on their regular praxis: The Sound of Music, the soundtrack of a movie which is apparently […]
[Music] Lisa Knapp & David Tibet – Staines Morris
Lisa Knapp is, at least for me, a new and rather pleasant voice in English folk music. She makes a huge impression with this traditional tune by pairing up with David Tibet of Current 93 fame.
[Music] S.P.K. – White Island
Though late period SPK went into a horrible period of commercial dance music which was, to be frank, an atrocity, they managed to safe a great deal of face with their final works.
[Music] Z’ev – Wipe Out (1982)
Z’ev was one of the kings of the early post-Industrial/experimental music scene. Starting off as a normal drummer in the 1960s, he began experimenting with all sorts of found objects, studying their percussive qualities. In a rather bizarre experiment, here he is covering Wipeout by The Surfaris.
[Video] Swans – Mona Lisa, Mother Earth
I suppose some would call this The Swans’ ‘Joy Division’ phase. The album, The Burning World, showed a marked change in direction from a band who had previously sounded like the equivalent of a drunken brontosaurus stumbling into his cave after a healthy drinking binge (and yes, that’s a good thing). Since they reformed, their sound continues to adapt and grow. They are as vital a band now as they were in the beginning.
[Video] SPK – The Garden Of Earthly Delights
SPK had an incredible beginning as one of the brutal first wave of Industrial Music, then dissolved into a dance mess with a couple of utterly forgettable albums. Their swansong, however, is about as sublime as Dead Can Dance was at their best. Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers would be a bridgeway for Graeme Revell to go into soundtrack music, which he is still doing to this day.
[Video] Lead Into Gold – A Giant On Earth
Though Ministry was always seen, rightly or wrongly, as Al Jourgensen’s band, it’s not fair to say that he was the only talent in the group. Bassist Paul Barker used Lead Into Gold as a vehicle for his own creative output. It’s a shame he didn’t do more with it.
[Video] Mörder Machine – Lorna Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMmi9nk2xnY
Mörder Machine was a side project of Marco Corbelli, who was better know for his project, Atrax Morgue. He was a profoundly brutal noise musician, and this is one of his calmer works.
[Video] Camerata Mediolanense – Il Lupo
I was first exposed to Camerata Mediolanense around 1995, thanks to a distribution company sending some promos from New York. This Italian band ended up becoming one of the leading lights of the Martial Industrial movement.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 