Back catalogue: Industrial/Noise

Review: Van Boom shows a talent for blending dark, atmospheric tones with experimental soundscapes here while working with artists like whiterose, Safety Trance and Evita Manji on an album that explores themes of emotional vulnerability and transformation. The opening track 'Nuborne' sets the tone with its haunting, immersive sound, followed by 'Untethered' with the ethereal vocals of whiterose. 'Polished Wounds' and 'Object Mapping' delve deeper into intricate textures and layered compositions. It sounds great and looks good too on limited edition smokey clear vinyl.

Review: Nick Viola's new record marks a shift from his previous powernoise and industrial work with Fractured Transmission to a more techno-focused sound. in all there are seven tracks including remixes which bring field recordings, machinery sounds and personal travels to create a dystopian, uneasy atmosphere. The opening track 'A Ghost in Your World' sets a haunting tone followed by the pulsating 'It's Still Real.' Remixes from Kenny Campbell and Substencia add dynamic layers, while 'Negative Nancy' delivers an aggressive industrial techno assault. The album oscillates between discomfort and release and reflects a dystopian sonic journey fitting for today's uncertain world.

Review: Sasu Ripatti continues to plunge into techno abstraction through his Hide Behind The Silence series. It's but one outlet for the seemingly constant stream of innovative sound emerging from the Finnish pioneer's studio, and on this fourth 10" he's offering up more compelling studies in noise, texture, rhythm and space. 'Death Of A Bassdrum' seems to take aim at techno by burying a 4/4 kick under a twitchy, uncomfortable bed of scuffs and scrapes, while 'Post-Mortem' diverts into space-building sonics where found sounds and artful reverb create a vibrant, three-dimensional space to explore with your mind's eye.

Review: Klamm is the new label dedicated to the artistic output of Saele Valese. After "Ivic", a collection of old and new materials published on Alva Noto's label (NOTON) at the beginning of the year, Saele Valese releases now his first real album "A White, White Day". Written and recorded between 2018 and 2021 the material of this work was sliced, glued and recreated several times, just like a filmmaker in the editing process, before finding its final form. Inspired indeed by the most poetic cinema, 'A White, White Day' represents, in the form of a non-linear and enigmatic narrative, a personal and psychological reflection on time, memory and dreams. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Review: You could probably buy every Soul Jazz compilation known to humankind and come out on top of most other people's record collections. As a label, the crew's ability to track down, rediscover, unearth, and reappraise archive music, and package things up as part of a spellbinding collection of like sounds, is remarkable, and the imprint must be up there with the best curated on the planet. The output is so good, in fact, that here we are pushing a reissue of the 2002 compilation, In The Beginning There Was Rhythm. Pieced together by Stuart Baker and Adrian Self, it's a wonderful trip into the deceptively varied world of UK post punk during its nascent, formative years. Informed by dub, psychedelia, punk, synth, samples and more, it's a celebration of a genre that proves you could spend all day listening and not really hear the same type of tune twice.

Review: The peerless Dark Entries is back with another comprehensive new collection, Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985, which is a well curated collection of ten rare queer synth tracks that explore the hidden corners of gay musical history. They span a pivotal period of six years and the songs range from sultry to angsty to camp with plenty of lovely 808 snares and textural analogue synths. This period in particular saw the gay community having to deal with the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis and these tracks capture the era's mix of love and longing. Patrick Cowley's music is always going to stand out wherever you hear it and that is the case here on 'Love Me Hot,' while Megamen's proto-electroclash 'Designed for Living' and Paula Villagra's techno-pop anthem 'Happy Song' are also real gems.

Review: The REPITCH label started back in 2011 with a 12" split three ways between its co-founders, Pasquale Ascione (Ascion), Davide Carbone (D. Carbone) and Nino Pedone (Shapednoise).
Some 11 years on, and the trio are still very much at the heart of the label's activities, celebrated here with the Dys Functional Electronic Music X compilation, highlighting not only their label's scope but also, they say, pointing a way forward for its future intentions. This collection pushes at the edges of the experimental techno genre, whether that be through speed and heaviness (see Buttechno's pummelling 'Ghost Yunost'), smashed up arrangements like opening tune 'Mastice Riddim (VIP Mix)' from Shapednoise and Gabber Eleganza or reconnection with the ruffneck breakbeats that were once an integral part of rave culture (Ascion's 'Plugged' (Heavy-Rotation Mix) and DJ Plant Texture's 'Threat The Music With Respect')

Review: On this unique compilation, various artists pay homage to the iconic Irish rock band U2, reimagining their timeless classics and turning them into their own., from the dreamy ethereal sounds of Heaven 17's 'With or Without You' to the pulsating electronica industrialism of Front Line Assembly. The Mission UK's haunting rendition of 'All I Want Is You' evokes a profound sense of longing and despair, while The Electric Hellfire Club's industrial-infused 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' captures the raw energy and political urgency of the original. Rosetta Stone's ethereal 'October' provides a meditative interlude, and Die Krupps' throbbing dance interpretation of 'Numb' adds a sinister edge to U2's dance track. The album culminates with Silverbeam's soaring anthem 'Where The Streets Have No Name' featuring Ann Louise, a fitting tribute to the band's enduring impact on the global music scene. Tribute albums rarely shine as bright as this one does.

Review: 80s Techno Tracks is an essential compilation series for those looking to complete their collections of retro classics. The third vinyl edition of this series of ZYX is another doozy that contains 12 carefully selected gems from the earliest days of techno and despite the fact these are around 40 years old they still do damage on the dancefloor. The likes of Bigod 20, Song, Robotiko Rejekto, Scarecrow, technic and Aircrash Bureau all feature with authentic old-school tracks that wear their hardware aesthetics on their sleeves and cannot fail to make a mark.

Review: Pedro Vian and Merzbow release their first joint work, Inside Richard Serra Sculptures, marking a worthy expressionistic turn in an already monumental discography by the former artist. Building on and expanding upon a series of field recordings made by Vian inside one of the artist Richard Serra's sculptures, then housed at the DIA Beacon Foundation, this eponymous two-park work is a guttural, verging on obscene noise crud-out, albeit one which still scoops redoubts of emotion from its expansive walls and toothy upheavals. Vian's original recordings are lent an ungular sharpness by the latter Japanese noise legend, whose name not only adds much clout to the mix but whose sound likewise eviscerates the sounds derived from the modernist roundhouses of Serra's work. An acousmatic masterwork laid to record, with brutally frank but ultimately rewarding consequences.

Review: Franck Vigroux may be a nightmare for journalists - he rarely talks about his music, preferring to keep his aims, influences and inspirations to himself - but he's amassed an impressive catalogue of experimental-minded releases over the last two decades. While that was initially abstract jazz/electronica fusion, in recent times his releases have explored full-throttle, synths-and-drum-machine driven industrial music, albeit with plenty of dark, paranoid ambience - and his trademark fuzzy guitar textures - thrown in. It's that hybrid sound that he explores on Grand Bal, flitting between horror movie soundscapes (the John Carpenter-esuqe '68'), 'cold wave' workouts ('Vice', the ghostly 'La Live'), fractured ambient ('Lightnin') and intense, noisy and insanely weighty industrial slammers ('Loic').

Review: This Earquake 1993 double album is a fitting soundtrack to celebrate Kompakt's March 1st 1993 birthday. It is packed with rare, long-out-of-print classics from that era and highlights include Love Inc.'s iconic 'Monoculture EP' and the acid opera 'Animal Republic' by Vinyl Countdown. Also featured are the unforgettable gabber hit 'Lovely Ugly Brutal World' by Mike Ink & Chain Of Brotherhood and the deep, pop-infused anthem 'Trump Tower' by Mike Ink. These tunes very much capture the spirit of legendary label Kompakt's early days by blending new, genre-busting sounds with timeless electronica.