With his infectious bass and poignant synth lines, interwoven with themes around the complexity of modern day living in an often impersonal world, Crystalline Stricture’s pure analogue sound is beautifully constructed and played from the heart.
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E.L.I. lands on MRT shores and pollutes them with all sort of filth. The label second last instalment takes us to Britain and it is one of the most aggressive so far. The distorted screams, the ultra darkness, the violent atmosphere it creates is tinted in black and white by the stroboscopic lights of underground clubs. A perfect mixture of relentless basslines and straightforward rhythmic patterns for the dancers with no cause, with no hope for tomorrow. Places made famous by death and disaster.
“Capelli di Caténe” evokes the heavy, beautiful but cumbersome things that one would like to get rid of. Like its title, this new LP intertwines the animosity of one track with the melancholy or threats of another. It’s a clash that tenderly hurts . The album’s atmosphere has a whiff of the Sabbath, of a heart violently torn out and generously offered on the altar of misery, reminding everyone that fate has a melody. Haunting and familiar, like Cristina’s music. Three years have passed since “Scirocco”, in between Maria Violenza has done a split with Usé, another with Noir Boy George, and several projects as varied as her influences.
The term “industrial body funk” cannot be something used lightly—but the self-titled debut EP by Normal Bias is just that. As a collaboration by members of That Which Is Not Said (TWINS/DKA, 2MR) and Multiple Man (DKA, Fleisch), Matt Bias and Chris Normal create a humid, sleek atmosphere of dance music with a pop sensibility. As four tracks that spill over with seductive grooves, Matt’s silky vocals beckon as they slide over EBM-tinged basslines and 80s synth tones. Normal Bias begins and ends with seduction. “Another Realm” is both mysterious and alluring as it slithers through its funky pulse, while the album’s single, “Embody Control” is charged with a tension found in Matt’s Gahan-esque singing style. The song “Kingdom Come” feels like if A Split-Second turned pop, a lush industrial production that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Finally, “Stuck in the Past” closes the EP with Matt’s croon that envelops both hysteria and melancholy—fitting, it seems, for such a duo who have separately perfected the art of weirdo dance music. And now, as a team, the synergetic productions of Normal Bias provide a distinctive sound we’ve been waiting for all these years. |
