Here’s the latest compilation from Beläten, featuring 19 avant-garde artists described as Industrial, Dark Ambient, EBM, Experimental, Darkwave, Power Electronics, Electro and Modern Classical.
Modern science sneers at the notion As above, so below. Nothing could be more wrong, we are told. The tiers are all completely different, and the depths of the sea and the vastness of space couldn’t be more alien to one another. Even in the case of the only viable exception, the truly universal force of gravity, we learn that its influence is slight: the gravity of an orange on a nearby table affects you more than that of the massive planet Jupiter above. Yet, all is not gravity. Jupiter sizzles and crackles with electromagnetic activity and cuts swaths of radio bursts towards Earth, like some celestial lighthouse gone haywire. Sheets of current dance an eerie, spectral dance between the major bodies of the solar system, great inductors and conductors, including the Sun, the Moon and the Earth itself. What all this activity means is, of course, as puzzling as ever. The scientists of today are as addlepated as the alchemists and astrologers of old. Probably even more so. We stand, as did Heraclitus the Obscure, in almost perpetual twilight. We need to grab onto these fickle strands of dying light. We need to embrace The Arms in Twilight. The medeival philosophers were right. Man is the center of the universe. We stand in the middle of infinity, between outer and inner space. And there’s no limit to either. — Fantastic Voyage, 1967. And complete darkness is not upon us just yet. Fend off our mundane modern-day mythology by grabbing a copy of the beautiful, murky, foreboding album Arms in Twilight. Italy’s Feuerbahn return after over two years of silence. Their previous cassette, The Fire Dance released by Aufnahme+Weidergabe was a chaotic affair, an aspect that has been pushed to the side for Suolo (Italian for Soil), focusing instead on the somber, funeral march atmosphere that might just be the core of the band. It’s difficult to describe the music of Feuerbahn. There are hints of post-punk, but they just as easily fit into the current wave of dark Italian neo-psych. On the one hand it’s quite majestic, but on the other hand the sheer filthiness of it invokes a feeling of utter despair. Like wandering the barren lands of a post-apocalyps Europa. The majestic grandur of L’Avenir is hard to put into words. In one sense, it’s “just” synth pop, but where as that eponym might suggest banal, and vapid qualities, what L’Avenir is doing is conjuring up images of eternalness. There’s a truly ritual sensibility to these slow moving, glacial songs. The hooks are there, one listen and you will find yourself humming them while doing the dishes, but there’s something deeper at work. L’Avenir offers comfort. An enveloping sense of calm. A focus of will. Let’s call it Hypno-pop. Blitzkrieg Baby is back! A year and a half after their Kids’ World EP on Beläten, they have returned with an EP that takes their twisted combination of Industrial and Pop further than ever. Blitzkrieg Baby serves up lyrics from the crème de la crème of the modern condition—cannibalism, war crimes, pre-pubescent murderers, world domination, and the end of civilization—fueled by endless frustration with human existence. The only light in Blitzkrieg Baby’s world-view is the glint in the knife as it cuts through your throat. Blitzkrieg Baby are willing outsiders and uncompromising purveyors of industrial music in the true sense of the word: no barriers, no rules, and never any inkling of hope. Ultra Negative Industrial Pop! |