Chicago-based duo Die Warzau is one of those electro-industrial bands that can probably be considered to be among the original movers and shakers of that scene, at least on this side of the Atlantic. Similar in sound to bands like KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Marylin Manson, Gravity Kills, Front Line Assembly, Conjure One, Headcrash, Stabbing Westward, they have a great sound, great production and the ability to sneak in a pop sensibility that makes them more average-listener-friendly while still maintaining the quality and characteristics of the authentic bands of the genre. It might very well be this skill which lead them to be on the Billboards Top 25 Dance Charts 10 times already (six of those chart toppers are included here, remixed and remastered). "88 Vinyl" is their newest greatest hits. It features 16 tracks total, 6 of which previously unreleased. Among the guests featured on the tracks are Chris Connelly and P-Funk's George Clinton. The album is a great introduction to those who are not yet familiar with Die Warzau and a notable addition to your discography if you're a fan already. It well portrays the long path of this band and is a window on their multi-faceted production and the evolution they've undergone throughout the years. Die Warzau is and remains one of the more versatile and eclectic bands from the golden era of electro-industrial. Even though their fame might not have reached the peaks of NIN or KMFDM, in a genre overcrowded by clones of the real thing, this originality is probably what set them apart from the pack.

Already member of Eve And The Sickness, Idiosyncrasia and Ultraphallus and Idiosyncratics label's boss along with Yannick Franck, Phil Maggi is releasing is new solo album titled BLUE FIELDS ON PARAMOUNT on the aforementioned Idiosyncratics. The album contains a 39 minutes track that is formed by totally different mini suites made with loops, fields recordings (he did his sessions in a church and in the streets of Zagreb) and sampled contemporary classical music. The track starts with a dark ambient drone mood with tones inserts and follows with Zagreb sounds mixed with backward classical music. Suddenly anxious atmospheres take a hold thanks to synth sounds coupled with an orchestration of sampled/treated breaths. The tracks changes skins different times and each one is renewing like a phoenix born from its ashes and Phil succeeds into keeping the listener's attention high thanks to interesting sounds, light melodies and tension. I liked it...

Born in the 80s in East Germany Brian Cares is an artist or the Bar 25 roster and after several years of 12"s and E.P.s the next February he will have his full length out. Teaming up with Justine Electra, Raz Ohara and Jake The Rapper and Howard Katz, whom helped him on vocals, Brian's album is also the first release of the FINGERPRINTS series. The project is inspired by the format of a radio-show playing songs of no particular style but held together by the "fingerprints" of the producer and the participating artists. The nine tracks of the album are fitting really well the original intentions of the project: Brian made tracks that span from the jazzy house of the opening "Conclusion" followed by the electro soul of "No more play" just to pass through a particular electro latino spoken word titled "Saysay" with the charming vocals of Justine Electra. "Trust" instead is a mix of shoegazer pop song and house while "40 degrees" and "Dissolve", thanks to Raz Ohara vocals, seem a minimal techno soul cover of Prince songs: sensual and electronic sounds for you to dig. Electro/hip-hop is on with the cool Jack The Rapper performance on "Hey dj!". The bonus track "Sensational" is an electro mysterious one while the closing "The beginning" is a particular blues track with Howard Katz singing on treated beatbox samples. You can preview some songs on Brian's myspace page.

I was not familiar with Lebanese artist Osman Arabi, who's also involved in other more obscure, industrial-tinged projects like 20.SV and Seeker. Well, you wouldn't really tell after listening to "Burning Sigils", which is a great one-track, 38' album of strongly percussive minimal music. Electronic pulses and drones introduce the composition, but soon the hand percussion steps in and will practically constitute the backbone of the whole track for 35+ minutes, only streaked by minimal melodies or slightly distorted drones. A risky choice if the meddling of the elements wasn't this good, but Arabi is skilled enough to make it work throughout, creating a sort of extended ethno-ambient-dub piece. Obvious comparisons would be Muslimgauze and some ambient artists like Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana (at their best), but I'm sure that many fans of Appleblim and Shackleton's ethno-dubstep would find a lot to sink their teeth into.

Rollers/Sparkers are a Dublin based collective creating rhythmic tracks out of improvised and re-edited sessions. "Hames" features 16 tracks of their bizarre loop-based collages, where every kind of source seems to be good to create a repetitive sequence, from vocals to mouth harps. Comparisons can be made with freak entities like Black Dice, (some) Boredoms and Fuck Buttons, but Rollers/Sparkers seem to lack their complexity and epic proportions - their tracks eventually reduce to sketches with few to no development, nor a real trance inducing force. As it is, "Hames" displays some flashes of creativity, but isn't exactly a memorable record.