When I introduced Someone's Got To Pay, a mini EP issued by Taiwanese imprint TinderBox signed by Roughhausen, a musical creature by former Front Line Assembly member Jeff Stoddard - it's difficult blame his intellectual honesty especially after he declared he begun making music to have access to "an unlimitted supply of meaningless sex and endless trips to the free clinic in a recent interview! -, I've not been too mild while expressing my doubts on their sound. This limited edition (just 500 hundred copies should have been printed) related to their recent US tour, formally addressed to all those ones who missed their concerts, partially makes change my mind on it, as many releases like it are sometimes wanting in "immediacy" when they are frozen in a cd as it's not so easy to transfer the energy they can express on live stage when they record stuff in a recording studio. "Just in Case U Missed Us" - an eloquent title - partially counterbalance the above-mentioned dyscrasia without pretending to be pithy: the five versions of previously issued stuff in different dressings are relevantly more appreciable to grab some of the (not only sexual, if someone just holds on lirical explicit contents) energy this band can liberate. I particularly appreciated Grudge fux mix of "[sic]fuk" - more innervated with sketches of that kind of rhytmical saturated stepping similar to that scary industrial hip-hop close to some stuff by Swamp Terrorists than the original version -, the ferocious beating and electric intertwining of Gutshot mix of "Gut" and the mid-tempo clocking breaks on GutterLords Mix of "The Pinned Man" (the track, in my opinion, which sounds closer when someone runs into the somewhat controversial way of labelling style as "electronic industrial punk"). The final track, Aspire to Mix of "Systemic", is stylistically interesting even if it easily goes over peaks so that distortion on low-frequencies makes it a bit disturbing (not sure if my headphones are dying or what). Check it even if you don't miss them.

Another Swedish Industrial-Metal band-project, from which I thought, it has been gone for good after only one release. The well recognized debut release 'Assorted Chaos and Broken Machinery' has seen the light of a release 6 years before, but in our rushing lifetime days filled with the consumption of thousands of other releases, one gets nearly forgotten. So H. Svegsjö, the one and only responsible protagonist behind Thirteenth Exile, starts nearly from scratch. Signed again under Prototyp, the sub-label of the legendary Memeto Materia-label, he presents us a raw, harsh pounding assault, which integrates deepest Dark Electronica with assaulting metal-guitar riffs, united through a powerful kick-and-snare rhythm-work. 'Into Nothing' is no stuff for the faint-hearted people, it is a drastic and ominous outfit, which offers a bombastic attitude. Not at all comparable to that childish Hellectro-bawling, this is real dramatic and angst-driven music filled with at times brutal lyrics. The good point is: it sounds authentic. This whole pain-driven sound-scenario gets additionally supported by the overall black cover artwork with that scythe in front of the cloudy horizon. If it needs to search for comparisons, I'd take harder :Wumpscut:, (check out 'A Perfect World'!!!) Little Sap Dungeon and Portishead ('Wandering Star' is a cover to tribute the idols'...) to throw them into the soup-tureen. The thick and frightening atmosphere of this album needs to be pointed out as being the most impressive ability - several tracks are slowing down the speed ('My Legacy', 'Into Nothing') and offer so much more than a wild dancefloor-action. Congratulations to all responsible participants to release one of the most intense produced albums of the last half year. Let's keep the fingers crossed, that we don't need to wait another 5 + years until Mr. Svegsjö decides again to start a comeback.

The newborn Milan-based Italian label Beat.Machine makes its first appearance in the overcrowded music scene with a musical brotherhood with the provoking alternative punk rock Italian band The NUV, acronym for New Ultraviolet Vanish, an expression which can summarize their ruffled plunging down a sonic slope influenced by recent evolutions of punkey bands, rewording New Ultra Violence (their previous baptismal name as well), a term used by their main conceptual source of inspiration, Anthony Burgess, author of the notorious "A Clockwork Orange" to describe brutal violent acts committed just for entertainment. Their release on Block Starz Music could strike some ears for the way they contaminate punk rock with glamour sonic hooks, lending itself to further treatment and it's what Beat.Machine made, a way to introduce some slices of its roster. To be honest, most of them look like they stick to some standards, in particular remixes by I Am Orkid and Boylerz sound quite influenced by some electro-industrial bands (Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, FLA) as well as the so-called nu disco proposed by Brioski in the attempt of refurbishing the track "Ultraviolence" sounds not so "nu". On the other side other remixers are far more interesting in flirtation/filtration of some NUV's songs such as M.E.S.P. who proposes a bizarre intertwining of dubstep and electro-rock shreds (both "Jennifer" and "Nobel" remixes are really nice), AC Prodz' versatility in reinterpreting "Lucha Libre" and "The Virgin" in a plain electronic way and The Honor's toytronic remix of "Nobel". Maybe it's better to wait some individual releases in order to have a clearer idea on the real stylistical range and quality of musical proposals by this new label, but this debut sounds tasty enough to sketch a rough idea on them.

Anybody out there who can remember the German Electro/Industrial-artist Taxim being signed to the FL-based label Telegrammetry and presented us the album 'Ecclesiophobia' in 2006? Well, right to the start of the new year, this project returns on our radar with a new, freely available digital-only 2-track-release, which reminds me how the last year has been named'¦ Seriously, Alex Ney, mastermind behind Taxim, feeds us with a quality track filled with driving Breakbeat rhythm-patterns, up-to-date synthesizer sequences, with got supported by Metal-like bass-guitar riffs. This new sound outfit of Alex generally surprises and inhales a deep breath of the US-based Coldwave-movement. Not surprising is the fact, that Alex still feels more comfortable to produce instrumental tunes only, although '2011' in its original version is richly filled with drastic and atrocious voice-samples. Thematically Alex has collected various newsflashes and/or documentaries dealing with the oppressive happenings in Libya under the regime of Mohammad El Gadhafi. Maybe to name this well produced track '2011' is a bit too opulent, since the last year has seen several more tragedies and crises, which would work well as being quells of inspiration for artists of this genre. But however, '2011' (original and Alternative version) is a perfect appetizer for the upcoming new Taxim-album 'Monitoring', which will be out in summer 2012.

Originally released on tape in 1982 by Anschlag, SENZA TITOLO was the first thing released by T.A.C. Back then the combo coming from Parma, Italy, was formed by Andrea Azzali, Simon Balestrazzi, Giorgio Barbuti, Fabio Cortesi, Giampaolo Terenziani plus Andrea Salvini (guest on piano on "Parabole" and "Tuo"). For that tape they recorded twelve tracks in balance from free jazz, post punk and avant rock. Along with classic rock instruments, they were using treated tape loops, custom built synthesizers and metal sheet percussions. Lyrics and vocals were reflecting their will to experiment, because if used, they were sounding like cut-up phrases cried out loud. It was like they were giving form to random thoughts that to the audience could have been sounded like recordings of a paranoid or a mental ill guy. They were sounding like a No New York ensemble influenced by post industrial culture. They didn't care to sound nice or else and, on this Sometimes Records reissue, you can also find six live tracks recorded on the same period: from these recordings you realize that they sounded just like that, no matter if they were in front of an audience or not. If you think that in 1982 in Italy, Litfiba and Diaframma just recorded their first MLP and 7" (we can think about those two as the spreading of new wave and post punk music to a wider audience), it's a peculiarity that T.A.C. wanted to sound like an experimental 70s band fascinated by industrial culture of late 70s/early 80s. These recordings aren't an easy listening but SENZA TITOLO shows really well the early days of an Italian band that was eager to dare.