Back catalogue: Industrial/Noise

Review: Who said music has nothing to say these days? In an age of plastic people distracted to the point of distraction from the shocking atrocities, privilege, inequality and prejudices that are frogmarching society into a death trap of a future, Benefits stand out like a beautiful sore thumb - battered, bruised, and British, they are the epitome of an 'issues band' and we welcome any opportunity to listen and write about them.

Like some sort of rabid Idles, here the Middlesbrough one man crew make noises that defy logic, twisted cacophonous bars of ravenous distorted sound, and then layer council estate spoken word over the top. Angry enough to make you feel like there is still hope, and innovative enough to make you wonder whether - in an increasingly risk-averse music industry - enough people will get to know and love them. Make sure you do.

Review: CyberindustrialEBMwavepost-punkIDMmutantelectro. No commas, no punctuation, just one throbbing, convulsing, dystopian mass informed by the bleakest visions of a sci-fi future we deserve but definitely don't want. Originally hailing from Australia, but long-since relocating to Berlin's eastern ends, Kristian Bahoudian, AKA Kris Baha, has clearly absorbed his surrounds, grown through them, and learnt how to channel that brutalism into something truly potent. It's also narratively driven, with the titular spirits in the system a reference to humans in the age of advanced artificial intelligence - beholden to dictatorial codes that rob us of our essence, vitality and individuality. An awakening among a select few means a small number of people become self-aware, again, and can begin pushing back. And this point of tension, between human and machine, plays out sonically. Talk about painting a vivid picture.

Review: Belief Defect's Moe Espinosa and Luis Flores bonded over a love of early industrial music - and even now, some six years on from the pair's debut album, its influence is still very much in evidence. But that doesn't mean that this, their eight track sophomore effort, harks back to the days of Throbbing Gristle et al. Rather, the Berlin duo take their taste for the uncompromising and sonically shocking and twist it into new shapes, equally informed by experiments from the leftfield of electronica and sharpened up by acute sound design. 'Apprehension Engine' is technically ambient - it's certainly beatless - but the way it steadily frazzles and burns itself up is edgy and unsettling rather than being chill out material. 'The Witching' splices doom-laden, deep voices with lumphammer kick drums, while 'Celebrate Me!' is a gloriously half-Suicide, half-Autechre mix of cyborg aggression and throbbing sequencers. Not one to be listened to with the lights off we reckon... It'll be all fright on the night!

Review: First released in November 2024, Belief Disconnect's Desire & Discontent follows up on the preceding Decadent Yet Depraved, and cements their status as commentators of our times. If last time took a sledgehammer to the monstrous face of a world presenting as one thing but actually something more brutal and savage, this marks our arrival in different time. Masks, like gloves, are off, sides drawn, and the knife edge society and civilisation now rest upon is cast in sharp relief. This is dark, and we mean very, very dark, stuff. It's industrial. Like, super factory-sized industry. Tracks are full of rage. There's the sense that human aspects, a vocal for example, are emanating from solitary confinement somewhere in the depths of a Borg ship. And yet hearing and listening are acts of catharsis - Desire & Discontent is as much about giving us an outlet as it is reflecting a dystopian sci fi narrative which may be on the verge of coming true. Belief Defect certainly seem to think there's a chance, anyway.

Review: .Apocalyptic fusionistas Blood Of Heroes return to complete their trilogy of albums with Nine Cities. Every bit as powerful and abrasive as previous long players Remain and The Waking Nightmare, once again they take the dark imagery and intention from the original 1989 film and surge it into an unclassifiable and somewhat bewitching brew which has strong notes of IDM, metal and drum & bass. Highlights include the reflective dubby waves of 'Skara Brae', the high voltage tension of 'Lower Atlantis' and the skin-exfoliating 'Jerush-A-Salem'. Bloody good.

Review: Slovenia multimedia, electronic and rock group Borghesia formed back in 1982 from members of an underground theatre group that was known as FV-112/15. They also ran their own alternative club and had an illicit, illegal aesthetic based around anything taboo, banned or prohibited in the country at the time, much like the likes of Front 242 and Nitizer Ebb. Rugged City was an album first released in 1988 and only in Yugoslavia. It collects the best tunes from previous albums Escorts And Models and No Hope No Fear and is a perfect overview of their powerful mutant sound.

Review: .Geneva, Switzerland duo Bound By Endogamy are taking no prisoners with this collection of eight intense workouts that seem to straddle a multitude of genres and somehow emerge from the chaos with something new. Unsurprisingly, given what's here, the pair - Shlomo Balexert and Kleio Thomaides - are prominent figures on the underground punk and squat scene in their hometown, and there's plenty on this record that feels as though it's got to that time in the morning and you're still wandering around a disused labyrinthine building trying to remember where the front door was. Combining the ferocity of hardcore with the atmosphere and futurism of electro and rave, it's growling but crisp, distorted and DIY, dancefloor and weirdo all at once. An album that will not disappoint anyone who has been keeping an eye on this outfit as they emerged from strong successive cassette releases and a single 7" into this full throttle, self-titled long player.

Review: Born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, Michael Antener spent most of the 1980s concerned with interpreting the subconsciously and overtly apocalyptic discourse of that time through the medium of industrial-edged, dark feeling music. "I found a niche where I could express myself, along with other people who were not afraid of dark themes," he's quoted as saying in retrospect, before going on to explain that singing about love would have been more difficult than using "cries of pain taken from horror movies". This triple vinyl collector's item celebrates that fertile, if angry and dystopian period in Antener's life. Bringing together work from two of his formative projects, The Stranger of the Swamp and Bande Berne Crematoire, what's here is captivating. Electroclash with groove, distressed collages of noise, a certain sense of sonic expressionism - all brooding shadows, menacing arrangements and deeply unsettling moods.