Back catalogue: Industrial/Noise

Review:  The rather unpronounceable Schwefelgelb is back with more club-ready goodness across two original tracks that blend pounding 138 bpm drums with inescapable basslines. The raw energy of the designs are enhanced by intricate arrangements and fresh sound design which marks a bold step in Schwefelgelb's evolution as they fuse hard-stomping techno with tonal playfulness. Adding versatility is UFO95 who contributes a dubby yet driving 4/4 remix, while Flore shifts gears entirely, exploring UK bass territory to close out this fine slab of 140g coloured vinyl.

Review: Sumerian Fleet is a collaborative project from Mr. Pauli and Alden Tyrell, and alongside their couple of excellent albums on Dark Entries these dark side synth wave devotees also delivered a coveted record to Clone's West Coast Series back in 2010. Finally, that record is getting a repress to thwart the sharks and get grimy, gothic electro back in the hands of the real fans. Every track is a masterpiece, but one of our personal favourites is the rubbery nightmare funk of 'Blech Erkrankung', which comes on like Joy Division and Front 242 getting in a fight and falling down the stairs together.

Review: Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band's earliest material. Pegged as early pushers of the Australian underground industrial scene, Severed Heads emerged in the wake of a former project also shared between three members, Tom Ellard, Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright: Mr. And Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The edgier name Severed Heads was also, conveniently, snappier, and the sonic result of this resignal act would soon prove it a good decision. Though they say they aimed simply to take after forebears like Throbbing Gristle or Suicide, Ear Bitten proves much more than the simple fact of stylogeny. The 22-track record was born of an anarchic assemblage of found domestic and street-larked objects (as well as specialist musical instruments) blurring the lines between the two: using every sound-making tool from cassette deck, to rare Korg or Kawai synth, to proverbial pots and pans, to open-reel (and thus implicatively fuckable-with) dictaphones, Ear Bitten offers a diabolical vision of the sheer, wordless length of the post-punk deserts parched by their 70s, New York precursors.

Review: Sightless Pit is Lee Buford (aka The Body) and Dylan Walker (aka Full of Hell). The creative pair's debut album Grave of A Dog put them right up there with the best bands in the heavy metal scene. They now follow it up with another album that redefined heavy guitar sounds. Lockstep Bloodwar is an eclectic one sound wise and it features some big names making guts appearances such as Gangsta Boo from Three 6 Mafia, YoshimiO from Boredoms, plus Midwife, Lane Shii Otayonii and more. This version comes on limited translucent red marbled vinyl for a look as freaky as the music sounds.

Review: Too Dark Park, the seminal 1990 album from influential industrial pioneers Skinny Puppy, receives a well-deserved reissue celebrating 35 years of its legendary release. This record stands as one of the band's most influential works, featuring tracks like 'Tormentor' and 'Spasmolytic that have left an indelible mark on the industrial music landscape. Praised by publications like Vice and Metal Hammer, which named it one of the "10 Best Industrial Albums," Too Dark Park is a menacing and massive exploration of themes like H.P. Lovecraft-style cosmic horror, addiction, mental disarray, and the disintegration of nature. Spin aptly described it as a "return to the bloodbath," capturing the album's cataclysmic and chaotic essence. Too Dark Park showcases the band's commitment to experimentation, incorporating elements of funk alongside forceful basslines, samples, electronics, distortion, and heavy guitars. This reissue brings Skinny Puppy's groundbreaking album back to vinyl for the first time in 30 years, offering both longtime fans and new listeners a chance to experience its raw power and innovation. Too Dark Park remains a legendary album in industrial music and continues to captivate audiences with its uncompromising intensity.

Review: US producer SSPS is a ram outsider who is well known to fans of the weird and the wonderful. His adventurous experiments have landed on labels like L.I.E.S. and Kode run by Traxx and collide punk, noise, wave, hardcore, slow beat and jakbeat. This is a retrospective release that brings together some of his many highlights and proves why he is so well-loved by a community of fans on the fringes of the underground mainstream. As well as this genre references there are plenty of odd vocals and smeared synths unifying the sounds which here included four tunes recorded live For Unlimited Nation Summer Of 2020.

Review: In Japanese history Suemori refers to a castle constructed in 1548 by Lord Nobuhide. A short-lived structure, it was abandoned just over a decade later and subsequently- in the many years between then and now - all but vanished from the face of the Earth. A solitary stone stelae now marks the site, but whether impermanence was really a central theme to Suemori forming isn't clear. Nevertheless, their growing, reforming and restructuring sound certainly fits with the idea.

Occupying a strange, jerky and juxtaposed place between art sounds, crunchy electronica and noise, Maebashi represents a real melting pot of ideas and details. 'Yakkosan''s scatty hi hats, 'Kaminari Okoshi' and its strange sense of abstract rhythm, the pared back is-that-breakbeat of 'Bonsai'. Definitely destined for the pile marked less ordinary, if you're diving in prepare for a real experience.