Various – Rivet Head Culture

CHASE has done it again! - another collection of tracks by people within the so-called 'Torture Tech' scene which are interesting, entertaining & ultimately danceable. NON-AGGRESSION PACT's "Wicked Painted Sun" kicks into life with sampled cries, soon settling into a fast, lean thing, direct & concise. DEATH METHOD, whom I had heard previously, prove themselves worth further investigation with the distinctive "Mein Klein Engel", combining both serpentine attitude & some stand-out tuneful moments set within it's medium-slow pace. LITTLE GUILT SHRINE bring us "Satellite Thought (Taken Out Life)", which uses most of the elements familiar to Techno culture - ie. short repeated phrases & sudden swings away in opposite directions. However, to make things a little different, it does this with guitar rather than sequencer - a novel approach which creates some interesting note curves (including aa 'Tarzan Cry' motif). "Nose Dive" comes from RECLINER, bursting into dark life reminding me of TEST DEPT just after the "Beating The Retreat" album - very similar, full of orchestral punctuation, various samples, jagged horn sounds, cello rumbles & shouted, politically fired voice. "Perversion (Of The Truth)" comes from STASH KROHL, again using guitar, this time a thick electric beast, full of spit & muscle, entwining around smacking drums. A song about TV's influence on it's life-long hooked audience. HATE DEPT give us "More Like Me", utilising samples into a dark, dramatic song with plenty of bursts, changes & breaks. It has a distinctive tune & the words are clearly definable, despite some strange distortion. CHEMLAB come next with "Neurozone", having enough control & ability to be both minimal & hooky without in any way conforming to expectations or cult or commercialism. A catchy chorus rises above the varying elements of verse. "Raw Dog" by RAW DOG - raw being apt, with guitar snarling here & there like an untethered Röttweiler. It has a complex structure while being tuneful & strange. "Selfish" comes from PAIN EMISSION - a fairly sleak track with it's foil rustle guitar holding sway throughout while all manner of sounds tumble around it's structure. The voice is clear if a little serious, the song sounding like early EBM (perhaps CASSANDRA COMPLEX?). SOCIETY BURNING bring us "Party Girl", again having a sound not unlike the early European EBM scene - thinner, with roots in both New Wave & Rock while embracing the current attitudes. A nice little song from another group worth looking out for. OUT OUT come next, bringing us "Admire The Question (Naive Mix)", which reminds me of an electronic Hardbeat version of THE BUZZCOCKS' "A Different Kind Of Tension" with it's shopping list lyrics. Musically it is both danceable & listenable with lighter electronics juxtaposed with grizzled voice. BLUE EYED CHRIST give us "Progression", using such elements as electric drills among it's busy sequential bitstream flow. African chant samples add an interesting element to this smooth track. STG then offer "Televandalism (Drive-By Judus Mix)", a slow, deeply colourful rack, full of mood & space while creating a feel of dramatic darkness. SCAR TISSUE bring us "Cold (Insight)", which kicks the mood back onto a frantic, berzerker level with rapid sequential flow & shiny white wall of sound mix - rapid fire energy. A-POLOTIQ give us "Black Box", which has a distant, wasteland sound full of samples & electronic trickery with a vocalist roaring like a crazy man somewhere in the distance. An odd thing which is clearly the most experimental thing here, it settles into a slow song full of depth & mystery, it's drums, piano & voice perhaps the only easily discernable instruments. "Send Me To Heaven" by M.A.S. has a Hip Hop sensibility taken to a more extreme point with it's beats & sounds gated viciously while scratching goes on in the background, forming gradually into a darker, more full Torture Tech sound. CROCODILE SHOP offer us "Growing Stronger", catchy & danceable, it surges along smoothly on a low sequencer with horn punctuations & straight-forward voice. THEY KILLED FRITZ come next with "Whitley Park", varying from smooth & minimal t vicious animalistic growling sounds, this is a tight, flowing song with plenty of variety & some nice Dalek voice among it's plethora of strange sounds. FLESHHOUSE close the album with the Christmas song "Santa In Flames" which steals several snatches of old Xmas songs & soundtracks before becoming a slow-paced thing with a degree of entertaining devilry to it. Weird, dark lyrics.
An entertaining album which has grown very familiar to me over the last couple of months. Both a good example of the culture at the present time & a good starting point to sample further material from these talented groups.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.