Various – Allegory

Side one opens with "Shaking Death's Hand" by PURE MOTORIZED INSTINCT - a darkly sombre piece of slowly creeping keyboards through which cut more harsh sequential, jagged sounds. These form as angular, unnerving tune which builds in a way not unlike the soundtrack to such films as "Friday The 13th" & "Halloween" - a menacing & determined piece. The first of two cover versions comes next - a rather minimal remix of VOLTOID' s "Tragedy For You" without the beat & intensity of FRONT 242's version it comes across as a very different piece - a lot more insular yet still an interesting & catchy piece - reminds me a little of 808 STATE in ways. The next track is also cover version - ANOTHER HEADACHE bravely tackle THROBBING GRISTLE's spine-chilling classic "Hamburger Lady" - it has the plodding drum & cold synthetic wave, yet distorts the voice making the words not so easy to discern, and avoids the treated guitar punctuation which scratched the very brain cortex. What results is a piece perhaps a degree warmer, yet still lacking any vestige of humanity. Next up I cannot really comment on - it's my own "Cinnamon Air" (by ANTONYM) which sounds surprisingly bright & fresh here amongst the blacks and greys - a short, repetitive sequential piece. THE IMPULSE IX close side one with "Tautologize". This group is made up of folks from factor X & IMPULSE and is an intriguing collection of taped sounds, treated into Concrete Collage including sped-up tapes & blasting bass distortion, voices & ambience which sound as if recorded in a swimming baths, all combine into a Surreal & fascinating soundscape of shapes & images - perhaps the most traditionally Industrial piece here.
Side two opens with a remix of "The Third House" by ATTRITION, opening with a combination of their dark ambient Techno sound & found sounds. Again this comes across as a more minimal piece, full & edgy enough to border on the mildly chaotic. BRUME come next, never disappointing their public, this time with something which might almost pass as Ethnic percussion music, yet probably created by a microcephalic post-Holocaust tribe of urban crazies. Called "Suck Your Bones" it's a complex & intriguing piece which has a chill mystery to it. At one point it flips into an area which might be termed an Industrial pocket of void! The drumming churns like a cement mixer full of hard cardboard rolls & metal drums shimmer & skitter. "Untitled II" by KONSTRUKTIVISTS is a mere tightly composed piece arranged around a strict hard drum spine. Distorted guitars, synths & masses of other sounds follow the percussive leader in a free-form structure which fills the space between the speakers in myriad hues & shapes. Although very probably improvised & without specific shape, it still makes an interesting & intense piece, proving their popularity. Finally our old friends DARK STAR, closing the tape with "F2C2E" a track taken from the "Headtrip" album - the music softer than their old sound - a spacy synth with pounding but mellow drum beat act as a template for the guitarist to scrawl his muted shapes over. It has a warm, pacifying sound yet maintains degrees of CABARET VOLTAIRE in it's quick- paced drum pattern. Not typical, but showing they are moving into new territory, at least for the themselves, and actually seem to be tapping areas relativety unexplored. Could this sound catch on? Is it the successor to Ambient House? Only time will tell.

It comes in a small plastic bag with both a fold-over sleeve & a small booklet of images & information from all contributors plus SEAN KEEBLE. As mentioned before, the only way to get a copy of this is to/was to subscribe to IMPULSE. There might be a few copies left, but I'd hurry to avoid disappointment.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.

"Cinnamon Air" by Antonym recently appeared on the Minimal Wave Tapes 2 album, and is due to be re-released on vinyl (with a cleaner mix) via Downwards Records.