Richard 23 of Front 242 via sheetnoise Instagram

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Today's compilation:

Another World: Electronic Body Music 1990 EBM

I don't think that I'll ever become a true fan of EBM—electronic body music, aka industrial dance—because I really just don't like all the harshness and abrasiveness that's so germane to both it and industrial music in general. Basically, in order for me to like this stuff, it either needs to be blended with something else, like house, techno, electro, some type of rock, etc., or it needs to be something that's so remarkably different from what makes for a standard EBM track in the first place, that the effort can't go unappreciated. And with this second installment in Belgian label Antler-Subway's Another World: Electronic Body Music sampler series, I think I may have come across a couple tracks that fulfill that latter category.

So, I'm certainly no expert when it comes to this type of dance music, but I really don't think that I've ever heard anything that's quite like Mussolini Headkick's "Get Out" (what a name, by the way). You put this song on and you're like, "oh yeah, this is clearly 100% EBM," but where a lot of EBM production seems to not use so many elements and is largely driven by combinations of a deep, acidically stabbing bassline and pounding kickdrums, this one just has so much more fuss going on, including a bunch of noisy bits of sampled electric guitar, aggressive vocals, distorted roaring, and a briefly sharp change to some...classical singing of some sort too? 🤷‍♂️ A maximally thick and pretty infectious, well-made tune.

But far more unique is "Bitterer Als Der Tod," by Boris Mikulic, an alias of a Belgian producer who is better known as part of an extremely prolific trio called Morton Sherman Bellucci. MSB put out a ton of tunes under a whole bunch of different monikers in the adjacent Belgian dance genre of new beat, but on this particular track, Boris Mikulic accompanies his EBM with a significant amount of Gregorian chant. And if you don't know what that is, maybe you're familiar with the most famous song in the history of popular music to ever use it: Enigma's terrific new age-worldbeat-trip hoppy early 90s classic, "Sadeness (Part I)." Needless to say, it's certainly unique to hear this traditionally sacred form of Latin singing used in any contemporary song, much less EBM, but Mikulic manages to do something pretty neat with it here.

Nice to find this cool pair of tunes in a genre that I typically don't go for 😌.

Highlights:

Mussolini Headkick - "Get Out" Boris Mikulic - "Bitterer Als Der Tod"

The Invincible Spirit - Push!

Listen/purchase: I Tune In by Cryo

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Nine Inch Nails-Happiness In Slavery (Fixed)

{started a fire with a lonely spark}

Listen/purchase: On Trial by Crucified Delight

21. POISON POINT. 2024-02-29 @ rhiz (w/ Voiler).

100% vinyl as usual.

Front By Front by Front 242 Epic 1992 EBM