In Sotto Voce (Babelfish tells me it’s Italian for “under voice”) was the side-project of Belgian EBM group Poésie Noire. While Poésie Noire was active from about 1985 to 1992, they put out 3 releases in 1989 as In Sotto Voce, all of which were released by the Belgian label Antler Subway (along with most of the Poésie Noire material). The self-titled maxi CD is a compilation of the first two 12″ releases, while Tracks is a full-length album that was released on CD and vinyl. In Sotto Voce has that cold, minimal feel of the era (though not as cold and minimal as country-mates Klinik). For example, “Sequence I” is a pretty repetitive song, but has that nice “stomp and chant” sing-a-long that everyone loves in their old-school EBM. Tracks introduced the use of guitars on many of the songs, and while it’s not bad, I feel that sometimes it takes away from the rest of the music, with the sometimes unnecessary guitar solos. Guitar solos…who would have thought? Nevertheless, if you can get past all of that, you will find some classic Antler Subway stuff. This is by request for Sigloxx, who indicated he was looking for it. Enjoy!

In Sotto Voce – Sequence I

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In Sotto Voce – Emptyness

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In Sotto Voce – Track 2

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In Sotto Voce – Track 1

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Nerve War is the first release by Canadian industrial group Front Line Assembly. There are two different versions of the cassette, which feature slightly different track listings. Rumor has it that the original version contained a track entitled “Thy Glory”, which Leeb was accused of ripping the bassline off from a Tear Garden song. The copy of the cassette rip that is floating around on Soulseek is a little different also, because a couple of tracks are combined together into one longer one, but as far as I can tell all the Soulseek versions are the same, so it’s unclear as to which version it is from. It is most likely the second one, since it doesn’t include the track “Thy Glory”. Reportedly, according to Discogs, there were only about 50 copies of Nerve War in existence and Leeb himself does not even possess a copy.

Tracklisting
1 N 29
2 Staahl
3 Contraversy
4 People
5 Certain Style
6 Power Of…
7 …Oppression
8 Front Line
9 As Of You
10 Give It To Me!
11 Shadows
12 Take 2
13 Overcome
14 Excile

Front Line Assembly – People

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Front Line Assembly – Power Of

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Front Line Assembly – Shadows

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Controlled Bleeding was a New York-based group that operated in many of genres. Their early works in the late 70s were experimental post-punk pieces; led by Paul Lemos, throughout the 80s, they released a variety of harsh noise records for a series of mostly European record labels. Buried Blessings, released by Cleopatra Records in 1993 captured the band’s work from 1988-1990, mostly for Wax Trax! Records and Third Mind Records. The first four songs are billed as Joined At The Head, which was a side-project they used for a single EP released on Wax Trax! Records. I read once that Lemos felt that this material was basically prostituting himself for money. This attitude is a shame, because it’s a very good collection and was one of my first introductions into experimental music. Had it not been for this CD, I obviously would not have been interested in checking out some other Controlled Bleeding material. After this period, the band drifted into many different works including dark gothic orchestrals (Music For Stolen Icons), dub ambient (Inanition) and more.

Tracklisting:
1 Joined At The Head Squeal (Under Girder) (3:11)
2 Joined At The Head In Penetration (3:32)
3 Joined At The Head Raid (4:09)
4 Joined At The Head Consecration’s Will (4:42)
5 Controlled Bleeding The Fodder Song (4:55)
6 Controlled Bleeding Words Of The Dying (6:27)
7 Controlled Bleeding Crimes Of The Body (5:30)
8 Controlled Bleeding The Front (2:39)
9 Controlled Bleeding Assembly (2:47)
10 Controlled Bleeding A Silken Barb (4:37)
11 Controlled Bleeding Buried Blessing (5:22)
12 Controlled Bleeding Ring Of Fire (3:45)
13 Controlled Bleeding Any Questions? (1:32)
14 Controlled Bleeding The Groan (3:23)
15 Controlled Bleeding Ham Slammer (1:17)
16 Controlled Bleeding Crack The Body (4:22)
17 Controlled Bleeding Kiss The Hand Of Genocide (3:00)
18 Controlled Bleeding Save Us (7:10)

Joined at the Head – In Penetration

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Joined at the Head – Consecration’s Will

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Controlled Bleeding – Words (of the Dying)

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Chronoglide is the sole album by downtempo artist Astral Engineering, which apparently is the pseudonym of one Simon Rees, also known as Coma. Coma had a few drum and bass remixes around, but not much really to speak of. This album was released in 1994, the golden period of ambient / techno, and was the first release on a small British label called Worm Interface, which was also the home of acts such as Freeform and Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher). While Chronoglide is not the greatest downtempo album I’ve ever heard, but it’s still very good and recommended for anyone looking for something off the beaten path that you’ll not likely run into very often in your lifetime.

Tracklisting:
1 Wave Part (8:22)
2 Neural Net (8:22)
3 Ring (7:24)
4 Brainstrobe (9:28)
5 Bios (8:41)
6 Ngc 4512 (7:42)
7 2010 (6:14)
8 Beyond The X-ecliptic (7:46)

Astral Engineering – Neural Net

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Astral Engineering – Brainstrobe

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