Well.  Ya gotta love a CD that starts of with a quote from Event Horizon.  (“This place is a tomb”.)  It might actually be useful to relate what comes AFTER that quote in the movie:

Capt. Miller: This place is a tomb.
W.F. Smith: When you break all the laws of physics, do you seriously think there won’t be a price?! 
Dr. Weir: Hell is only a word . . . the reality is much, much worse.
Dr. Weir: What’s the shortest distance between two points?
Mr. Justin: A straight line.
Dr. Weir: Wrong. The shortest distance between two points is zero.
Capt. Miller: Vacate! I want off this ship.
W.F. Smith: This ship is fu**ed.
Dr. Weir: Well, thank you for that scientific analysis, Mr. Smith.
[end movie quotes]

And so the CD begins. 

What’s amusing about this CD to me is, the other day I was looking again at one of my favorite websites: http://www.sloth.org/samples/sourcelist.txt

It’s a list of samples that Industrial (and other) bands have used over the years, and it’s a link I confess I do treasure.  Anyway, I was looking over the whole thing, and I was thinking to myself that I missed the days when a new Front Line Assembly or Skinny Puppy album was something I marked the calendar for.  And then I remembered fondly when Industrial got  mean, and nasty, and smelled bad.  When the Gabba crept in.  When things started to go really wicked.  Oh, how I loved that vast musical landscape which revealed itself to me, and how I have loved to traverse it.

Less than two days later this CD arrived, as if in answer to a prayer I didn’t even know I’d made.  (That was the amusing part, if you’re still waiting/wondering.) 

If you’ve got a black trench coat and a Hellraiser collection.  If you’ve got Re/Search #6/7.  If you’ve ever slept to Scorn, Null, or Biosphere.  If you own one or more pairs of shoes and they’re all black leather boots.  If your joy is 808 State and your sorrow is Leaether Strip, then this, my friend, is your next purchase.

Meandering through chainsaw massacres and trance-like beautalities,  I simply could not have dreamt a better torture garden for someone hungry for a little hardline Industrial delicasy.  (Namely, myself.)

Some of these tracks are downright nasty.  Funky nasty.  Thrill Kill Kult-in-a-bad-mood nasty.  Absinthe and ecstasy nasty.  Murder-angel nasty.  The kind of nasty like when you watch Reptilicus and you get off on that part when they peel the meat from the drill.  And then you dance to it.  It’s even got samples from Aliens in it!  Whaddo I have to hit you over your head?  You know you need this.

On COP International. http://www.zentriertinsantlitz.de/

Track Listing:
1.)  Try to Escape
2.)  ...ob die Engel auch Beine haben
3.)  Nuklear Haze
4.)  Darkritual
5.)  Elemental Parts
6.)  Genozid (my virus club mix)
7.)  Elektronendammerung
8.)  Die Schampulermaschine
9.)  Define Tracing
10.)  Motion Tracker
11.)  Genozid (bonus track)

Run time:  57:56

Excellent "Unreleased Area" downloads section of the website: http://www.zentriertinsantlitz.de/Unreleased/unreleased.htm
(The artwork for the "Lost Tracks" is fantastic, as are the tracks themselves.  Go there!)

I remain in awe of this band.  The sounds, the samples, the artwork.  Some of the best and most stunning samples are included in their work; samples which can be catalysts for reflection on many levels.

Example from track 5 (“Microbial”) is a bit from Star Trek.  I’ll include the entire text of the quote they sample from here to give you an idea of the levels of meaning I’m talking about:

BG=Borg Queen
DA= Data

BQ:  Are you ready?
Da:  Who are you?
BQ:  I am the Borg.
Da:  That is a contradiction. The Borg have a collective consciousness. There are no individuals.
BQ:  I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg.
Da:   Greetings. I am curious. Do you control the Borg collective?
BQ:  You imply a disparity when none exists. I am the collective.
Da:  Perhaps I should rephrase the question. I wish to understand the organizational relationships. Are you their leader?
BQ:  I bring order into chaos.
Da:  An interesting, if cryptic response.
BQ:  You are in chaos, Data. You are the contradiction, a machine who wishes to be human.
Da:  Since you seem to know so much about me, you must be aware that I am programmed to evolve to better myself.
BQ:  We, too, are on a quest to better ourselves. Evolving toward a state of perfection.
Da:  Forgive me, but the Borg do not evolve, they conquer.
BQ:  By assimilating other beings into our collective, we are bringing them closer to perfection.
Da:  Somehow I question your motives.
BQ:  That is because you haven't been properly...stimulated yet.
Da:  You have reactivated my emotion chip. Why?
BQ:  Don't be frightened.
Da:  I am not frightened.
BQ:  Do you know what this is, Data?
Da:  It would appear you are attempting to graft organic skin onto my endo-skeletal structure.
BQ:  What a cold description for such a beautiful gift.
BQ:  Was that good for you?

The track ends with the Queen Borg saying, “Such a noble creature... a quality we sometimes lack. We will add your distinctiveness to our own.”

Now, I will confess that I don’t watch much TV or movies, but I do appreciate that discussions of the highest nature are dropped like little bombs into the most mundane of contexts.  I don’t take television and movies very seriously, but I take the need for the discussions very seriously.  I’m thankful for musicians who are willing to add these bombs to their music.  May they blow our minds wide open.  Here’s to being awake.  Here’s to being unplugged.

I will say again also that the artwork associated with this band is fantastic.
This particular outing blends the delightful textures of insects with the wonders of photography and microscopy.  Truly delightful.

The music, once again, is brilliant.  This album is quieter in atmosphere than the previously reviewed “Genozid” outing.  Where Genozid was at times a raging fist, and much like being hit over the noggin with a most beautiful 2x4, “Prozium” glides along through and over waves of emotion and disease.  Prozium pulses and burns, it saws and it riddles, it invades, it soothes, it educates and maligns.  The musical experience is wholly satisfying; the messages transmitted may be soul-death defying.  I will not swallow the Prozium!

Again, this album is beautiful and well-done on every level; musically, artwork, conceptualization.  A complete work, one which a curious mind would do well to purchase.  The track “Gollum” really must be heard to be believed.  Who knew that the most tragically human character from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien could ever be danced to?

Track Listing:
1.  Ultra Violent Ultra Skilled [Club Mix]
2. Chainreaction [Part I]
3. Svarnetik
4. Prophecy [Extended Club Mix]
5. Microbial [Elektronendämmerung Kapitel II]
6. Third War
7. Un nouveau début
8. Ultra Violent Ultra Skilled
9. Emotion Dampening Tranquilizer
10. Contact
11. Gollum
Run time: (64:20)

http://www.zentriertinsantlitz.de/
(Visit the download area for special treats, and try out the Ogg Player!)

On COP International:
http://www.copint.com/

08/13/04