VARIOUS ARTISTS
AP Presents Industrial Strength Machine Music (Rhino)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Rhino Records and Alternative Press Magazine teamed up to produce this well rounded if inevitably incomplete overview of industrial music. The sixteen tracks cover a lot of ground, from the pioneering noise of Throbbing Gristle to a previously unreleased live track from Nine Inch Nails, the first industrial band to make a major commercial breakthrough. The hard-core aficionado of the genre might quibble with some of the selections, not so much because there's anything here that doesn't belong, but because there's simply not enough space on a single CD collection for everything that belongs. For those who haven't delved deeply into the subject, though, there's sure to be plenty here that's new, and there are plenty of pointers for those who want to dig deeper.

The package includes a thoughtful essay by AP Senior Editor Jason Pettigrew that contains many of those pointers along with a valuable historical overview of the last 15 years in industrial sounds. The music itself is sometimes startling, always challenging and definitively alternative in ways that most "alternative" music would never dare be. Best of all, it's sure to annoy the hell out of most of the people you don't like.

Track List: Throbbing Gristle/Hamburger Lady * Cabaret Voltair/Nag Nag Nag * Non/Out Out Out * Coil/Panic * Test Department/Kick To Kill * Einsturzende Neubauten/Yu Gung (Futter Mein Ego) * Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel/Anything (Viva!) * Skinny Puppy/Dig It * Front 242/Funkahdafi * Clock DVA/The Hacker (Video Mix) * Meat Beat Manifesto/Psyche Out * Ministry/Stigmata * KMFDM/Godlike-Doglike * My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult/Kooler Than Jesus (Electric Messiah Mix) * Revolting Cocks/Physical (Let's Get) * Nine Inch Nails/Gave Up (live)

© 1999 - Shaun Dale