The Industrial Twilight: July 2016

Monday, July 11, 2016

Borghesia - "No Hope No Fear" [1987]

Artist: Borghesia

Title: No Hope No Fear

Genre: Old School EBM

Country: Slovenia

Release date: 1987

Track List:

Ni Upanja, Ni Strahu / No Hope No Fear
Na Smrtno Kazen / Sentenced To Death
133
Blato / Mud
Lovci / Hunters
Mi Smo Povsod / We Are Everywhere

Borghesia, formed in 1982 in Ljubljana, were among the first industrial projects from Slovenia, along with Laibach. Like Laibach, they have evolved from a contemporary art group ("Theatre FV-112/15"), and they also have flirted with various political imagery for shock value. However, they never got as internationally famous as Laibach, although they did have some successes (such as their appearance on Swedish national radio in 1988). The band split up in 1995, but re-united in 2009.

While early Borghesia recordings are said to be new wave/disco (not sure about that, because I haven't listened to their first two cassettes), this one is pure old school EBM in the vein of DAF and Front 242. The "totalitarian disco" label, which is often applied to many Laibach works, is quite applicable to late-80s' Borghesia too. I also like the pixel-style cover art which has a very old school and "cyberpunk"-ish feel to it (the earlier Borghesia albums featured mostly fetish/BDSM imagery on their covers).

Download

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Laibach - "Spectre" [2014]

Artist: Laibach

Title: Spectre

Genre: Industrial Electronic, Martial

Country: Slovenia

Release date: 2014

Track List:

Whistleblowers
No History
Eat Liver!
Americana
We Are Millions And Millions Are One
Eurovision
Walk With Me
Bossanova
Resistance Is Futile
Koran

Laibach already were mentioned on my blog numerous times before, and that's for a good reason: no one would deny them the place among the biggest classics of the industrial scene. While they rarely release anything new nowadays, they did manage to record an excellent album a couple of years ago. I didn't like it that much after the first listening (mostly because it reminded me too much of such Laibach albums from the 90's as "Kapital" and "NATO", which aren't among my favourites), but it grew up on me after few more listenings. Not sure if I can put it on the same level with "Opus Dei", "Jesus Christ Superstars", or "WAT", yet it's certainly better than their previous work ("Volk", 2006), which surely had an interesting concept, but its execution was far from perfect:

About this blog

I created this blog mostly because I wanted to practise my English skills, and to showcase the industrial, gothic, punk, metal, neofolk and progressive rock scene of Russia/ex-USSR and Eastern Europe (especially Hungary) in the meanwhile.

As you can see, this blog doesn't take itself seriously enough, but I hope I'm doing good enough with my reviews even if my proficiency in English is limited. Along with the aforementioned stuff from Eastern Europe, I occasionally post some classic and rare albums that aren't to be missed, and generally whatever I want. Other categories of note:

* finno-ugric rarities - various music (including pop) in minor Finno-Ugric languages which I'm interested in because of my heritage. The music from Hungary, Finland and Estonia can be found under the respective categories;

* lo-fi - various poorly recorded demos from before 2000 that are of historical importance. Most of these demos come from the USSR era, so you might want to check out the USSR category as well.

As of now, I try to post only music that has already been made free by the artists themselves, or the rare old releases that are out of print. But if you're an artist and would like me to remove the download links of your work, just contact me using the form below.

Sorry, I don't do reviews by request, I don't have the time. Moreover, I think the bands that feel the need to advertise themselves by sending their demos to as many blogs as possible are usually just plain boring. If you want to contact me for any other reason, use the contact form below.

It should be obvious enough that reviewing anything on here doesn't equals endorsement of artists' personal views. This especially concerns neofolk and martial industrial. It'd be fair enough to say that I have the same approach to the political and religious topics in these genres as Laibach do.

Many of the female musicians featured on my blog are amateur models, and in many cases their modelling work is no less interesting than their music. Right now I'm working on giving it a separate section of the blog (just in case if anyone wants my review to be only about their music and not their looks). The work is in progress, check back later if you're interested.

The title of my blog comes from a song by The Kovenant (album "SETI", 2003).