Frank Ursus is Te/DIS. Kojoohar is the angstpop project of Andrii Kozhukhar who also plays in Kadaitcha.
The four tracks on this 7″ are recognisably Te/DIS, but the music leans a bit more to the ‘angstpop’ side, so I suppose that is where Andrii contributed to the sound.
The 7″ contains four fairly tranquil angstpop songs with Ursus’ typical voice.
The covers are printed manually and are all unique.
Links: Kojoohar, Te/DIS, Ant-Zen
Before “Blackout” there has been another album, also on Ant-Zen: “La Pierre Soudée” in 2015. I did not register that debut.
When I put on “Blackout”, the first track reminded me of Geneviève Pasquier. “Your Eyes” is a somewhat industrial track with female vocals. Also other tracks have hints of Pasquier, not only because of the vocals but also because of the music. Riotmiloo sure is not a Pasquier copycat though.
The artist has an interesting musical career. According to her own Spotify biography, she has a background in riot girl and (digital) punk bands. Cooperation with techno and industrial artists led her to experiment with less punky and more industrial sounds which she releases under the moniker Riotmiloo.
“Blackout” goes from ‘discoish’ industrial, to softer tracks and most tracks are quite alright. The previous album is somewhat more punky reminding me a bit of “NAKED”, an interesting duo that slowly shifted from techno to industrial. In any case, Riotmiloo’s second album is -to me- somewhat more interesting than the debut.
If you are a collector, Ant-Zen made a luxury sleeve for the vinyl version of this album.
Released exactly a year after “Gladio“, “Angor” is the new vinyl of the “Krankpop” duo Thorofon. Also released today is a cd with both “Gladio” and “Angor” on it.
After a noisy opening comes the nice ‘industrial disco’ (as I call it) track “Perfection”. What follows is different kinds of industrial, from more EBM type danceable tracks to more sound collage noisy tracks. Of course there is also the dirty, rhythmic Thorofon sound. There is also a track recorded together with Te/DIS.
“Angor” is rougher than the somewhat more EBM oriented predecessor, so when you listen to the cd, the music gets rougher and rougher. Not a bad approach!
Link: Ant-Zen
Kadaitcha is a (post) industrial project duo, half of which also has a solo project in more of an angstpop vein called Kojoohar. Kadaitcha has been around since at least 2016.
“Fracture” sounds more industrial than what I have heard of Kadaitcha before.
Thus I earlier wrote about Kadaitcha. The second remark I can repeat. “Tramontane” is a pretty industrial album, a bit of the ‘industrial rock’ type perhaps. Just as on “Fracture” there are the guitars, but not as noisy this time. “Tramontane” also contains some less industrial tracks, such as the somewhat “angstpoppy” “Knife”. Most of the other tracks are quite chaotic, sound-/noisescapes with guitars, beats and vocals.
I think this album may mostly appear to people who like the old style guitar based industrial.
In the Ant-Zen series of luxury 7″s comes the first Pasquier in several years. Two new tracks, both uptempo and both again somewhat different from what Geneviève did before.
“Cannibal Night” is a nice track with a bit of a punky feel. “Berühren” is more of a romantic electroclash song that opens softly, but is sped up by a beat after a little.
Both tracks are Pasquier’s take on old tracks, both originals I did not yet know. In the case of “Cannibal Night” by Nox the new version is not that far from the original, but now there is an uptempo beat.
Profil’s original is already a punky synthpop track, which -as mentioned- sounds more romantic in the Pasquier’s version.
Links: Geneviève Pasquier, Ant-Zen
Tanz Ohne Musik found their way to Ant-Zen who present a 7″ and (of course) a digital version.
Side A has the title track, a melancholic minimal wave track. “Cold” is more in the angstpop style that TOM sometimes produces. With some distance, this is the most interesting track to me. In the last track, TOM tried something new. “Mescaline Swimming” is a somewhat uptempo track, a bit in an electropunk direction. Amusing.
Links: Tanz Ohne Musik, Ant-Zen
Out today, but the 200 copies of the 12″ have been long sold out (and I did not get one).
“Gladio” opens with Hoffman singing a hymn over some noise. After that the new album is pretty much what I call “industrial disco”. Ant-Zen describes it as “a diversified and contemporary collection of minimal electro pop tunes, industrial power electronics and retro-body beats”.
The music is not as energetic as Thorofon can get. Besides the more ‘atmosphere’ tracks, the music indeed seems to lean a bit more towards (old school) EBM as we are used to. But the sound is industrial, sometimes noisy and recognisably Thorofon.
Not their best material, but a nice album.
After the luxury 7″ of Am Not, Ant-Zen releases another 7″ which comes with a printed acrylic glass plate, but this time, a square 7″. This time there are only 40 copies though.
(Another such release is from Michael Idehall but it is already sold out in presale…..)
Kadaitcha is a (post) industrial project duo, half of which also has a solo project in more of an angstpop vein called Kojoohar. Kadaitcha has been around since at least 2016.
“Fracture” sounds more industrial than what I have heard of Kadaitcha before. Both tracks of this release are actually quite noisy. Fairly chaotic and by the sound of it using guitar, but this sounds pretty good. Nice and weird distorted vocals, noises and industrial sounds.
After some silence, 2018 has been an active year for Distel so far, a tape on Beläten, a split 12″ on Ant-Zen and now a new full-length.
When I got to know Distel almost a decade ago, the term “angstpop” much applied to the sound. Distel would have fitted well within the Galakthorrö roster on the lighter side of their scale. Over the years the sound seemed to slowly become lighter with some technoish influences here and there. “Wapens” (meaning “weapons” by the way) again has a developed Distel sound. Slow music with some rhythm, strange vocals and some melody with the recognisable organ-like sound. Not much is left from the “angstpop” sound of the early days, but the term still describes the sound of Distel well. It is relatively accessible, but it breathes anxiety. The music is not as dark as it used to be, but it sure did not become happy.
Distel presents another interesting album and keeps developing in style, so every new release is a bit of a surprise. “Wapens” made another nice surprise.
Well well, a collaboration album between three industrial giants: Thomas Garrison, Geneviève Pasquier and Dan Courtman. Their respective projects (that is to way, one of each), are named, so would the result be collaborations, or tracks of each project? I am not entirely sure!
Among the eight tracks it is fairly easy to recognise the different styles. There are wall-of-noise type tracks that remind of Control. There is one Pasquier track which is fairly industrial in sound on her scale, but it is still Pasquier. Some industrial tracks obviously have Courtman’s vocals. Over the entire album, it looks like Garrison had quite some influence. Of course we all know that our friendly Thorofon couple also does not shun sonic brutality. Perhaps the tracks are collaborations after all.
When you like Pasquier and later Thorofon, “Cold War, Hot Love” may be more brutal than you are used to. When you do like the rougher side of these projects, especially when you can appreciate a Control sauce, this album just might be just what you are looking for. I like it, that is for sure! Too bad that it is not released on cd though.
Links: Control, Geneviève Pasquier, Ant-Zen
