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Operation Cleansweep

Operation Cleansweep – Release Now! The Call To Die (2021)

So “Release Now!” became a trilogy with old Cleansweep material and “The Call To Die” closes the series. Like the previous, it was released by Tesco.

You get material created between 1995 and 2004. Of the eight tracks I only knew one, “The Call To Die” which was on the live in Munich album from 2003. All other tracks are not even listed on Discogs, so they have probably never been available before and represent the “unreleased material of lost tapes and material” of Tesco’s ‘blurb’.

Style wise there are no surprises. Noise with slow rhythms, low frequency walls of noise and here and there death industrial. The material is good to amazing (how comes that a tracks such as “Algomania II” has never been released before?).

Most Cleansweep releases were from before I liked them, so it would be nice if other material will be made available again too. New material would be a good idea too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco

Operation Cleansweep ‎– Release Now! Hungry For Power (2019)

Discogs.com

Tesco rereleased the 1996 debut album “Powerhungry” with an extra track.

“Powerhungry” is a classic in death industrial, a great album with brutal, industrial rhythms, violent vocals, but on ‘the noise scale’ closer to industrial than to noise.

The tracks have been reworked, some even stretched up and a 12 minute track has been added. It is called “Blood Is Tripping From Our Hands” (seriously) and it is a great Cleansweep track.

I have never been able to lay my hands on “Powerhungry”, so now I can get the nice looking digipack. Playing it was no problem, since it is the only Cleansweep album available on Spotify. Perhaps the other albums should be rereleased too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco

Operation Cleansweep ‎– Release Now! Apathy Induction (12″+7″ 2018)

It does not happen often that Operation Cleansweep releases new material. In 2012 there was a cd of a ‘side project‘, in 2006 a split release with Anenzephalia and Inade and then we are already back in 2003. The last full length (2003) was released on the Italian XN recordings and for this label we can also say that it does not happen often that there is new material. The last release is over 10 years old!

XN releases are always very limited and come in luxury hand-made covers. “Release Now!” is not as luxury packed as the Proiekt Hat / Brighter Death Now split 7″, but it comes in a tasteful, hand-made sleeve that you have to cut open in order to play the release for the first time. The package contains a 12″ and a 7″. There are 86 red vinyl versions and 200 black vinyl versions. Because they are hand-made when ordered and this takes a while, my guess is that they were long gone by the time I got my copy, but it can never hurt to ask the label.

The 12″ has two times four tracks. The 7″ has one track on each side. The opening track is relatively soft, but in the second track we already get a glimpse of the noisy industrial style of Cleansweep, but this track is by far not as dark and extreme as it can get. Again a bit more of that we can hear in “Hunters”, but less so in what follows, especially side II is quite tame and there are (almost) no vocals, not even many samples. Until the closing track of the 12″ and the opening track of the 7″ that is, this is in the style that I love Cleansweep for, especially the latter.

The music certainly is not easy listening though, but when you put this music against “Fuck Your Brains Out” or “Powerhungry”, you have to imagine another approach. A couple of ‘alright tracks’ and a few good ones. Not my favourite Cleansweep release, but still nice to hear some new material after all this time.

Links: Operation Cleansweep, XN Recordings

Singular Cleansweep Operations * Final Service (cd 2012)

If I understand it correctly, these are recordings from half the duo that operates under the name Operation Cleansweep. There are recordings from 1996 to 2010 and are recently made available by the Japanese Teito Sound label. “Final Service” comes in a cd-size DVD cover and in sound is somewhat of a lighter version of Operation Cleansweep, the noise sound with industrial rhythms. Somewhat lighter though, since the aggressive vocals are there and towards the end the sound is pretty harsch again. Operation Cleansweep releases are not too easy to find and “Final Service” is no exception. I hoped to buy something of Cleansweep during the Tesco festival where they played, but they had nothing. At the second day the band apparently brought their own copies (20 I heard) of “Final Service” so I was able to lay my hands on a copy. I have no idea where to send you to to get your own, but I can say, if you like Operation Cleansweep and do not mind a slightly less heavy sound, you will also like this singular operation.
Link: Teito Sound Systems

Anenzephalia / Inade / Operation Cleansweep * s/t (cd 2006)

A while ago I was playing Operation Cleansweep’s great “Powerhungry” album. I do not have either the 1996 original vinyl release, nor the limited cdr rerelease of 2007, so I had to pull it off the web. Curious if there would be any material available, I ran into this 30 minute split release with three great projects. Unfortunately the opening track of Anenzephalia is quite a monotous slightly noisy ambient track that is not too interesting. Also the other four tracks (two of Inade, two of Cleansweep) can be described as ambient noise while Inade is usually the dark ambient kind of project (with some noisy edges sometimes) and Cleansweep the wall of sound kind of noise project. All tracks are alright, but not what I hoped for. The best track is Inade’s “3 Million Minds”, a very dark ambient track.
Links: Anenzephalia, Inade, Teito Sound Company