Thorofon’s latest release is a tape in Ant-Zen’s series of luxury packages. One version comes in an acrylic glass container for the tape.
The album opens with a death industrial track and also the second track is quite industrial. Other tracks are more of the “Krankpop” type, but not as energetic as Thorofon can get. Fortunately there are also another few industrial tracks.
13 Tracks in total. Not bad, but not their best material in my opinion.
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
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.
Celebrating their 20th aniverary Thorofon reworked some old material. However I thought I was quite familiar with this German industrial project, I do not recognise a whole lot of tracks.
As you can expect the sound on “Roots” is a bit more old-style, more industrial than the recent ‘industrial disco’ type of releases. Recent releases do seem to have more extremities between harsch industrial and more ‘disco’ tracks than “Roots” though. This new album is fairly consistantly industrial, but in the Thorofon style of course.
A nice release from Ant-Zen.
On a mailing order list I saw a Thorofon tape that I did not have. It proves to contain recordings of two live shows, one of which I actually attended! In fall 2013 me and my girlfriend took a massive detour home from Scotland to be able to see Thorofon live in Paris.
Side A of the tape is a recording of the 2011 show at Maschinenfest, so side B is for the Le Petit Bain show. I must say that the recording captures the lively show well, even when I am usually not fond of live-recordings. Raubbau/Pflichtkauf did a nice job with a good-looking tape in a slipcase with nice artwork and a printed tape.
A nice addition to the Thorofon collection.
When was the last time that you bought a cassette tape? The funny thing is that this tape comes with a download link like you see with vinyl. Welcome to the age of digital music! Well, it is a normal tape, not chrome or metal, so that is perhaps for the better.
“Nice n’ Sleazy” is a 60 minute tape with live recordings, trial recordings and unreleased tracks and versions. It is not a step forward in the musical direction of Thorofon, so “Nice n’ Sleazy” is not more poppy or discoish. As a matter of fact, the live version of “Riot Rude Dictator” reminds of the noise of early days. Most of the tracks are in the ‘intermediairy’ industrial style. Sometimes a bit rougher, sometimes less so. There are some experimentations with different approaches such as the somewhat ‘rocking’ opening track.
As we are used to of this great project, this newest offering is a good release. Not brilliant like “Exkarnation” but certainly a thing you should have when you like Thorofon or ‘modern industrial’ in general.
Links: Thorofon, UMB Kollektif, Raubbau
I only started to follow Thorofon when I ran into the 2003 album “This Summer Suicide” in 2007. After that I have been hunting down earlier releases and buying the new ones as they came. Thorofon has grown to be one of my favourite projects. I only had “New Heroes” on the computer, since I never got a copy of this 2005 double lp. Now it is released on cd! Well, sort of… 13 Of the original 19 tracks found their way to the cd (hence the new title) and two tracks have been added. “New Heroes” is given to be the transition album between the power electroncis of the old days and the disco sound of today, but actually “This Summer Suicide” of two years earlier should get that credit. In any case, I love the new sound of Thorofon and like some of the old material and I certainly like the combination of the two styles, so I was happy to learn about this “New Heroes” cd. It is certainly another wonderfull album with relatively accessible industrial and a very welcome addition to my collection.
Links: Thorofon, Klanggalerie
The new Thorofon is certainly a new step is the development of their sound, but unfortunately I do not like it as before. Still “Targets” is an interesting album, with extremities to both sides. There are almost synthpop tracks, but also brutal noisy industrial. Most tracks are nice, but not as good as most tracks on the last cd. One side has four tracks, side B two. Two of the A side tracks are light, the others darker. The B-side tracks are more varried, but not very extreme. The lp comes in a poster and with a card to download the tracks for the poor bastards who no longer have a record player. Better than much that comes out, but no rising curve in the projects discography.
Links: Thorofon, Ant-Zen
In 2005 the Thorofon / The Musick Wreckers split 7″ announced the transition of Thorofon to a new project. It looks like Thorofon got more active than they ever were since the project was abandonned! Last week I was listening to Last.fm when I heard a great track. It appeared to be of Thorofon (I was not even listening industrial music, but minimal/wave) and from an album that I never heard of. A recent album! I immediately ordered my copy from Tesco who sent it in notime. “Exkarnation” is indeed a new album, in fact, it has been performed live at the latest Maschinenfest too. Continuing the path of this project, this great album starts with a sound that is almost electropunk (after an introductionary track). Lateron the more ‘industrial disco’ sound prevails and slowly things get more industrial but still in the recent Thorofon style. “Exkarnation” is brilliant until a chaotic closing track that I do not like much. Keep it coming boys and girl, also of The Musick Wreckers please. I love the new face of industrial music.
Links: Thorofon, Ant-Zen
I got this wonderfull compilation when I bought the new Geneviéve Pasquier which is released on United Manipulation Broadcasting. It opens with a great and noisy version of Pasquier’s “Existance”, they way I like her. What follows next are mostly exclusive tracks or alternative versions of The Musick Wreckers (very nice), Tonal Y Nagual (including their apparently only good track), Thorofon and Dogpop. Then the sound gets more industrial noisy with Kommando and M.A.O. After this we go to the neofolk project Jägerblut which is not my thing. To close off we get a project that is new to me: Lambitani, a true UMB project with a weird combination of industrial and folk. A very nice compilation, especially when you get it for free! I guess that if you want a copy yourself, you should just order the new Pasquier directly from UMB.
Link: United Manipulation Broadcasting