Code Industry
Structure
Dark Entries
Literal decades before techno-body music became a hot property on global dancefloors, Detroit quartet Code Industry were exploring the kinship between European EBM and their hometown’s electronic dance music traditions. The Dark Entries reissue of the 1991 EP Structure (originally released by Antler Subway) proves a good entrypoint to their sound, with six tracks that range from DJ friendly dancefloor rockers to hard-hitting atmospheric sample workouts. The two versions of “Behind The Mirror” encapsulate each approach; the “Image Mix” laying down a funky drum machine groove and whispered vocals that recall Meat Beat Manifesto’s more dancefloor oriented vocals, while the “Release of Anguish mix” takes the track’s samples and atmospheres and situates them amongst foreboding synths at a slower tempo. There’s some similarly Wax Traxish vibes on the club-ready “Fury”, although the track’s sampled “yeahs” are surroundd by wormy synths that give the track a hypnotic bounce. The group’s politics are just as important as instrumentation to their sonic imprint – “Crimes Against the People”‘s sharp stabbed guitars perfectly accompany the track’s critique of systemic neglect and abuse, just as “Ail” simmering anger is given motion by its staccato bassline. A welcome reissue for an act that has existed under the radar for far too long.
Worms Of The Earth
Xenoartifact
Samaa Records
Just as we’re starting to see a more pronounced hint of psytrance in current TBM and italo body music, we have another EP from Worms Of The Earth to remind us that Dan Barrett was ahead of the curve. Steering his Worms Of The Earth project from rhythmic noise to ritual industrial and now into darkly acidic psytrance, Barrett’s talents for sound design and production are apparent from the jump with Xenoartifact on “Celestial Blood Seal”, with the glassy pings of its percussion standing in contrast with the squamous bass flourishes this style demands. Elsewhere, Barrett links his current sonic palette with the structures of his past, programming trilling squelches into syncopated breaks on “Those Who Dwell Within” as he might have done with pure rhythmic noise distortion years back. Make no mistake, this EP, as with Tunnels Of The Duat before it, is psytrance through and through, so if that’s a dealbreaker you’ll have to wait to see where Barrett’s muse carries him next, but in the meantime if the idea of that genre’s slippery hypnosis being accented by some hints of industrial, dig in.
