Search - Test Dept :: Materia Prima

Pioneers of Industrial

Frosty Cold One | Seattle, WA USA | 11/07/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a LIVE album: If you will settle for nothing less than a crystal clear recording, don't bother buying it. These recordings have been taken from the "soundtracks" to the shows "Materia Prima," performed in Holland, Italy, Finland, and Denmark (1988-89), and "The Unacceptable Face of Freedom," performed in London in 1986. Along with the band's trademark use of metal-on-metal, there's a wide variety of instruments implemented, and the style of songs is equally heterogeneous -- but don't expect any jazz or swing. The genius of these revolutionaries lies in their ability to make tracks that are simultaneously haunting, energizing, emboldening, and beautiful; there should be at least one track on this CD that will leave you reeling with strong emotion.
The track "More of Everything" utilizes a brilliant array of samples (including chunks of monologues by British politicians), unleashing both the political and musical FURY of the authentic & original genre that was called Industrial. My favorite is "Apocalypse," which (despite the title of this song) on many nights has lulled me to sleep with its soothing rain forest audioscape; this track kind of makes one think that perhaps these musicians feel an apocalypse has indeed befallen some thousands of species in the Amazon of South America. The band's talent and creativity make up for the fact that the disc is only half full (only 40 mins. of muzik here)."