I was doubtful if reviewing this or not but the honesty of Andy Duncan convinced me to spend some words about his work. Active in the 80's with different monikers but taking mainly his musical activity as personal amusement, Andy did during the years about 20 releases. He describes himself as home brew industrialist and DISPERSAL PROCEDURES is a live recording (a mono crowd recording) of his participation at the 2008 Venn Festival in Bristol. The twelve tracks of the CD are a sort or reworked compilation of his past works and actually they sound as a mixture of Mark E. Smith (of The Fall) on acid while hitting on his guitar and noisy tape cut-ups. Some tracks sound interesting but the poor recording doesn't help me understanding Andy's industrial spoken word. If you are English, you like originality and you ain't afraid of sane craziness, write him a mail...

Active since 1996 the Swedish band Rising Shadows are releasing for the Argentinian label Twilight Records their latest album titled FOUND IN THE COLD. Formed by Fredrik Klingwall (founding member, keyboard player and orchestrations composer), Linda-Li (she joined in 2004 on vocals) and Guillaume Le Huche (he joined in 2008 on bass), the band, with their second release is delivering a charming mix of fairy/dark atmospheres. In balance from neo-classical/goth melodies and instrumental compositions based on mysterious/dark ambient atmospheres played with synths and strings, the trio succeeded into reaching a great mix of the various elements. This capability make sound Rising Shadow's compositions sincere and inspired. Linda-li sings and vocalize enrapturing the listener and carrying him through the dark realms created by Fredrik and Guillaume. If you are into early Dead Can Dance but you are tired of lookalikes without personality, try this album.

Self released under the Creative Commons license and distributed as a free download directly from their website, SCHIZOPHRENIA TEACH ME LOVE is the first official album of Schizophrenia. Formed in Tuscany in 2000 and with two demos released during the last eight years, the band with SCHIZOPHRENIA TEACH ME LOVE is giving for free a well produced work full of great sounds (here you find guitars mixed with industrial sounds and synths) and energy. Try to imagine a post metal record mixed with danceable electro industrial rhythms where Andy Thorne screams are well supported by razor like guitars, distortions and few synth lines. Songs like "Dry water" could find tons of fans into the WGT people, willing to find cool melodies into granitic sounds. The only weak point, in my opinion, is the vocal style which tend to sound the same for the whole CD length.

A great debut release from Rome's Mannequin label. The record is a heartfelt tribute to the obscure, first movie by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Technology is easier these days, but they chose to play an all-analog blend of experimental-industrial with ambient parts; quite distant from everything you've ever listened to. For a comparison, let's say that this release would fit nicely among the early Musica Maxima Magnetica releases. Peter M. plays synths and drum machines here ( Kawai Sx 240, Korg Ms 20, Roland Juno 60, Roland Cr 78, Korg Kr 55 ) and Mushy sings/speaks some chilling lyrics with treated vocals.
The first one is called "The Tar" and is full of bad-vibes with voices taken from the movie."The Tree" depicts a bleak landscape, then we hear Mushy's chilling singing."The Fool" is my favourite here, an amazing eleven minutes track that shows frenzied, dark synthlines and a throbbing drum programmming; a couple of weird touches here and there and then a really scary vocal performance by Mushy over the final crescendo. The cdr comes in an oversize, 7" package. Looking forward for their further collaborations and solo works.

Duo formed by Neuroactive's ex vocalist and This Empty Flow's bass player (and also owner of the Plastic Passion label), Huminoida released their first 7" in 2007 (it was a one side single with a manually etched artwork on b-side containing "Self titled", an interesting instrumental dark track balanced from industrial ambient and synth electronica) and now they're releasing their second one titled OTHER SIDE. The new single is printed in a clear vinyl 300 copies run and it shows a different side of the Huminoida sound: the title tracks is a cool tune influenced by synth electronic bands of the 80's such as Soft Cell (see the vocal melodies) and Fad Gadget (the music has a minimal approach with catchy melodies). "The other" is on the b-side and as the band's first single it is a minimal retro electronic instrumental tune. This 7" costs only 5 euros P+P included if you live in Europe and 8 for the rest of the world and if you like the genre it's a must! Check the three tracks of both singles on their myspace page...