alloy mental - we have control

way back when, and my hormones were raging, i fell under the spell of the machine noise by bands such as front 242, ministry, and a few of those simplistic nitzer ebb chants-alongs.

later on, the genre known as industrial became a far different, some would say less interesting, beast when trent reznor pushed his black eyed vision onto the world, but in recent times, the pounding syncopated electronic music is making a comeback in all its various forms.

which is why, when i heard about this band, alloy mental, and heard a few tracks on their site i became intrigued.

all the elements are there in full force. the military-esque emblem/logo, the stage attire, the use of an image from a probable violent confrontation, the vocal phrasing, and the love of digital excess with a definite look towards rock music.

the bands long awaited debut is a wonderful blast that revisits all the influences as mentioned earlier, but with a touch of modern dancefloor action. so personal highlights are spread evenly across the 12 electronic experiments.

for a start, the gothic bass line during album highlight i am is pure early days peter hook brilliance, however, the ranted vocals and the disco-nnected chants make for a more accessible version and is hugely enjoyable, the unsettling hard stereo phasing of so silent, the strange production tricks for people are strange, the hard hitting synth action in the title track, all making sure you don’t confuse the band with the glut of electro-poppers that are currently filling the blogsphere and fashion magazines.

maybe it’s an age thing, but when this type of electronic body music was last dominating my play list, the vocals (often of a european nature) always sounded a lot more threatening, with added menace, whereas here the spoken dialogue, often treated and twisted with distortion, comes across as pure testosterone posturing, and even when they try and sound nasty with the unpleasantly titled stick it in your neck, the results sound like a school playground shoutback as opposed to anything close to a reality.

however, despite this one niggle i am very glad that skint records have brought this fine band to the attention of us all, as sometimes darker edged groove orientated electronic music makes for a refreshing change from all the nu-rave happiness.