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Various Artists

Bacterium

Released 2010 on Adeptsound
Reviewed by Lawrence, Sep 2010ce

Ever since Industrial Music hit its stride in the early 80s there’s been a countless number of compilation albums in its wake. It’s become a genre of itself, sometimes becoming the benchmark of independent labels such as Broken Flag (for example…) There’s been so many most of the ones in the past have probably been forgotten by now, but occasionally some stand out as either an open-window view of the scene in general (Paul Lemos’ Dry Lungs series), or of certain genres (the mammoth three-disc set Don’t Hunt What You Can’t Kill, with its look at the “Cultural Terrorism” sub-genre), or a particular regional scene or theme (which Susan Lawly would do with their “Extreme Music” series…)

But this particular new one — Bak-tir’e-em — suggests that times have changed since Industrial Music began as a genre. Whereas the first Dry Lungs release revealed a very dirty-sounding low-tech scene, Bak-tir’e-em represents a very state-of-the-art production value, if not being purely digital in how many of these pieces were put together. There are plenty of noisy moments to be sure, particularily by Josef Nadek, Column One and Praying For Oblivion, but also alot of Dark Ambient stuff as well with artists like Dieter Müh.

So is this compilation worth having? Well just about every track is top-notch as far as this kind of music goes, and it gives you an idea where “Industrial” and other experimental music is headed in a new decade.

This compilation will be out in October 11th. Get it from Adeptsound​.com…