Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Sister Machine Gun


Sister Machine Gun was another band that I discovered, funny enough, at the same concert as Chemlab. SMG were the second opening act that night and I was really impressed with frontman Chris Randall's charisma and delivery. I was sure they were going to become the breakthrough industrial act, but that ended up being Nine Inch Nails. Wrong on that count, but SMG put out some of my favorite music through the '90s and into the new millennium. They just had a groove and swagger that set them apart in the genre.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Chemlab


Digging back through the '90s has been so fun, I can't stop. The first time I saw Chemlab, they were the first opening band, I'd never heard of them, and the singer came out wearing tin foil over his face. I bought everything I could find - which was only this album and an earlier EP - the next day. It still sounds good to my ears. It's the kind of thing that would fit right in if there were a bar scene in Blade Runner.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

VNV Nation - from dark into light


From the dark sounds of the industrial/electro scene comes VNV Nation, a group who make earnest, emotive, positive, anthemic fist-shakers that also happen to be danceable. Yes, every album follows the same blueprint, but there are enough really great songs in their catalog to more than justify their continued existence and make the faithful always looking forward to the next one.