28/06/2014

MAURIZIO BIANCHI

As one of the early pioneers in the industrial and noise fields, Bianchi never quite attained the same status as Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, or SPK. This might be because of his relatively short career: beginning as Sacher-Pelz in 1979 and continuing on under his own name until 1984, his time on the scene was brief, but prolific.

This reissue of one of his classic albums is augmented both with bonus tracks and a second disc of obscure/bootlegged tracks that showcase one of the bleakest, most desolate musicians of his time. The two side-long tracks that make up the bulk of the original LP have an overall consistent sound of dank , low register synthetic pulses occasionally overrun by static-y, stuttering outbursts. “Fetish Pinksha” moves along at a snail’s pace, the outbursts never taking hold over the otherwise slow, filmic sound. “Sterile Regles” incorporates a shifting, lugubrious, low-tech drum machine pattern with pieces of tremolo heavy feedback resembling a proto-industrial funeral march. Synth elements that now characterize the dark ambient genre, along with squealing bits of feedback, give the sound an overall more frightening quality.

 The two bonus tracks on this disc stem from compilation appearances around the same time span. “Placenta” has a more open, ambient science-fiction sound rather than the dark, gray ambience of the rest of the disc, while “Untitled” opens with the thumping, filtered, white noise that would soon become synonymous with the power electronics genre. It should be noted that the contents of this disc (including the mastering) are essentially identical to the release EEs’T put out some ten years ago. The second disc, originally a Japanese bootleg titled Genocide of the Menses, collects previously rare bootleg tracks onto a single disc. “Zyclombie” is another track of deep pulsing synths and sci-fi type oscillator sounds that originally appeared on the Japanese bootleg LP, Leibstandarte SS MB 2. It sounds surprisingly good given its raw sources. The two-part title track originally appeared as a limited-to-50-copies acetate 7” and is more in line with the Mectpyo Bakterium album: dour minor synth chords and static heavy noise elements that never overpower, but serve as a nice counterpoint to the depressive sounds.

 The second part’s dive-bomb synths and overdriven low frequency elements are an obvious precursor to the likes of today’s Genocide Organ and Anenzephalia and other such folks. The final four tracks originally surfaced on the bootleg M. B. Anthology 1981-1984 and show more of the variation of styles Bianchi employed throughout his career. “Neuro Habitat” is twelve minutes of what sounds like a silent film score organ augmented with a slow, primitive drum machine pulse. “Humus Nucleaire” features the same sort of rhythm track, but the synths have a lighter, more airy feeling to them, even though it doesn’t last.

 The raw electronics and beat boxes sound like a more lo-fi, slightly darker take on early Cabaret Voltaire. While many of his peers relished the anger and violence that could be created using the early electronic instruments, Bianchi was content to paint a bleak canvas of gray sounds that are more depressing than malicious. Never moping or self-loathing, it is instead a dark, cold style that, after some 26 years, has obviously influenced a multitude of modern artists working at the extremes of sonic art.
 Creaig Dunton

 The new German groups like Der Plan, DAF (Görl, one of those drummers…), Palais Schaumburg, Din-A-Testbild it was an older friend who introduced me to everything industrial. TG, Lustmord, NWW, later incarnations like Psychic TV et all, it was this LP from ‘82 that proved to last after rediscovering.

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