Description

Here´s Imperial Black Unit’s last EP for Aufnahme + Wiedergabe: their balance between new school techno-flavoured EBM and early 90s dark electro had a special appeal that set them apart from acts working along similar lines. Their newest for a+w goes deeper on the throwback side of their sound, with a four track release that feels akin to Dirk Ivens’ Dive or gritty, early Suicide Commando, albeit with thick, modern production values. That’s especially evident on the opening title track, where a simple, grinding bassline is driven by thudding, crackling kicks and snares with little to no other adornment aside from a deeply distorted vocal. “Maidan” works from a similar template but ads mournful and foreboding pads, their simplicity contrasting with the increasingly busy percussion underneath. Especially notable is what happens when the formula gets amped up on “God, Ceinture & Miséricorde (Club Mix)”; where the original version (included here as a bonus track) feels of a piece with the other material, the club edit adds layers of distortion and saturation that transform it into what industrial heads would recognize as a rhythmic noise track. Drawing that line, whether consciously or not, is what makes Murder Under Establishment and Imperial Black Unit stand out: in a pillaged genre, these cats are digging in deeper than the surface and finding rich veins to work through.