On their first album in seven years, the multinational power electronics band fronted by US legend Mark Solotroff manage to live up to the hype created from their less than prolific release schedule. Punishing, malicious, and appropriately deranged, Bloodyminded proves they have lost none of their potency.
Solotroff and his team have consistently managed to elude the two major clichés of the power electronics genre: intentionally ambiguous politics and overdone sexual violence.While his former project Intrinsic Action may have delved a bit into the latter, Bloodyminded have continued to shed the adult bookstore sleaze elements and instead have shifted into more varied, esoteric topics and themes, often tied to a voyeuristic examination of human psychology. Within the Walls, for example, has lyrical content heavy on cell biology, without ever becoming completely clear as to its symbolism or meaning.
Live, Bloodyminded manages to convey an image that is self-aware enough at its own spectacle without overly diving into parody or satire.Solotroff's aggressive vocals delivered via a cobra's nest of intertwined microphones as the rest of the band thrashes about with antiquated plastic synths is definitely idiosyncratic (recent photos show an adoption of the pocket sized Korg Monotron synths, which just add to the absurdity).With the band's thrashing and leather clad wardrobes, it comes across as a perfect perversion of heavy metal tropes.On record though, this is not as overt but admittedly is not at all necessary to appreciate the music.
Insanity, another staple of the Bloodyminded repertoire is also insinuated quite often throughout the 13 songs on this disc.The consistent use of multiple vocalists aggressively screaming mantra-like lyrical passages amidst the constantly shifting and roaring waves of electronics is the best approximation of schizophrenia I can imagine.Even with the near melody that is buried deep in the mix, "Fatal Breath" demonstrates enough contrast with the razor sharp electronics and feedback, offset by a deep low end rumble that makes everything extremely disorienting.On "Circular Relations" the sense of mental disconnect is even more powerful, with Solotroff's up front screams offset by Isidro Reyes' backing Spanish vocals creating a confusing juxtaposition.
One of the hallmarks of power electronics is use of rhythm, which "Night Strikes" chooses to completely ignore.Other than the sustained electronics, growled vocals and feedback keep things as hyperkinetic and unpredictable as the best Masonna records do."Disintegration" features more of a structure in comparison, with blasts of white noise and deep pulsing electronics that convey some sense of order, but with a vocal delivery that is ridiculously over the top, but works quite well.
The most significant departures here come at the beginning and end of the record.Opener "All the Cities are Occupied" is all murky hums and idling machinery noise.Compared to what follows it, it has a meditative, understated sensibility to it that sets the mood for what follows.Even though it begins to get abrasive about half way through, the intermingling layers of synths are much more restrained in contrast to the remainder of the record.
The album closes on a cover of Locrian's "Inverted Ruins," a song that Solotroff did the vocals for on their Territories album.In the hands of Bloodyminded, it maintains much of its original moody vibe, all based on layers of synthesizer that never become too harsh or unstructured, but with a looser overall feel.Stripped of its original rock trappings, the underlying electronics of the original become more prominent and gives an entirely different sound that honestly feels a bit between traditional Bloodyminded and Solotroff's Anatomy of Habit project.The orderly arrangement seems to insinuate an inevitable explosive climax, but it never comes.
With Whitehouse seemingly done for good, Solotroff and crew have put together an album that covers similar ground and hits the same high points without sounding like an emulation or a tribute.Even after such a break, Bloodyminded is still a singular force in a genre with far too many sound alikes.Within the Walls is cerebral enough to fascinate, visceral enough to pummel, and manically unhinged enough to be completely engrossing and entertaining.
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