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Corporate Park, "Mise en Abyme"
Respectfully revisiting the early sounds defined the second wave of industrial, the one associated with the likes of Skinny Puppy and KMFDM, this Texas duo’s penchant for vintage sounds and minimalist structures definitely show their influences. The songs merge together into a delightfully gray, meandering bit of rhythmic industrial music that is tastefully understated but never dull.
The first half of this tape is the one that has the rougher approach, mixing simple sequences and drum machine programs that plod along (in a good way), lingering long enough to blend together hypnotically, but never so long as to become boring or monotonous."Restricted Area," for example, has the duo sticking to a bass synth led structure, mixed with thick, heavy beats.It does not diverge much from this arrangement, but stays engaging throughout its three and a half minute duration.
The major touchstones of Corporate Park's influences are never too oblique:their penchant for cheap, tight springy reverbs instantly reminded me of Esplendor Geometrico but with significantly distortion, and on "Too Expensive to Live," a far more relaxed, calm demeanor compared to EG’s relentless, pummeling electronic assault.
"Pillow Talk" emphasizes on the same sort of production, but with its diverse array of sounds and oddly processed vocals, I felt more of a kinship with the earliest Skinny Puppy demos from Back and Forth, conjuring the same bleakness and lurking menace."Pundit Mantra" might be shrouded in distortion that makes it sound very much of the genre, yet not specifically reminiscent of any one artist, with the added multi-layered dialog samples expanding that vintage 1980s feel.
On the final two songs, the duo diversifies their approach a bit more."Mise En Abyme" is built upon more conventional drum sounds and programming, with the remainder largely made up of pulsing bass synth and random bleeps and synth chirps.Structurally repetitive, the addition of heavily processed and muffled vocals that are treated enough to sound human, but remain largely indecipherable make it memorable.The short closing "Firmament" features a simple, almost naked sounding drum machine with expansive, droning synths, resulting in a more ambient work.At just a hair over two minutes, it ends up expansive piece compared to the tighter, more rhythmic focused ones, and it works great as an ending.
I know this resurgence in early industrial/EBM smacks of a trend, and based on the number of reviews I have written in the past couple years mentioning this, it is obviously one that I am fully on board with.The influences that shine through heavily with the likes of Corporate Park (and High-Functioning Flesh and Pure Ground, amongst others) are ones that date back to my formative years of pursuing more unconventional music, and thus I will always have an affinity for them.Maybe I have just been lucky, but as of now I have not encountered any projects that have turned me off from this resurgence, and Corporate Park continues that trend of mixing quality and familiarity.
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