Cruelty Campaign is one of the newest signings to the ever growing andincreasingly more popular German label, Tesco Organisation. TheCalifornian duo emerges from a Hollywood milieu and this backgroundlends a cinematic quality to the recordings of mostly found sounds,such as the subtle rhythms of Roger Karmanik's refrigerator.

This album was produced in conjunction with Tarmvred's North American "Subsnow" tour, and features Tarmvred as well as a host of other acts, most (or all? I think?) of whom he played live with on this tour. It's a very strong compilation with only a few weak tracks throughout, and would make an excellent purchase for industrial/electronic/IDM/whatever fans.

These prodigious musicians from Wales have gained quite a reputation thus far, and with this newest album on Ad Noiseam, they have managed to carry the torch yet again. However, they seem to suffer from the same old problems, but do manage to innovate as well.

ExOrder is the power electronics side-project of underground darkambient heroes Inade. 'War Within Breath', released on the excellentMalignant Records, is mostly a reissue of a long out of print cassetterelease, 'Law of Heresy', with some unreleased and live tracks thrownin to round it out.

It is incredibly difficult to make techno music that isn't incrediblyboring. Being a person who has never really enjoyed/embraced the raveculture, I would find these events stale and uninteresting. I wouldenjoy dancing to the work of some of the DJs, because they were doingthings that were innovative, different. And they weren't clutteringtheir music with annoying keyboards and house-girl voices that make youwant to run for cover. Stewart Walker, a minimalist techno efficianado,released this set last year, partially to start his own label and totide fans over until his second proper LP.

As the title suggests, the direction of this disc is somewhat vague,yet still an interesting listen. Mr. Mazurek's electronic/laptopelements tend to be more experimental then that which we've come toknow from the Chicago Underground Duo.

Come Organization's second anthology collection may not be as lengthyas the double CD first volume, but it is of equal importance. Thematerial picks up where the last one left off, pulling music from 1981and 1982 including Come's entire album 'I'm Jack,' most of thecompilation, 'Für Ilse Koch,' as well as two pieces from MaurizioBianchi's 'Weltanschauung' LP.

The multi-talented German instrumentalist has followed-up last year's'Beyond Repair' LP with this somewhat dull EP on Morr. Once again,organic bass guitar and guitar riffs are looped alongside somewhatslow-driving 4/4 instrumental electronics.

UK-based label Vertical Form have failed on a number of planes withthis compilation. First off, I don't ever want to see another promo CDshow up in my mailbox without a cover, artwork, a tracklisting, ornotes to go along with it. This compilation has received a ton of spinson my players at home, work and inbetween, but up until now I haven'thad a goddamned clue as to who's on it.

Having recently taken in the delightful "Alice in Wonderland" box setre-issue, my first (massive) taste of Greif's quarter century plus backcatalog, I became eager for more. And just in time comes a new projectusing another classic as inspiration.

It seems that anger and post-rock go hand-in-hand with a lot of bands.The power of Mogwai, menace of godspeed you black emperor! and rawdestructive force of Explosions In The Sky all suggest some kind offrustration and anger with the systems and forces in place. And theyshould be angry about that. But San Francisco's Mirza took it to awhole new level.

Along with playing various instruments and contributing organic sounds,Bastien builds Meccano machine robots to "play" instruments to buildhis soundscapes on. He calls it both "acoustica" and "mechanica," andgives each song a palindromic title, as the robots "understand" thismusic the same forwards and backwards. It may seem a bit pretentious,but the music is phenomenal.

This is the first release from Text Records (not to be confused withFridge's own UK-based label), a sub-label affiliated with TinmanRecords, devoted to electronic experimental and ambient music. Thealbums released on Text heavily depart from the more straightforwardindustrial found on Tinman, such as early Crocodile Shop and I,Parasite.

Maenad is the second release on Text Records(http://www.tinmanrex.com/text.html), and favors dark drones, ghostlysinging and subtle atmospherics.

From our friends at Karaoke Kalk (a label that has begun to make a namefor itself in the land of lush electronic music) comes German duo DonnaRegina's equally lovely (if not somewhat stylistically different)follow-up to their 1999 release 'A Quiet Week in the House_. 'NorthernClassic', as its title suggests, gives its listener the sonicequivalent of a wintery landscape view through snow-dusted eyelashes.

I find it hard to choose the proper words to describe this album as themore I listen to it the more I like it. There is a wide variety ofsounds balanced by a strong conceptual theme. This provides an ongoingsteady flow which makes it easy to concentrate on nearly anythingbesides questioning the soundtrack-ish qualities of the album.

Trey Spruance, probably best known for his work with Mr. Bungle, hasreleased another album under the name Secret Chiefs 3. Originally aside project of Mr. Bungle known as the Secret Chiefs Trio—theyreleased a b-side to a 7" included with Bungle's "Disco Volante"vinyl—they had to change their name when a surf guitar band from the1950's popped up with the same name and have since released four albumsas Secret Chiefs 3.

In the 21st century, audio preservation and restoration will become ahot topic. I believe it's going to be a struggle as copyright owners(both private and corporate) will be the main factors of lettingmusical works die. I fear history will only be recorded for the mostpopular icons of the most popular western music genres. Thankfully,there's a small number out there who aren't willing to accept that.These first three CDs in this series exemplify what I consider'guerilla preservation'. The music that appears on these compilationshas been mastered from both 16mm prints and first-generationvideotapes, illegally, with a host of mysterious credits.

Generally, most US released EPs make a reasonable amount of sensewhereas a number of UK-issued EPs (with two parts, each for $10 andrarely featuring more than one exclusive track) leave me feeling pissy.Thankfully this release follows that convention more closely. Thelatest from Slicker is a follow-up to last year's 'The Latest' with theoriginal LP version of the title cut plus five other tracks of remixesand other songs.

If you've always wondered what it would be like for the madman behindMagnetic Fields to score a dramatic gay independent feature film,here's your answer. However, if you're looking for the new MagneticFields album, this isn't it.