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Konfrontation |
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Artist Engineers 7 |
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KONSTRUKTIVISTS Persona Non Grata
A lost classic Konstruktivists album, unheard by many people as it came out in a tiny edition on CD-R on the Interior label in 1997 only. Probably 25 copies were made. Nevertheless, some songs have become Kon live classics, such as "Artist engineers" or "Konfrontation". Recorded by Glenn Wallis and Mark Crumby, the album continues where Glennascaul ended, bringing the electro pop side of the band to a new 1990's version, even hinting at techno from time to time. Those songs are linked by abstract sound collages from dark ambient to noise. For this re-issue, we have also included the very rare "Artist engineers" 7" with a totally different version of the title track and an otherwise unreleased B-side. Please also check out the special hand-made edition of this album! Price: € 8,-/copy incl worldwide shipping.
Persona Non Grata samples from Konstruktivists' own back catalogue, although it's quite different in sound to any of those earlier works, and serves as an indication of what set this band apart in the first place. As ever, the aesthetic seems more in tune with the likes of La Düsseldorf, Heldon, and other European experimentalists than the usual industrial suspects, even if the sound is quite different. Percussion and rhythm are employed as texture rather than in acknowledgement of a beat, and it generally does all the things you wouldn't expect. (...) A few tracks hint at the distant influence of the trance and techno that was knocking around in 1997, and yet this is like an angular cargo cult recreation that bears little in common with anything.
Persona Non Grata has none of the obvious industrial clichés, no wanky attempts to recreate the music of fucking Cassandra Complex, no ambient sea of digital reverb concealing a dearth of inspiration, and it sounds somehow composed on the cheap Casio keyboards of a world in which such things are made from cogs, pistons, and flywheels; and it's one fuck of a lot better than the one on which I played guitar. It was a pisser that the original edition suffered from such a limited run, so hats off once again to Klang Galerie for spreading the good word.
(Wax Cylinders of Excitement)
L'album ha una struttura singolare che vede l'accostamento di papabili hit, dotate di una marcatissima base ritmica in stile techno, ad intermezzi astratti incentrati su tonalità metalliche. A ciò si aggiungono un pugno di tracce registrate dal vivo tra il 1995 e il 1996 e qui inserite senza alcun tipo di rielaborazione o modifica da studio: a differenza degli altri brani, questi ultimi mantengono un appeal più industriale, fatto di sottofondi lineari e monocordi tesi a creare atmosfere oscure. I samples che campeggiano in buona parte dei pezzi sono invece estratti dai primi due album della band ("Psycho Genetika" e "A Dissembly"), sorta di autocitazione che rifinisce uno stile ormai ampiamente modificato rispetto a com'era agli inizi degli anni '80. Tra i momenti più efficaci che testimoniano l'apertura del progetto ad un pubblico largo, nonché ad una fruizione adatta anche ai dancefloor, svettano "Artist Engineers I" e "The Move", tracce che mantengono ancora intatto a distanza di anni un tiro poderoso da hit-single. A fine disco vengono collocati come bonus i due brani coevi "Artist Engineers (7" Mix)" e "Sold (Out)" ricavati dall'omonimo 7", entrambi caratterizzati dalla medesima carica ritmica che pervade gran parte dell'album. Nel complesso si sentono echi della vecchia scuola synthpop a partire dai Kraftwerk e rivista alla luce delle successive evoluzioni in chiave techno-dub, ma anche electro-EBM.
(Darkroom Magazine, August 2014)
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