Nitzer Ebb - Industrial Complex

 

A lot of underground bands spent the 80s trying and failing to change the world. Nitzer Ebb decided instead to change electronic music – and they succeeded. More than contemporaries such as Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle, they were the arch-aesthetes of the period, extending the principles of Kraftwerk's 'electronic body music' to create a sound based upon rhythm and aggression that married perfectly with their minimal, militaristic image. Fifteen years on from their last studio LP, this reunion album succeeds in replicating the classic Ebb sound but takes very few risks in the process: Bon Harris' programming is still ruthlessly dynamic but inevitably Douglas McCarthy's voice has lost some of its bite. Frustratingly, the lyric sheet doesn't deviate from the industrial syllabus of disgust, loss and self-loathing, but if it's a physically thrilling high-volume listening experience you're after then Nitzer Ebb can still scratch that itch. [Mark Shukla]