Music

Album Review: Front Line Assembly ‘Improvised Electronic Device’

Published

14 years ago

June 22, 2010

Once in a while, I come out of my shell and decide to cut loose for an evening. Being that I’m not really into the whole sports bar scene or the house party idea, I make my way to a little place in Southeast Michigan called Necto for Factory Monday. It’s a night devoted to Industrial, EBM and Synthpop and is reminiscient to the dance scene at the beginning of Blade, sans the blood of course.

Anyways, I bring this up because I expect the new Front Line Assembly album, ‘Improvised Electronic Device’, to become a staple there, be it remixes or originals. Check after the jump for a full review.

Front Line Assembly is considered to be one of the godfathers of industrial music, and for very good reason: FLA has been around for 24 years and is led by Bill Leeb (interview HERE), who has worked with Skinny Puppy, Delerium, Conjure One and more. The sound of FLA is very processed, very digital and always makes you want to move some part of your body. ‘Improvised Electronic Device’ continues this with flying colors.

The album starts off with the title track, ‘I.E.D.’, which starts with about 1:45 to build an atmosphere of unease and tension through various sonic effects and subtle note shifting. Then comes in a very military-esque snare intro, which leads into a full on industrial-techno assault. As usual, FLA uses intriguing synth patches and programs overlaid atop one another to create haunting sonic landscapes as well as highly processed, digital guitars that often sound like machines working rather than a musical instrument (I say this in the best way possible). This is a very aggressive track and does a great job at getting your blood pumping.

The production of ‘I.E.D.’ is beautifully done. With so much going on, I was worried that I would experience some muddiness but I didn’t notice much of that at all. The only concern that I had was that when I pumped up the bass in my car, the vocals got a bit buried. However, when listening on my headphones or my sound system, things cleared up neatly.

Overall, ‘Improvised Electronic Device’ is a fantastic addition to the already extensive Front Line Assembly library. This album is destined to be spun endlessly on dance floors. Just make sure your glow sticks last through the night.

4.5 out of 5 skulls

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

Click to comment

Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…