The Peoples Republic of Europe - Machine District

Throughout life there's always constants - Death, Hunger, Disappointment and the endless wheel turning. Industrial, to me is the same. This is exactly why I adore The Peoples Republic of Europe. I'm a fan of around Two dozen of the hundreds of Rhythmic Noise / Hard Industrial bands I've heard. TproE rank among the very top of these. On Machine District, which is something like their 12th release (including a small swathe of ambient albums), my excitement for this has reached fever pitch.

What this album needs to do is keep up the consistency, and remind me exactly why I adore this Dutch act - I fell for them after 2004's 'Juche' - I find political albums to be of great merit, and 'dedicating' an album to Kim Jong Il and his North Korean self-imposed philosophy was exactly the kind of statement that made Industrial both loved and revered.

Like all forms Noise should, this is brutal from the second you press play, and chugs along like an automaton hell-bent on destruction. You could argue that Rhythmic Noise sounds the same, but to me it's about the background sounds, the change in beat, and the moments where additional samples change to reflect the concept that make it. TproE manage to make each album sound noticeably different, and that's a skill which only the idiotic of you can deny.

The first two tracks on here are impressive, but it's track 3 'Automation Test' which immediately sinks me - it seems to blend other influences into a sound often well known for being offensive and intolerable. The manifesto by the group claims to infuse a hybrid of funk, disco, hip hop, EBM, techno and associated sounds; despite not noticing any of these directly, it's pretty clear this is streets ahead of its time.

As the album progresses, I feel more and more comfortable with it - 'Deathstar' is an excellent number that shakes your cranium like an irate juggernaut on the conveyor line, 'Stay Behind'' features Taury Goforth's excellent 'Dead Hand Projekt', and the superbly titled 'Disko Neubauten' make this a 'What you see is what you get' act.

The title is controversial and brilliant, the album titles always make me drool with anticipation, and the sound excels and blasts all genre stereotypes into whimpering fragments.

12 tracks; no filler all killer. Oct 22 2011