Alter Schwede

My Discos industrial goth gristle and bones congeal in petrified form on a return to Downwards, benefiting from visceral mixing by legendary Einstrzende Neubauten engineer, Boris Wilsdorf. With a sound that intersects elements of Pan Sonic, Fugazi, Raime, Regis, The Human Leagues ‘Dignity Of Labour and Big Black, ‘Alter Schwede comes v v highly recommended to anyone with interests anywhere along that spectrum.

Back in the Downwards clammy clutch, Melbournes tightest trio compile material recorded during midwinter sessions at Einstrzende Neubautens infamous AndereBaustelle studio in Berlin. The eight new components of Alter Schwede offer a compelling instrumental psychodrama of klangorous percussion and seething industrial urges harnessed to the trios critically stylised minimalism. Set in acres of resounding negative space rendered by Boris Willsdorf at the AndereBaustelle studio thats been hailed a vital x-variant in heavy recordings by everyone from Neubauten to Pan Sonic and Keiji Haino, the record continues the bands strong tradition of working with seminal engineers, such as Steve Albini (theyre also named after a Big Black song) at Electrical Paradise on Paradise (2007) and Little Joy (2010), to best bring out the gnawed-bone texture, spectral sinew and gothic romantic sturm und drang of their music.

Liam Andrews (bass, electronics, vox), Ben Andrews (guitar), and Rohan Rebeiro (drums, percussion) mark nearly 20 years of releases with some of their most uncompromising, and, by turns, captivating, work on Alter Schwede. Between the elemental howl of The Shore and grand, cinematic epilogue of Third Place they stake out a distinctive space in the contemporary industrial field. The back-combed tape loops of Irreversible hint at the feel of Gaspar Noes film of the same name, while the mix of spoken word german and collapsing workshop structures of StVO uncannily recall Jani Christous Mysterion Prolog Und Sprechertext to these ears, while their cogs finally knit into some semblance of industrial grind on Meshes.

They make most crucial use of the studio-as-instrument in the cavernous klang of Toil, with the clenched pulse and awning harpy moans of Folterkammer’, with the deathly stasis and distant chain rattles of BaustellenLftung offering space to reflect on the bleak state of things.

Heavy, precise, intense gothic minimalism, perfected.