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Griefer, "Brute Force"
Noise and power electronics is always so often heavily entrenched in fascist imagery, serial killer worship, sexual depravity, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, it just gets trite after a while. Griefer instead opts to create a thematic work based around the Internet and hacking, and the imagery seeps in from the packaging and track titles into the overall sound, giving it a very cohesive feel. Although it doesn't break any new ground genre-wise, it does offer a fresh take on the established that fans will enjoy.
One of the instantly recognizable things upon listening to this disc is that Griefer has a very strong sense of structure and composition. Rather than turning up everything to 11 and letting the electronics roar, each individual track comes across as calculated, planned, and allowed to develop. The opener "Pentagon Takes Network Offline" establishes the disc well, a slow piece of atmospheric industrial, a din of modem tones and CPU cycles that is met with deep, pounding monotone percussion and shrieked, unidentifiable vocals. "Fucking Douchebag" takes a similar approach, a slow building track of repetitive loops and junk percussion that swells, but never veers out of control
Other tracks aren't afraid to let their inner maniac out, and "Mpack vs. Storm" and "Malicious Iframe" both manage to stay in the harsher territory, the latter's low bass rumbles and random odd sounds mixed with shrieked manic vocals calls to mind the best elements of early (pre-Great White Death) Whitehouse. The track that stands out as the most odd amongst the disc would have to be "Facebook," with its wobbly 1960s sci-fi synth line and percussive blasts.
The vocals on the disc remain consistently indecipherable throughout, so they come across more as another instrument instead of anything else, so that works wthin the context. I, for one, would at least like some idea of what is being screamed and ranted about, but with the level of indecipherability, I can just assume it is cute fluffy bunnies if I so choose. Which I doubt. But the sound really works, even if the vocal effects sometimes seem to be too similar from track to track, the remainder of the mix ensures it doesn't become overly repetitive or too similar.
Brute Force isn't revolutionizing noise or power electronics but their take on it is fresh enough to make it a definite worthwhile listen. It is not hard to see their influences shaping their sound, but the approach is excellent. I, for one, welcome a powerful disc of noise without serial killers or 1940s German political figures included!
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