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Album Review
by SashaS
21-3-2001
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| 'Irony Is' |
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2nd Gen: 'Irony Is '
(Novamute)
Former Fun>Da>Mental-ist delves deep to carve lascivous mutant techno from the wreckage of our speed-of-life consumerverse
When you discover that 2nd Gen hail from the post-industrial bastion called Manchester the puzzle starts to make sense. After several EPs from the outfit, we get a debut album that spears your brain cells, literally. Wajid Yassen, former member of Fun>da>Mental (Mushtaq - also interviewed on this site - was a fellow bandmate) is 2nd Gen; both of them get a mention on the FDM's newly released 'There Shall Be Love!'
'Irony Is' is an entity in search of the limits of human endurance in aural pleasuring. What 2nd Gen explores is the thin line between noise and music, hovering over the edge of a crater set to start spewing sonar lava at any minute.
Opening track 'Sloborn' is formed of strangely funky industrial rhythms, spiralling guitar and a vocal as dark as a cloudy night in the wilderness, the distortion
quota increasing to a claustrophobic level on 'Buried'. 'Black Spring' is less intense, lurking in the depths of some arid netherland where Country'n'Western once echoed. Songs like 'Musicians Are Morons' manage to articulate rage into a massive sonic wall that should be visible from outer space.
At times sounding inhumane, this is deranged-techno, an album that socks it to reality and tells it like it is: music about a society drowning in issues that remain unresolved, just piled up on top of each other. 'Schism' is its perfect soundtrack, machines touching down on the wasteland where the robot-war rages on - a cyber-driven reality not a virtual experience. The revolt of the drones is on.
'Irony Is' has liberation's banner unfurled across the whole panorama of creativity, crafting unorthodox music for rockers with experimentation on their brains. Nine Inch Nails? Add an inch more, let it hammer in, and just feeeel the G-Force acceleration.
With 'Irony Is', like Vegemite, there's no middle ground - you'll despise it totally or love it immensely. A voluminous wake up call.
8/10
SashaS
21-3-2001
2nd Gen 'Irony Is' is out now on Novamute
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