Label: SPH TAPES - SPH063

確かな審美眼とプロデュース力を持つFernando Cerqueiraが1990年初頭に設立したポルトガルのエクスペリメンタル/ノイズ系カセットレーベルSPH TAPES!!長い停止期間を経て2015年に再始動、2021年より初期タイトルの復刻及び新作音源のフィジカルリリースを再開!！本作は米Sound Of Pig等からもリリースをしていた、Bill Warford & Pat GillisからなるインダストリアルデュオNorthern Machineの1992年3rdカセット[A Broken Mold]。無骨な骨太ビートが特徴であり、時折垣間見えるアンビエントなテイスト非常に良い。通常のプラケース仕様。



Release date 1992

'A Side' opens with "Temporal Arrythmia", sounding like late 70's CABARET VOLTAIRE with a lot more depth & mystery to it. A fast rhythmic piece over which all manner of sounds are projected, all combining into an ever-changing flow of electronic noises. "The Night Surgeons" is an altogether stranger thing, a sort of ambient soundtrack, not unlike the flavour in the HIC SUNT LEONES album, reviewed a few pages back. It has a clear experimental sound to it & grows a form of tune & rhythm, albeit one far from linear. "In The Tall Dust Weeds" starts off with voice distorted to peristalsis before rising in a curious hybrid of mood music & rhythm - they have hit on a nice flowing midway point here, sounding like gated pre-recorded sounds all combining into one flowing thing full of chimes & electronics. And even stranger is that thing actually has a tune held within it's echoing sequential form. "Krelltones" closes the first side, taking the same, almost tremolo sound from the previous track & building a delicate glass crystal tune upon it's constant spine. 'Another Side' opens with "Wasteland", another mood thing of deep booms & factory area ambience out of which rises a sombre sequential tune, a mood theme of sadness & dust. "One In Three" shows it's EuRock roots with a TANGERINE DREAM-like sequential theme over which guitar-like-keyboard fantasies are played in bright shapes & formations. "Voltage & Flux" gradually swells into life, appearing midway between their Space Rock sound & the more interesting ambient rhythmic stuff. It grows up, building slowly into a music of desolation & chill mood while never touching dark imagery. It's the dehumanized feel which gives it this sound - electronics with no human reference point & moaning sounds which mainline any inner loneliness. "The Old Neighbourhood" uses a simple drum machine backing over which boiling, bubbling sounds mx with thick sheets of keyboard. A simple theme which throbs & swells in mellow rhythm. NORTHERN MACHINE have some interesting sounds & could very easiy create something valid for a more permanent medium - ie. vinyl or CD. I prefer the rhythmic ambient material personally, although everything here has it's own unique sound. Perhaps they should make themselves known through compilation albums before making such a move. This album is nice, listenable document of a group on the verge of an interesting sound. Try it.