Sokushinbutsu Project - 5980 -
Patto Generazionale
The newest release from one of the more mysterious and esoteric industrial acts from Italy, almost (in a lot of ways) being an act that pays tribute to the industrial past of Italy. Thinking about acts like Ain Soph, Sigillum S, Circus Joy, and Teatro Satanico. The act made their thunderous debut 即身仏 on Industrial Ölocaust Recordings and came out as the second-best release reviewed on Kalteldur in 2021. This time the act has jumped onto something completely else, doing an interesting kind of remix/sampled/revisited-cover versions of vintage pop songs. Sampling sounds from the original recording and changing them while adding guitars, vocals, and various sound effects.
The release has been released via a Swedish label called TIBProd, a label started by Jan-M. Iversen. I know this guy, cause I love the album he did together with Maurizio Bianchi (Rekviem MB-JMI). Anyways, the physical release is a nifty-looking red cassette encased with a nifty-looking cover artwork showcasing the two members looking like prober upcoming pop stars of the new age. Loving the whole camouflage kind of thing going on, and I love the idea!
The first track Oh! Carol is by Neil Sedaka. A classic piece of easy-listening vintage pop music from the age of rock n- roll, milkshakes, and drive-in-cinemas. This version is beyond recognition but learns kind of close to a drunkard version of The Blutharsh. I love the primitive and harsh guitars, and the industrial rhythm going on. The vocals? Cool as well, lovely kind of apocalyptic feeling going on here. Boyd Rice would be proud.
The second track Passion Flower is by The Fraternity Brothers, an act and a song that I don´t know. I checked it up on Youtube but still have no clue. The track is more of a ritualistic and esoteric thing. Eerie-sounding (slowed-down) trumpet-like sounds and slowed-down sampled rhythms also end up being reversed as well. Disturbing and distorted sounds from a 90s clock radio, sleazy sounding jazz music (Nurse With Sound?) with some cool reversed ritualistic voices. A VERY hypnotic piece...strange and seductive too.
The third track gets even madder!. Tom Dooley with the Kingdom Trio! We even sang that song in school when I was 10 years old, back in 1987 that is! The track starts with a sample from the original recording, and then with real guitars and vocals done by Sokushinbutso Project. If you never felt the doom and despair of the original version, you are bound to get it with this version for sure. Twisted, sick, and slightly warped... but very minimalistic as well.
The fourth track My Sharona by the Knack. A new-wave power-pop classic from 1979, which u all have heard soo many times on your radio channel for classic pop songs. This time, the track has been mutated into doom-filled noise rock! You can even mention early Earth here, it´s really quite heavy and without any light at the end of the tunnel.
The fifth track Upside Down by Diano Ross is, by all means, one of the biggest hits from the disco era (besides Donna Summer´s I Feel Love of course!). It starts with a metal-bangin ensemble of early Test Dept´ish rhythms, slow distorted melodies, primitive warped sound effects, and some really frightening and evocative (sampled?) vocals. Everything is quite...upside down here. The primitive drum-machine parts, later on, are just spot on, lovely kind of early industrial sound here! Sampled recordings of Diana Ross saying Upside Down here...are just wicked!
Last track The Wanderer by the queen herself Donna Summer! Never been into that hit of hers, always preferred her I Feel Love with Giorgio Moroder. This version of the Wanderer could sound like something from the first Unnatural History by Coil instead. Which of course makes it "sound" better than the original version. A very spacy industrialized piece with some cool mind-warping sound effects, early console-gaming consoles, and Coil together? I must say that I love it!.
And that ends that journey. When old nostalgic industrial guys think back to a time when pop music actually... meant something. I would HIGHLY recommend listening to the original before listening to the cover version. The first time I listened to their album, I didn´t actually get the vibe. But when you get into the original recordings first, it ends up being a completely different journey. Actually surprisingly mind-blowing! Again, like Boyd Rice (and Fad Gadget) would say... Easy listening for the hard hearing!.
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