I’m going to admit that I had to check the spelling of this project every time I typed it out in this review for the simple fact that his name is VL7NYZ and is pronounced villainize. I was half-tempted to just refer to the man as Villainize but that would discredit the artist. I suppose I’m just glad that his song titles are pretty normal and don’t exchange the U’s for V’s like so many other INDVSTRIAL artists tend to do in order to fit in or try to make themselves sound unique. Anyway, let’s give a little introduction to the man.
Dru Brozovich has become most known as the live percussionist for NUDA, one of the rising independent stars in our humble little scene. Even then he’s been amplifying his own voice releasing remixes for bands such as Cyanotic, Cylab, AVGMNT, and Static Ghost under his previous name VL7N. Under his revised name VL7NYZ Brozovich aims to bring in modern heavy beats with old-school industrial mentality; carrying the genre forward while respecting its roots. And I think he’s doing a swell job at that.
In Slow Motion begins off the album with a nice little quiet but noisy introduction before an underlying electro-beat begins to form filled with glitches and the like. Then the throbbing bass comes piling through, an electro-industrial, analogue-sounding slice of bliss. Each hit of bass is like a gut punch and I already see this track hitting my gym playlist. The vocals are sparse but flicker back and forth between digitized production and whispered snarls.
Spook comes in innocently enough with another slow crawling intro before diving right into even heavier beats; if the previous song was a gut punch, this pushes through and puts a hole where the stomach once was. The vocals are much angrier, bouncing between fits of shouting and robotic vox. This would not feel out of place in the cyberpunk genre, be it the game or a movie set in the universe where a scene takes place at a seedy bar.
Human comes next and is a nice little throwback to dark electro of the late 2000’s and early 2010’s; blissfully melodic yet sinister all the same, with plenty of samples from all over driving it forward. What I enjoy so much about this track in comparison to his other contemporaries who attempt to do the same thing is that the production value is stellar. It’s crisp, clean, punchy, and feels professional. Fellow dark electro enthusiasts, take note.
One Week is a subtle track going a bit into industrial-rock territory whilst still maintaining the experimental soul of industrial music; at times the song is low and slow, other times it shuts down completely for a small trickle of electronics, sometimes it brings in electric guitars just to shut them up. To say that you know what’s coming next on this track is a lie impossible to pretend real; it varies so much and that’s what makes it so much fun.
The final track on the album is meant for the DJs and club aficionados, and oddly enough it was the first song I heard off of the EP. Vocals are primarily stripped back in favor of chopped up vocal chords. The word melodic comes back into my head as lovely backing ambiance provides an ethereal edge to the song, as if you’re staring at some great construct crafted by a rogue AI.
Prior to this EP I didn’t know who Brozovich was; I knew of NUDA, but never seen her live, and didn’t know that she had a percussionist. But now I know, but I see Brozovich not as just a live percussionist, but as a powerful upstart in the industrial scene. This simple self-titled album will hopefully continue a long series of releases under the VL7NYZ name; the influences are obvious, the production is outstanding, the beats addicting and danceable, and, most importantly for me, some of these songs are going to encourage me on my next PR attempt in the gym. Someone sign this guy before he’s eaten up.
