Isomer - Nil By Mouth

There are few players on the field of industrial music which albums I always looking forward to hear. One of them is Isomer, Australian based resident, and today it is his turn to enter my CD-player and torture me with the sound of his madness.

Being active for about 12 years already, David already fed the scene with some solid material in the past. Few years ago he showed the full specter of his talent in 'Face towards the Sun' that was out on Tesco Organization. Mixing different styles together with extreme electronics, this ability was a key for success and acknowledgment. But with the new short EP, Isomer presents the material that can suit the fans of old style power electronics.

The EP was out around a year ago in very limited quantity of 200 pieces only and was pressed for the show in Mannheim (Germany) in May 2011. This release passed through the scene surprisingly quiet. Even I, who am a big fan of heavy electronics, laid my hands on it only few weeks ago. And a bigger surprise for me was how dammed I could I miss it for so long time.

What was presented on the previous record had gone for good. No more atmospheric melodies, no more sampled symphonic effects, no more compromise. A total wall of heaviness and brutalism fills the air, makes I thicker, full of smoke from burned tires and smell of protest. Each track throws a statement; each track declares the superiority of power electronics. Heavy machinery pulsating sound, dirty and without decorating it into something like angst pop or rhythmic noise which are so popular now. The drum session on "Slave Ritual" reminds me of some industrial plant working on stamping sheetmetal materials. Distorted vocals present almost in every track firing it up with the bullet-like words and slogans. Balancing on the edge of power noise, David never crosses it and remains to be on the power electronics side of extreme. The drilling brutal sound of the second track "Symptoms" is covered with the sand of scratches, analog pulsations and noisy radio splashes. The head track "Nil by Mouth" is full of obscure, depressing and morose atmosphere, spinning into the vortex of desperation. Spoken session which guides "Regaining Our Faith" fits into the spirit of some pervert sermon as the distorted crowd chanting answers to it, slowly transforming into the wavy "When We Burn". The final track starts with slow, gloomy, sometimes almost chaotic atmosphere and progresses towards a thick violent machinery point to that creation of Isomer with David shooting me right into the head with his "Infant Promise".

After listening few times to this relatively short record, I remain with "short, but right to the point" feeling. Sometimes, there is no need in long, ten or twenty minutes of run time tracks in order to express the inner condition, and better concentrate all the strength in one exact punch, that will reach its goal. Here David steps into a mine field of averagism that rules the genre for a past decade, but proudly finds his way, giving a lot of hope to all fans of power electronics, and states that the day is still not ended and this scene have not said its last word yet. Mar 06 2012