reflections of darkness e-zine
The label with the catchy name ‘Bugs Crawling out of People’ was founded in 2004 by Squid; a former member of the TIK Recordings label and also known under his second alias IT-CLINGS. ‘Revelation’ marks the very first release of this label, based upon a story by Squid, completely included in the booklet.
It’s probably the best thing to listen to the music, while reading this apocalyptic manifest, where the protagonist gets to see beyond the borders of what we would call reality and time, after coming down from a trip. It opened up his mind and it paints a terrifying picture that is beyond any imagination and exceeds the cruellest fantasies, bred in the minds of horror film makers. The music; to come to that matter, makes you visualize, what is written down on these pages. Some of the songs even include passages of the text, barely understandable because drowned in noise. But the compilation starts comparatively calm with PROSPERO’s ‘Through The Walls’, a menacing sound collage, conjuring up dark pictures of devastated landscapes, destroyed by atomic explosions with the casual injection of noisy beats, pushing the song forward. When DEAD MAN’S HILL enter the arena, the temperature drops to zero immediately, while metallic, martial percussions fill the room and terrifying sound walls build up, permeated by a haunting voice.
After an intriguing droning intermezzo with the track ‘Merboso’ by CASUAL COINCIDENCE and the quite monotonous ‘Icon IV’ PNEUMATIC DETACH comes along with a study in rhythmic complexity that shows all the other contenders in that genre how it’s done properly. The title ‘Mute’ for the next track must have been meant as a joke as this is purest noise with an exceptional amount of heart-piercing cries. Regardless of their extremely disturbing capabilities, the tracks of bETOn bARRage and COLD FLESH INDUSTRY have something fascinating to them; ‘Devoured by Flies’ is a extreme fusion of ambience and noise, while ‘Hymn of Praise’ is a conglomerate of a constant droning and violent frequency manipulations to serve as a base for another fragment of the short story. The contribution of SCRAP.EDX sounds very much standard to me, has a straight pounding beats, almost from start to finish and no surprises. ‘A Deep Cthullhu Terror’ is balancing that flaw right away by unleashing an array of distorted beat structures and tribal elements. ASPHALT LEASH sets off to a whole other direction and delivers a harsh ambient track, definitely a highlight of the compilation. It’s up to NITROUS FLESH to close the compilation with en epic piece of music, divided into two parts; part I being a rather quiet one. Low layers of ambience are combined with distant martial drums; Part II playing with multiple drone layers.
‘Revelation’ mostly presents a pretty raw side of industrial music and is as far as I know, still an exception, because it’s based on a real concept and even if you don’t like all of the tracks, which is unavoidable on a compilation, it’s still a release that is much better than most of the more dance floor-oriented releases out there.
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 9
Total: 8
reviewer: - Sebastian Huhn
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pan-o-ra-ma
What can you expect from Bugs Crawling Out Of People's first release? A revelation of psychic character, through 14 compositions, generating
a perfect model of dynamism, traumatic violence, and obsession.PROSPERO's "Through The Walls" starts out with a dark atmosphere created by painful noisy elements. After some minutes, the track is enriched by electro-beats, which fit perfectly in it?s entirety. DEAD MAN'S HILL comes next, with "Heretics Look Downstairs", an apocalyptic machine full of despair and desolation, with high peaks penetrating the extreme dark structure. CASUAL COINCIDENCE's "Merboso" has strange verbal visuals manifested throughout dark ambient passages mixed with ethereal loops, having a high connection with the general musical context. NORU's "Icon VI" is harsh with moments of abrasive splendor in the rhythmic electro generations. PNEUMATIC DETACH delivers "Ryhim Ninept", a high quality track unleashing electronic patterns and rhythmic elements to keep your senses receptive. LEGION ULTRA unleashes a demo version of "Mute", revealing a raw demonstration of primitive electronic sound. SEDARKA offers "Mucus On Ice", a noisy drone composition full of brain-disturbing elements. BETON BARRAGE's "Devoured By Flies" is a dark masquerade of futuristic approaches, fusing perfectly from start to finish. COLD FLESH COLONY's "Hymn Of Praise" is a great track, reminding me of Brighter Death Now. There is a lineal darkness here that gives the whole track a dark, destructive feeling. SCAP.EDX's contribution "All Those Fucking Eyes" is a furious electronic track with repetitive sounds, creating a massive mix of dance floor components. ISZOLOSCOPE's "A Deep Cthulhu Terror" is one of the best tracks on this release, effusive with power and energy; surely cthulhu himself would rise from the sea and start to dance. ASPHALT LEASH's "Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong" orients electro-drone tones, creating a perfect balance between sounds and rhythms. Closing this great compilation is one of my favorites, NITROUS FLESH with "The Return Of The Dark Angels I And II". Respectively dense, with dark dis-harmonic atmospheres, the effects give a personal touch in the field of ambient industrial acts. The first release from this great Canadian Record Label is definitely substantial
reviewer: - edgar kerval
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chain d.l.k.
Not the freshest release for sure, but better late than never. The Canadian label Bugs Crawling Out Of People can be seen as the legit follow-up out of TIK Recordings, the label and gig organizer which made itself a fine name with the huge “Saturation Bombing”-festivals. Unfortunately there hasn’t been too many comparable Noise-festivals in Canada, since TIK has called its quit during 2K4. This “Revelation” is the first official release for Bugs Crawling..., a compilation featuring more than 75 minutes Powernoise/Dark Ambient/Martial-inspired audio warfare complimented by some more but also lesser known acts. PROSPERO, during the last year active via the French Brume Records, opens this compilation with a noisy introduction by forming repetitive and distorted samples to an at least straight-forward moving track. The Belgium project NÖRV, which has lately collaborated with H.I.V.+ offers at least that sort of stuff, in which Belgium can offer some masters, “Icon IV” sounds a bit like DIVE with some pounding metallic snares. PNEUMATIC DETACH a.k.a. Justin Brink offers a lecture in “create-multiple-noisy-drum-patterns” which sound complex – technically one of the best, if not the best appearance here. SEDARKA can win an extra price for their enjoyable effect manipulation on some Noise patterns – what an insane track. Mostly the stuff available on this comp deals with static Noise/Martial stuff (LEGION ULTRA, COLD FLESH COLONY...) – so SCRAP.EDX offer the most straight and speedy arranged track on here with “All Those Fucking Eyes”. Canada’s ISZOLOSCOPE tends to drift in a comparable style, while offering a rather more subtle and sample-driven intro-phase. Both last tracks got provided by the Dark Ambient-artist NITROUS FLESH, which is a project of James Geist, the musician behind the EBM-related project NECROTEK (official debut “Menschenfeind” out very soon on the Denver-based E.A.R./Vendetta-Music label). Of course, this stuff is quite different to NECROTEK, but still addictive with some slight distortion elements. “Revelation” is a quite entertaining and diverse collected compilation, which should appeal all fans of Powernoise music. There’s more to come out on this label...
reviewer: marc tater, december 2007
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heathen harvest e-zine
“Revelation” is the first release of Bugs Crawling Out Of People label. This label proclaimed the course of “fighting” against the “degradation” of industrial music, which once had a meaning and eventually turned into “nice dancefloor” hits. This various artists compilation features exclusive tracks, that were written by the musicians inspired by the “Revelation” story, presented in thick 16 page booklet together with original artwork – all being a product of Squid’s mind.
The best way to perceive the whole piece is to read while listening to the music. I tried to do both separately and it doesn’t have such an effect (if has anything at all) as when done paralelly: music seems to be just a set of the tracks, although exclusively written, and the text seems to be just a seek fantasy of a tired and anxious mind, because you read it while being surrounded by usual sounds that doesn’t create the mood needed. However, all this has completely another effect when combined. The words gain motion, they become alive and very expressive. Everything is very picturesque. Each page of the text, each piece of the text is reflected in a set of a few tracks and this way a kind of chapter is formed. The pictures presented in a booklet supplement the whole atmosphere really well: they are chaotic, anxious, disturbing, in a way weird and maybe even scary. It is not easy to recognise what is drawn and what was the intention and idea. They may recall anything, even the spots that are shown to mentally ill people to measure the level of their adequacy according to the objects they are going to name during the test. For example, first picture reminded me japanese cartoons about robots. But each picture seems to feature a human being that interacts with environment which looks quite hostile, prickly and doesn’t want to cooperate with human, it simply repels him. The very last pic reminds me the angel with small wings, big wide-opened eyes and cute cunning smile. Yeah, I know I’m sick, so what?That’s so, although this image doesn’t correspond well with the title of the last two tracks – The Return of the Dark Angels pt 1 and pt 2.
The text is hard to analyse, I think each person who got interested in this release should read it him/herself and then make the conclusions. The title of the album – Revelation – says it all pretty well. The text may be considered quite personal since the author shares with a listener/reader his personal experiences and his thoughts – either real or imagined. Generally it looks close to avant-garde literature. Speaking about music, I was glad to find such musicians taking part as Iszoloscope, which is one of my favs, because he always captures the listener with his thick, rich atmospheres, astonishes with his work with sounds and has his own style which is easily recognisable; Pneumatic Detach, which I consider quite a unique act, because among all the power-noise acts I had an opportunity to listen to I couldn’t find anything similar. Also I found there familiar acts as Dead Man’s Hill and Scrap. Edx and was quite surprised, because I never expected to hear Dead Man’s Hill among power noise and power electronics projects. And eventually thanks to this compilation I got familiar with such bands as Prospero, N?RV, Sedarka, Asphalt Leash and Nitrous Flesh I enjoyed much.
I’m not really fond of compilations generally, because the usual goal is to make a listener familiar with a few bands that label presents, so the tracks may have really different atmophere, although may be united according to the same genre. However, this compilation not only gave me an idea about the new bands, but also granted an enjoyable atmospheric journey into the story.
reviewer: zg, october 2007
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wormgear e-zine
Powernoise needs to die. Yes, it was interesting for a second and we all listened to it but now it's past time for it to disappear into oblivion. For those of you unfamiliar with powernoise, here's an easy way to imagine it: you overload your washing machine with laundry and it makes that rhythmic THUMPTHUMPTHUMP sound. Add some more oontz to it and voila! Powernoise. Occasionally there are some background screeches and random movie samples, but essentially you've got the idea. It's EBM for the 'extreme' scene. That said, the majority of this compilation is powernoise so, naturally, I'm unimpressed. This is the first release for the excellently-named Bugs Crawling Out of People label. However, if this is the direction the label's taking, it's a waste of a good name. Some of the tracks here are worthwhile: Casual Coincidence's "Merboso" is a genuinely creepy ambient soundscape, bETON bARRAGE combines ambient and noise to an unnerving end in "Devoured by Flies", and Nitrous Flesh turns in two good tracks - "The Return of the Dark Angel" parts 1 and 2, the first of which is ambient and the second is noise/drone. Cold Flesh Colony and Asphalt Leash both bring some decent standard wall-o-noise barrages. The rest of the disc is powernoise. I knew three of the bands from when I listened to that kind of thing (Pneumatic Detach, Iszoloscope, and Scrap.edx) and I was curious to see how they'd evolved. They hadn't. It'd been (roughly) five years since I'd heard them and it's exactly the same. I guess there's something to be said for sticking to your guns, but when that means releasing the same derivative tripe for half a decade, I suggest just sticking 'em. But hell, if you're one of the powernoise crowd, keep up with this label. It seems to be right up your alley.
reviewer: Christine Lett
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gothtronic e-zine
The Toronto based label “Bugs crawling out of people” brings us there very first release. A compilation filled with noise, lots of noise! The backbone for this release is a short surrealistic story, written by the founder of the label, Squid. He contacted the artists he thought would suit the concept and asked them if they would like to give their musical interpretation of the art and text. And hence there was Revelation.
The compilation kicks of with Prospero`s “through the walls”. It takes a while for the track to start but around half way down things start to get interesting and this doesn’t stop until the end. A cool track which sets the tone for the rest of the album. This track is followed up by two haunting noisy soundscapes done by Dead man’s hill and Casual coincidence. After this NöRV takes over with “ICON VI”, a more rhythmical track which followed by “.ryhim.ninept” in which Pneumatic detach takes the rhythms even further by adding some breakbeat influences. Legion ultra and Sedarka give us a whole different sound with some powernoise and breakcore inspired tracks. Nice, but nothing too special. bETON bARRAGE brings back the haunting sound with a very good track. The following tracks of Cold flesh colony and Scrap.edx are the first I didn’t really like. Both are a little bit boring and are really the same from start till finish. For the 11th track Iszoloscope, one of the more well known artists of this compilation give their interpretation of Squids words. It has the typical Iszoloscope sound but this is certainly not their best work ever. Asphalt leash takes a step back from Iszoloscopes rhythms and bring us a track full of filthy noise. Nitrous flesh then gets the honour of closing the cd with “the return of the dark angels part 1 &2”. Two noisy soundscapes with a very dark undertone which perfectly fit the concept of the album.
All together Revelation is a fine example of what “noise” is all about and the whole idea of the story backed up with music turns out really nice. There is enough variation between the rhythmic and more ambient tracks without ever straying too far away from the underlining concept. There are however a few things I didn’t like that much. First of all is the overall sound quality of compilation. Things didn’t go very well with the mastering. Everything sounds a little bit too harsh and crispy often resulting in a bit of a nasty mess when you turn the volume up. A pity because it really hurts some of the tracks. The other thing is that I found it all a bit too monotonous. A few of the tracks really don’t have enough going on to really keep me interested and almost got boring. But maybe that’s just not the way I like it.
Still Revelation is a pretty decent collection of various styles of industrial music, leaning towards the darker and rawer side of this scene.
[7/10]
reviewer: Niels, July 2005
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regen e-zine
This review is a long time coming. It’s not so much because the CD was hard to listen to or that I was being completely lazy. I felt I had to read the booklet while I listened to the CD.
Some might see that as a bit neurotic, but that’s the point of this particular album. You see, it’s an experimental noise soundtrack to accompany the short story in the booklet, written by Bugs Crawling Out Of People label founder Squid. So, in a way, this had to be both an album and a literary review.
First, the written aspect: one could try to claim that in the realm of experimental and industrial music that there is room for a variety of writing styles and the more strange and daring the better. But this array of tiny text that I followed along to the music with seems nothing more than a mish-mash of hallucinatory ramblings. It seems to center on the writer reaching a waking of his true consciousness, allowing him to see in the true reality that lies behind our daily lives, something arcane and horrible that borrows easily from Lovecraft and filters it through the modern crustiness of Clive Barker. At the same time, though, the long diatribe has no purpose. It claims “short story” status while delivering no story whatsoever. It explains that the drugs the storyteller has taken has awoken them to the power to see beyond the ken of normality into truth. The mind has warped and reality has fragmented, allowing our protagonist to see into the darker aspects of what surrounds us. He fills page after page with description of vague leviathan horrors and our oozing, tentacled true selves that seem to writhe, spurt, and lurch in every way imaginable, seemingly for the sake of providing even more adjectives to the reader. But it never surpasses the fact that it provides nothing more than a catalog of the ramblings of a drug-frenzied madman. It reads like the mutterings of a deranged homeless man sitting next to you on the bus. It does provide a few minor mentions of a “fight,” some kind of mythical war that our storyteller will take place in outside of his corporeal form, some apocalyptic struggle of wills. But this seems nothing more than a superhero fantasy in the midst of the alleged “revelation” which we are to behold. Once, the character nearly leaps from a balcony railing in his drug-addled stupor, but he never follows through. I can’t help but wonder if this 6-page fantasy wouldn’t have been brought to a more satisfying conclusion if the addict had indeed leapt and, instead of continuing to reveal our reality as meaningless and such things as leaping to one’s demise as irrelevant fantasies of our lie-chained minds, ended up dying on asphalt. The shockingly dense pamphlet ends and you’re left feeling that this writer has spent far too much time reading the randomized clippings of Burroughs while under the influence, because the imitation seems lackluster.
As for the music, that is a bit more noteworthy. Prospero starts the album with the unfortunate theme of clips of the text being read by someone with an annoying nasal voice and no sense of presentation. This revelation of terrible dread and revulsion is read as if the man is giving directions to the local Dairy Queen. What could have been an interesting trope of using clips of grim vocal description is made dull and irritating. Prospero also begins the theme of droning, atmospheric noises, left to ambiently wander around the track, often without a sense of purpose. This theme is continued by Legion Ultra’s heavily filtered meanderings, Asphalt Leash’s dark noise, and Cold Flesh Colony and Iszoloscope’s comparable uses of “the voice,” which Iszoloscope does in a better manner, using good beat structures that are, unfortunately, a bit too buried in their distortion. Casual Coincidence, Nitrous Flesh, and NöRV do more justice to the concept by providing elegantly dark, cinematic background drones and noise, with occasional rhythmic sounds that add well to one’s reading of the passages, if it took you more than the first two tracks to get through. bETON bARRAGE makes the only good use of the vocal samples by distorting them to static and providing other static noise in accompaniment, giving a much better sense of the deluded and incoherent mind than much of the dark atmosphere. Pneumatic Detach and Scrap.edx show why I’ve heard their names before by providing decently danceable and rhythmic powernoise structures with less distortion than one would imagine and a good usage of electronic sounds. Sedarka goes totally against the grain and gives the listener nothing more than analog squelches.
All in all, it is an interesting experiment in crossbreeding experimental music with experimental literature and there are merits in the idea of thematic compilations that allow musicians to add to the artistic interpretations of a writer, but this lacks the character that it will take to revolutionize the idea. Maybe someday we’ll have a dark and taut horror novel with accompanying experimental/noise soundtrack or cyberpunk literature with an appropriate electro-industrial soundtrack. For now, we’ll have to leave soundtrack accompaniment to film.
reviewer: ssmodk, May 2005
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radium e-zine
original finnish version
english translation
finnish
Mikään ei tunnu vetoavan elitistiseen yleisöön paremmin kuin industrialin palauttaminen juurilleen ja selkeän pesäeron teko sen populaareimpiin osa-alueisiin. Tätä mieltä ollaan ainakin uudessa kanadalaisessa levyfirmassa Bugs Crawling Out of People, jonka perustuskirjaan nämä päämäärät on kirjattu. Ensimmäinen näytönpaikka on Revelation –kokoelma, joka on tyypillinen levyfirman profiilia määrittävä ensijulkaisu. Se pyrkii kuitenkin erottumaan käyttämällä eksistentialistista kauhunovellia kappaleiden yhdistävänä tekijänä, mutta paria luettuja katkelmia hyödyntävää teosta lukuun ottamatta, se jää varsin ulkokohtaiseksi kontekstiksi.
Suuria sanoja ja kunnianhimoa siis riittää, mutta teot sanojen takeeksi ovat pahasti hakusessa. Ensinnäkin minnekään industrialin juurille ei todellakaan olla matkalla, vaan etäisyyttä otetaan lähinnä futupop- ja EBM-osastoon tarjoamalla varsin nykyaikaista rytminoisea, dark ambienttia ja voimaelektroniikkaa. Vanhempaan industrialiin perehtyneille varsinkin levyn menevin osa on aikamoista jumputusta. Laadun kanssa on myös niin ja näin, sillä kaikilta osallistuvilta projekteilta ei todellakaan ole tullut mukaan heidän omaperäisintä ja mielenkiintoisinta tuotantoaan.
Erityisesti rytminoisen kohdalla taso on varsin kehnoa. Kokoelman avaava Prospero on lupaavasta alusta huolimatta tuhanteen kertaan kuultua jumputusta, Pneumatic Detach kuulostaa tasan tarkalleen itseltään jokaista soundia myöten ja Scrap.edx:n kuusiminuuttinen tasabiitti edustaa peräti sellaista yksiulotteisuutta, jollaista vastaan tämä kokoelma oli kai tarkoitettu. Sedarka heittää kehiin vinguttelua ja säksätystä IDM-hengessä saamatta kuitenkaan mitään koherenttia aikaan. Kun vielä yleensä vakuuttava Iszoloscopekin tarjoaa turruttavan yksinkertaisen kolmen soinnun bassomelodian meluisan, mutta niin tavanomaisen ryskeensä kyytipojaksi, ei voi kuin todeta, että rytminoisen saralla kokoelma ei edusta mitään muuta kuin varmaa keskitietä.
Hitaammasta materiaalista Dead Man’s Hillin In Slaughter Nativesin mieleen tuova ritualistinen kolistelu ja sysimusta messuaminen on lähinnä kornia, mutta muuten materiaali tällä suunnalla on tasoltaan huomattavasti vakuuttavampaa. NÖRV tarjoaa nykyään harvemmin kuultua hidasta ja pelkistettyä vanhakantaista rytminoisea, joka tempaa nopeasti mukaansa. Legion Ultra ja Cold Flesh Colony eivät ole aivan parhaimmillaan, mutta raivoisat rypistykset kuuluvat silti kokoelman parempaan puoliskoon. Asphalt Leash tarjoaa hyvin rakennettua raskasta ja särjettyä dronea, mutta kokoelman varsinaiseksi kohokohdaksi nousee kuitenkin bETON bARRAGEn pidätelty, mutta todella pahaenteinen ja ilkeä voimaelektroniikka.
Puhtaasti ambientilla osastolla Casual Coincidence tarjoaa miellyttävää, Xabecia muistuttavaa, glitchillä maustettua kuulasta dronea. Perinteisempää dark ambienttia sen sijaan edustavat lupaavan Nitrous Fleshin teokset, joiden keskimääräistä elektronisempia lähestymistapa ritualistiseen tunnelmointiin hakee vertailukohtansa Ah Cama-Sotzin rauhallisemmasta tuotannosta.
Revelation on laadultaan hyvin epätasainen kokoelma, jota nimekkäistä osanottajista huolimatta kannattelevat nimenomaan vähemmän tunnettujen artistien tuotokset. Siksipä tästä saavat eniten irti juuri ne, jotka etsivät uusia tuttavuuksia. Revelation on suositeltava ja helposti lähestyttävä katsaus mukana olevista bändeistä kiinnostuneille, mutta ne jo tunteville suurempia yllätyksiä tai huippuhetkiä ei tarjolla ole. Mielenkiinnolla jään kuitenkin odottamaan mihin Bugs Crawling Out of People tästä lähtee valitsemallaan tiellä etenemään.
reviewer: vtl, May 2005
english
Nothing seems to appeal to the slightly elitist tending industrial audience as making a clear distinction to the scene's more popular counterparts. This seems to have been kept in mind also by the newly founded Canadian label Bugs
Crawling Out Of People to whose agenda this goal has been written. As a compilation, Revelation is a typical opening for a new label to introduce the variety of styles covered. However, it tries to distinguish itself by incorporating an existentialist horror novel from which the participating artists have drawn their inspiration from.
The concept displays a good sense of ambition and a personal style, but I find the compilation falling short on what it promises. Not counting the couple brief cited passages, the literary context feels very externally set and does not really bring any distinct extra character to the tracks. This feeling is emphasized by the overall mediocrity of some of the participating tracks, which in general do not really offer anything particularly inspiring, but rather just your average selection of modern rhythmic noise, dark ambient and power electronics. Based on the label agenda, of which this compilation is the first manifestation of, I would have expected a more radical approach.
Off to the music then. The tracks falling to the category of rhythmic noise are among the most uninventive ones. Despite of a promising intro, the opener Prospero offers just weak straightforward beats buried beneath distortion. Pneumatic Detach sounds just like himself, without even slightly varying his patented formula and Scrap.edx's six minute non-stop four to the floor beats represent even that side of industrial music that I'd convulse against. Sedarka offers some uninspired idmey tweaking and even the usually reliable Iszoloscope can't pull out anything better than an average straightforward dance track that sound wise lacks the required drive and punch.
On the less beaty side things start to get more interesting. With the exception of Dead Man's Hill, who offers silly and overly spooky ritual atmospheres resembling In Slaughter Natives, the quality of tracks is much higher. Nörv presents us with some slow and minimalist, yet very catchy old-school rhythmic noise tunes and even though Legion Ultra and Cold Flesh Colony are not quite on their best, their noisy and aggression filled tracks still clearly belong to the better half of the compilation. Asphalt Leash offers some well constructed heavily distorted drones and industrial soundscapes. However, the real highlight of the compilation for me is the slow, but mean power electronics by bETON bARRAGE, which skillfully carries a restrained yet extremely ominous character.
On the purely ambient side, Casual Coincidence combines glitchy elements with soft drones and ends up with pleasant Xabec-like atmospheres. A more classic dark ambient is offered by the two compilation closing tracks by Nitrous Flesh.
The more electronic approach to the slightly ritualistic tracks certainly bears resemblance to the calmer material by Ah Cama-Sotz, but still retains a personal touch.
Quality wise Revelation is a very uneven compilation which, despite of its already established participants, is carried by the contributions of the less recognized ones. It's an easily approachable introduction to the participating artists, but it offers very little to those already familiar with them and thus can hardly be regarded as an essential compilation. However, now that the game has been opened, it will be interesting to see where Bugs Crawling Out Of People will head next.
reviewer: PW, May 2005
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dark entries zine
original dutch version
Er is geen betere manier om een label te lanceren dan een compilatie uit te brengen. Dat is dan ook de manier waarop het kersverse label Bugscrawlingoutofpeople zich aan de liefhebbers van extreme en ongewone electronische muziekjes voorstelt. Hoewel het om een Canadees label gaat, is het toch opvallend dat zowat de helft van de deelnemende projecten uit België afkomstig is. Het moge opnieuw duidelijk zijn dat we behalve pralines en vuurwapens ook nog andere exportproducten hebben waaruit we enige nationale trots mogen putten. Van de dertien onbekende en halfbekende projecten klinken Iszoloscope en Cold Flesh Colony ongetwijfeld nog het meest bekend in de oren, hoewel Dead Man’s Hill hier te lande ook wel een belletje zal doen rinkelen. Met deze korte vermelding van slechts drie projecten, is voor de kenner meteen duidelijk dat zowat alle subgenres die de hedendaagse industriële muziek te beiden heeft op “Revelation” aan bod komen. Powerelectronics krijgen we voorgeschoteld van Cold Flesh Colony en zijn nevenproject Legion Ultra, terwijl Pneumatic en Sedarka ons tracteren op een portie stevige breakcore. Prospero, Scrap.edx en Iszoloscope lonken met hun ritmische electro-indus dan weer meer naar de dansvloer, waarbij we tevens willen vermelden dat de track van Iszoloscope verre van zijn beste werk betreft. De goede verstaander heeft slechts een half woord nodig. Dead Man’s Hill heeft heel goed naar In Slaughter Natives, Ordo Equilibrio en gelijkaardige Cold Meat artiesten geluisterd, en wijkt daar met zijn bombastische, brachiale muziek niet ver van af. Helaas ligt de mosterd er net iets te dik op. De postindustriële noisescapes van Nitrious Flesh en Beton Barrage beschouwen we als leuk luistervoer, maar vooralsnog lopen we er niet echt voor warm. Dan kunnen we meer genieten van het met een aangenaam ritme onderbouwde klankenspel van Nörv, en de onderkoelde ambient van Casual Coïncidence. Toeval of niet, maar het zijn dus de Belgen die (weeral) met de hoofdvogel gaan lopen.
reviewer: PW, May 2005
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godsend. e-zine
An apocalyptic selection of rhythmic industrial and heavy-duty noise-electro acts, 'Revelation' seems to be a harbinger of things to come from new label Bugs Crawling Out Of People. From the propulsive beats of openers PROSPERO to the horrific dirge of DEAD MAN'S HILL, there's a wealth of dirty and aggressive electronic work here. Standouts include the ominous ambience of CASUAL COINCIDENCE and PNEUMATIC DETACH's mutant industrial drum & bass terror. Also notable are LEGION ULTRA's agonized and seething screamer 'Mute (demo version)' and SCRAP.edx.'s pounding dancefloor attack on 'All Those Fucking Eyes'. Overall, a satisfyingly challenging and collection of sounds for those with an ear for the dark and abrasive.
reviewer: Todd Zachritz, May 2005
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chain d.l.k. e-zine
Debut sampler cd from Bugs Crawling Out of People (great name, and great logo!), "Revelation" features 75 minutes of music from Prospero, Dead Man's Hill, Casual Coincidence, Nörv, Pneumatic Detach, Legion Ultra, Sedarka, bETON bARRAGE, Scrap.edx, Iszoloscope, Asphalt Leash and Nitrous Flesh. Unfortunately for my taste, except a few droning ambient tracks, it is mostly heavy beat-driven industrial stuff I'm definitely not fond of, and honestly can't judge. I suppose if you're into these projects and/or the labels they're on (Hive, DTA, Mechanoise Labs, Steinklang...), or, say, the Ad Noiseam and Ant-Zen roster, you'll find A LOT to sink your teeth into, so go for it. The cd comes with creepy apocalyptic writings and bad drawings.
reviewer: Eugenio Maggi, April 2005
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stillborn music e-zine
Original Italian Version
English translation
Revelation è la prima compilation della nuovissima etichetta canadese Bugs Crawling Out of People.. etichetta fondata da Squid, personaggio molto noto nella scena industriale canadese. Il tema centrale di questa compilation è una breve e visionaria storia, presente nel corposo booklet, scritta da Squid, interpretata in vari deliri industriali dai 13 artisti coinvolti..
..non so voi ma da un'etichetta appena nata che alla sua prima uscita riesce a tirare in ballo nomi come Prospero, Pneumatich Detach, bETON bARRAGE, Cold Flesh Colony e Iszoloscope, solo per citarne qualcuno, mi aspetto solo grandi cose.. e infatti questo disco non scherza affatto!!
E' Prospero ad aprire, qui nei suoi panni più quieti e dark.. ottimo come brano d'apertura, ma forse un pò troppo lungo.. segue Dead Man's Hill con la spettacolare Heretics Look Downstairs.. lentissima marcia industriale, cupa e rituale! Merboso di Casual Coincidence si incunea nei territori ambient più isolazionisti sfregiati da micro interferenze.. giusto preludio per ICON VI di NÖRV, ovvero il nostro primo incontro con beat aggressivi e pachidermici.. beats che impazziscono all'irrequietezza ritmica di Pneumatich Detach e crollano totalmente davanti al caos industriale di Legion Ultra.. Mucus on ice di Sedarka ci dirotta invece su lidi più sperimentali dove IDM e breakcore si scontrano violentemente.. violenza che si scioglie al poetico powernoise di bETON bARRAGE e a quello più violento e nordico di Cold Flesh Colony.. ci pensa All those fucking eyes di Scrap.edx a far muovere il culo a danzanti carcasse metalliche.. anche A deep Cthulhu terror di Iszoloscope si presenta in una veste ballabile, ma con toni poco incisivi, lasciando al solo tribalismo industriale il compito di svolgere il lavoro datogli da Squid.. argh! ..nessun problema c'è Asphalt Leash ad accoglierci nel migliore dei modi con un grandissimo brano dal sapore ambient death industrial.. grande! ..chiude il disco Nitrous Flesh con The return of the dark angels, brano diviso in due parti, la prima più dark ambient, la seconda on pochino più noise..
In definitiva una buona compilation con brani eccellenti (vedi Cold Flesh COlony, Asphalt Leash, bETON bARRAGE..) e altri meno.. un difetto: la masterizzazione curata da Yann Faussurier (Iszoloscope), troppo poco curata.. comunque sicuramente un ottimo inizio per questa nuova etichetta, speriamo che le prossime releases rimangano sullo stesso livello qualitativo e magari migliori dal punto di vista della produzione..
reviewer: Paride C.Ð.M. Polimeno, April 2005
English Translation
"Revelation" is the first compilation of the new Canadian Label Bugs Crawling Out of People..label that was founded by Squid, that is a very known character from the canadian industrial scene. The central theme of this compilation is a short and visionary story, that is here presented in a massive booklet and that was written by Squid himself, to be interpreted through several industrial delirium by 13 artists here involved..
..I don’t know you, but from a newborn Label that for its first release is able of attracting artists like Prospero, Pneumatich Detach, bETON bARRAGE, Cold Flesh Colony and Iszoloscope, just to name a few of them, I am just waiting for great things...and indeed this disc doesn’t joke at all!!
It is Prospero that kicks off, here dressing his quieter and darker clothes…it works perfectly as an opening track, but maybe it is a little too long…what it comes after is Dead Man’s Hill, with the spectacular “Heretics Look Downstairs”..that is a very slow, hominous and ritual industrial march! “Merboso” of Casual Coincidence wedges itself into more isolationist ambient
landscapes that are disfigured by micro interferences..the right prelude to “ICON VI” by NÖRV, that is our first meeting with aggressive and pachydermic beat, that go crazy to the rhytmic restlessness of Pneumatic Detach and that totally crumble down before the industrial chaos presented by Legion Ultra..”Mucus on Ice” by Sedarka drives us towards more experimental landscapes where IDM and breakcore violently collide...violence that melts down to the poetic powernoise presented by bETON BARRAGE and to the more violent and northern style of Cold Flesh Colony..It is “All those fucking eyes” by Scrap.edx to make our ass moving in front of dancing metallic frameworks..also “A deep Cthulhu terror” by Iszoloscope presents itself in a more danceable dress, but without a really affecting tone, leaving to the sole industrial tribalism the duty to fulfill the work that has been provided to him by Squid..argh!..no problem, there is Asphalt Leash to welcome us in the best possible way with a majestic track that has an ambient death industrial taste..great!..closing the disc is Nitrous Flesh with “Return of the dark angels”, a track that is divided into 2 parts, the first one being more ambient while the second one a bit more noise.
Definitively this a good compilation with some excellent tracks (like Cold Flesh Colony, Asphalt Leash, bETON bARRAGE..) and other that are a little less..there is just a defect: the mastering, that was managed by Yann Faussurier (Iszoloscope) and it results being too poor..in any case this is for sure a great starting point for this new Label, let’s hope that the next releases will keep being on the same qualitative level and that maybe they will improve from the perspective of production..
reviewer: Paride C.Ð.M. Polimeno, April 2005
translator: melektro
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funprox e-zine
Squid, who is behind this compilation, is an active dj in the industrial scene around Toronto, Canada. As a creative mind, he also writes and it is a story he wrote, a story about mental apocalypse, that inspires this compilation. No wonder this story, completed with artworks, is part of the nice 16 page booklet.
With this story in hand, Squid asked several industrial acts if they would like to create music to it and some fine bands did! Resulting in this compilation cd with 14 tracks by 13 artists. Too keep all things in his own hands Squid alsoe created his own label for this compilation: "bugscrawlingoutofpeople", a label that might host harsh industrial acts and their work in the future.
The music on this cd varies from dark soundscapes to breakbeats to power electronics and rhytmic noise, but somehow Squid managed to bring them all together in a way that this diverse range of musical styles does not harm the feeling that it is one album.
The cd opens with a too boring soundscape by Prospero, but then really gets started with Dead Man's Hill and keeps on going from there. Industrial the way it was meant to be: harsh, uninviting, but truly showing aggresion and causing fear, thus also combining very well with the story.
Hard to pick out special songs, though I think it is mainly Cold Flesh Colony that hit me in the face, probably combined with NöRV. But there are hardly bad tracks on this album.
What however is worse is the mastering of the album, I miss a lot of bass and some high tones. Strange indeed, and the music on this compilation deserved better. Still it is one I would advise people to pick up.
reviewer: Hans D., March 2005
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virus e-zine
"Revelation" is a compilation CD that is the perfect companion for the onrushing apocalyptic urges of madmen.
Complete with a CD booklet containing original artwork and a visionary text written by some guy named Squid, "Revelation" is music centered on the Apocalypse, so there are plenty of fallen angels and hellish visions to go around for everyone.
To keep consistent with this literary theme, the music is strictly dark ambient and power noise, with two tasty percussive treats by Iszoloscope and Pneumatic Detach.
Mastered by Yann Faussurier of Iszoloscope, the CD has many highlights including excellent contributions by bETON bARRAGE, Cold Flesh Colony, and Asphalt Leash.
With over seventy-five minutes of quality electronic music, there is not a weak track to be found on the CD. Dark ambient and power noise fans will love this CD.
[9/10]
reviewer: Michael Casano, March 2005
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gothtronic e-zine
Revelation is a industrial compilation clocking in at 75 minutes and based on a short story by Bugs Crawling out of people founder Squid which you cand also find in the booklet with this compilation. This is also the first release of this young Canadian label. This varied cd with ambient, electronics and industrial offers many surprises and has a strong tracklisting. It starts off with the strong and threatening ‘Through the Walls’ of the storming young talent on Brume Records, Propero. Hard hitting beats, but almost covered completely in a turmoil of noise and sounds. Dead man’s Hill is represented with the equally threatening ‘Heretics Look Downstairs’ which is a dark death industrial track and fits well into rest of the tracklisting. Casual Coincidence convinces with cold dark ambient. NöRV’s Icon VI ia again more rhythmical of character. Pneumatic Detach has delivered a drum ’n bass inspired piece of music with ‘.ryhim.ninept.’ Not bad, but not very convincing as well. Legion Ultra leans over towards digital hardcore with the raw and uncompromising power-industrial of ‘Mute’. Sedarka is according to ‘Mucus on Ice’ more at home in breakcore-noise. BeTON baRRAGE has delivered a cool noise track as well with ‘Devoured by Flies’. Cold Flesh Colony goes towards the direction of powernoise. ‘Hymn of Praise’ is a hypnotzing track. Scrap.edx is more dancable with rhythmic industrial. Iszoloscope takes this route even further. ‘A Deep Cthulu Terror’ is a heavy pounding rhythmic industrial breakbeat track. However, there is some detail and quality we are normally used of with Iszoloscope missing here. After this Asphalt Leash follows with ‘Something has Gone Terribly Wrong’ which again moves into noise waters, this time with drones. This also goes for Nitrous Flesh, which ends the compilation with two impressive ‘The Return of the Dark Angels’ tracks. Dark ambient drones that are quite interesting. A negative aspect of this compilation is the mastering which could have been done better. Yet, this is a nice compilation with various forms of industrial.
[7.5/10]
reviewer: TekNoir, March 2005
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wet-works e-zine
Born from the artistic mind of Bugs Crawling Out Of People founder Squid, "Revelation" is the first compilation from this new experimental label. The idea behind "Revelation" was quite simple - build music based on a short story written by Squid (which is included in the massive 16 page booklet). The result? 14 tracks that toe the line between Powernoise (Legion Ultra, bETON bARRAGE, Cold Flesh Colony, Asphalt Leash), Experimental (Dead Man's Hill) Dark Ambient (Casual Coincidence, NöRV, Nitrous Flesh), Rhythmic Noise (Pneumatic Detach, Prospero) and Breakcore (Sedarka).
While I wasn't thrilled with every track (Legion Ultra's "Mute" and Sedarka's mediocre Breakcore track "Mucus On Ice"), I did find quite a few I enjoyed immensely. For instance, Prospero's "Through The Walls," which transitions from Dark Ambient soundscapes of rumbling noise and strange radio samples to a full-on Powernoise piece with pounding percussion was nice (albeit a bit on the long side). bETON bARRAGE, Cold Flesh Colony and Asphalt Leash really contribute the gems of this release though. These bands really showcase the true meaning of what this compilation was really trying to portray - harsh, highly distorted, powerful Industrial music.
Bugs Crawling Out Of People at least seem to know the difference between Industrial music and distorted disco (although the out of place offering from Scrap.edx comes a little too close to the latter). In the end, "Revelation" is quite the mixed bag for experimental ears and a fine start for a label that seems to have focus and passion. Let's see what they do with it next.
reviewer: GunHed, feb 2005
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connexion bizarre
Included on this self-described apocalyptic compilation of industrial sounds are fourteen artistic interpretations of a short story penned by Bugs Crawling Out of People founder Squid. The story itself (which this author will only refer to as "gruesome" and certainly "imaginative") and accompanying original artwork are included in an extensive CD booklet. Depending upon how committed you are to fleshing out the concept behind this compilation, you may want to skip perusing the booklet's contents entirely and focus on the music alone.
"Revelation" seems to be off to a strong start with Prospero's "Through the Walls," but the initial desolate, slow-building momentum of the introduction is unfortunately squandered in the somewhat impotent pieces that immediately follow. I feel as though the album's progression as a whole is interrupted, not necessarily by the quality of these less energetic tracks, but by their placement. Later on for instance, excellent and well-positioned "interlude tracks" are provided by Asphalt Leash, bETON bARRAGE and Cold Flesh Colony. On the other hand, perhaps I was expecting the beginning momentum of "Revelation" to introduce harder, upbeat rhythms rather than just distorted drones and static noise.
With that in mind, the contribution of Pneumatic Detach at track five comes as a breath of fresh air. One of the compilation's outstanding tracks, ".ryhim.ninept." grabs your attention with cut-up, crunchy beats, heavy bass, and a nicely structured, unique rhythm progression. From that point onward, "Revelation" picks up the pace and really begins to make good its eschatological promises. Scrap.edx and Iszoloscope serve up some typically aggressive noisy fare, Sedarka adds impressive and originally jarring experimental IDM/industrial, and Nitrous Flesh offers an epic two-part closing piece suitable for the culmination of any apocalyptic vision.
As a final item of interest, several of the artists have included spoken samples of Squid's text in their contributions (several track titles are also taken from the story). Not only does this intertwine the dual inspirations of words and music, it also provides appropriately horrific glimpses of the doomed human voice drowning in a sea of unforgiving industrial noise, which is the ultimate goal of "Revelation."
[6/10]
reviewer: sandswept, jan 2005
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industrial.org
This first release by Canadian label Bugs Crawling Out Of People is unassuming to the point of being downright plain when viewed externally what with its muted greytone cover drawing, old school black plastic inset tray and minimalist typography. A looker this ain't though oddly enough the booklet once you open it up is much more visually appealing with a complete short story and accompanying drawings fleshing out its 16 pages. The prose inside is what apparently fuelled the audio revelations contained within and centers around some externalized loathing that smokes like an apocalyptic "Tokyo Fist" synopsis read by a foul mouthed schizophrenic.
This is a longish comp clocking in at just over 75 minutes with 14 tracks altogether ranging from 3 and a half to just shy of 7 minutes in length. It is a bit of a car crash stylistically with limbs of both pure industrial elements and dance scene influences flying in all directions. Thankfully, compared to a lot of the test audience straddling you hear on comps this one is actually pretty hard overall and very likely capable of causing arterial damage to those raised on a foofy diet of nothing but synth pop and electro. Metropolis Records this ain't.
One initial and serious concern that affects the entire release is an overly crispy (i.e. high end distortion) and hollow (i.e. weirdly scooped out EQ) mastering job. Some material fares worse than others but the treatment is anything but flattering and makes it difficult in some cases to tell whether it is the original material lacking in finesse or just the mastering job once again rattling your chain. Most of the low end has been filtered off which in particular steals from the cleaner and dancier material plus the high end crunch makes it seem like someone is crumpling up a chip bag beside your head and becomes progressively tiring as you work through the tracks. It's less noticeable if you are not using headphones or PC speakers but even on my decent Behringer Truths it's noticeably harsh (like it is being shouted at over the phone). It's too bad really as the material here deserves better.
Comps live or die on track arrangement and for the most part this flows pretty well with the only major hill to climb right at the start due to a longish, lack lustre opening from Prospero (a mediocre soundscape crammed into a slow moving cab with some uninspired powernoise does not a triumphant opening make). The only other major mar in my opinion is Scrap.edx's horrendously annoying "all those fucking eyes" which I would gladly stab out with a fork if I could get my hands on them - the absolute worst paint by numbers "powerhouse" I have had the displeasure of hearing repeatedly in long time. Really, if I had kids (don't worry, it ain't going to happen as I am fixed) this would be the magical track they could crank to annoy the fuck out of me (along with pop punk, house and reggae of course). As much as I despise this song it doesn't interfere with the overall flow and the skip button has happily become my new friend. One other surprise is the medicore showing from Iszoloscope who seems to have been doing to much E lately or watching too many exercise tapes . . . oonst oonst with the crappy mastering sprinkling purple aluminium foil bits over top to create a tacky, garish mess.
Nasty business out of the way, even with the sound quality being compromised there is still enough here to keep me interested. Betton Barrage may be a little standard issue as far as power electronics are concerned but bless their soot covered hearts if they don't still rip like Jack (Atrax Morgue duo-tone with Survival Unit watching their back). Quite ultra nasty and brutal with a deep red splurt shooting out somewhere near Control and Institut is Cold Flesh Colony. This track alone is worth the price of entrance and guarantees that they will be on my next round of music purchases. Asphalt Leash pull up with the next true bit of high mercury content industrial with the excellent harsh ambient / death industrial piece "something has gone terribly wrong". The sounds used for some reason remind me of older Seda E Marg though here they are more like a deadly series of grinding discs instead of rhythmically striking pile drivers. Very intense. Nitrous Flesh get two attempts to convince and mostly do so which is a good thing. Legion Ultra is as close to Sonar as a digital hardcore influenced act can get without cutting off the mohawk and this is I think the only case on the entire release where the sound quality does not overly detract since the lo-fi punk rock production fits fine with the style of music. NoRV (sorry, don't have time to look up the entity for umlaut) offers up some powernoise-ish minimalism which I like (think a more distorted Monoid) and Sedarka tear up their software manual and start kicking over algorithms with a cold FM wind breezing through nicely in spots.
My one line review would of course read "EBM sucks, industrial rules" so it should hopefully be clear where I lean and you can adjust your response accordingly. It is refreshing to see however that Bugs Crawling Out Of People's know the difference and while not 100% arse rupture this disc does actually understand what hard industrial means and at its best provides enough catharsis to completely calm down an enraged hockey parent. It's definitely a shame about the mastering however and hopefully this preview copy does not reflect the exact frequency layout of the final product.
reviewer: moron, dec 2004
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aural pressure
Bugs Crawling Out Of People is a label with an agenda; they believe that industrial music has decayed from an artistic form which said and meant something to a design aesthetic geared towards producing tunes that sound nice and work well on the dancefloor. This flagship sampler is at the forefront of their reaction against that, and as such is an entirely praiseworthy venture. But I'm not sure it holds up to analysis. A militant, transgressive aesthetic is still an aesthetic; 'nice' is subjective and that works both ways.
There is clearly a set of guiding design principles at work here too; there are common sonic themes running through all the tracks of harsh, abrasive noisiness (particularly Cold Flesh Colony), thunderous rhythmic intensity (Pneumatic Detach), creepy atmospherics (Casual Coincidence) or some or all of these together. This is not something that I can take issue with, being rather fond of all three. There's very little in the way of vocals throughout, as is customary with this sort of music nowadays, apart from some words from the included short story - a hypnagogic post-Lovecraft stream of consciousness - read over the Prospero and Iszoloscope tracks, and some barely-comprehensible shouting here and there. Pardon me for waxing literal, but it can be a little hard to say something without saying anything. A quick glance at the tracknames, which are after all the cheapest and easiest way to give instrumental tracks any semantic depth, doesn't reveal anything illuminating either.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Detached from any issues of meaningfulness or lack thereof, this is fundamentally a great collection of grinding industrial mayhem, with a nice mix of familiar and less familiar names, and a good balance between rhythmic noise-club hard-hitters (Scrap.edx), disturbing dronescapes (Asphalt Leash) and experiments in extremist electronica (Sedarka). But it's everything its label claims to be against. No-one here is trying to methodically free you from the psychological contraints imposed by society (like Throbbing Gristle were), to demonstrate that instruments can be made out of any objects or that music can be made out of any palette of sounds (see Einstürzende Neubauten and Nurse With Wound respectively), or to open your conscious and unsconscious minds to other, less concrete, modes of awareness (as in Coil and Psychic TV). Or if they are, they're being very subtle about it.
reviewer: ABC, jan 2005
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