Pinionist’s “Machinations” is Electro-Industrial Beauty

Search Twitter for “Free+ Album” and you will uncover a host of goodies that only come to those seeking for the “magnificent random.” One such example is Pinionist’s 3rd album “Machinations” (released July 2009) which is available for free on his own website, and which, on first listen, led me to exclaim: “Holy hell!!!!! I never expected anyone doing industrial stuff this well to release it for free!”

“Machinations” is 12 tracks (a glorious 46 minutes and 19 seconds) of some of the heaviest electro-industrial rock I’ve heard this side of Nine Inch Nails and 1990s-era Ministry. For the most part, the tracks flow seamlessly into one another creating an immense texture of heavy noise.

Tracks like the album opener aptly entitled “Torture” bring menace back into the industrial mix, pitting groaning drums with guitar distortion that fills you with that warm fuzzy feeling called fear. Track 4 “Social Abortion” even mixes in a little pop bounciness into the mix along with ten-foot walls of noise. “Escalation” starts out with a plucked guitar ballad but apropos of the title, quickly leaps into headbanging mode by the one-minute mark. Title track “Machinations” melts from a post-punk rhythmic piledriver into a slower grind.  “This Means Nothing to Me” is a nightmare lullaby with an anthemic mantra for this humanistic society we live in.

The album is a brilliant noise in the bland silence of our world of plastic pop idols. Pinionist (AKA Stuart Spoard) is vocalist, composer, arranger, and a genius at his art.  Download it now.

DETAILS
12 MP3s at 320 kbps stereo 44.1 kHz.

Download all files in one zip file: Machinations

Pinionist’s website.

Moaner Lisa’s industrial guitarmonica in “Bac-Up!”

Moaner Lisa - Bac-Up!

Roots. We all go back to them sooner or later. California-based electronica producer LightSleep3r returns to his own rock roots with his Moaner Lisa side project. His debut single as Moaner Lisa is “Bac-Up!” released on the fledgling StickySweetSounds (SSS) Records. It is three versions of a single industrial tune.

Track one incorporates a rollicking rock instrumental before launching into the main song, Bac-Up, which is a simple, no-frills industrial rock track, reminiscent of early God Lives Underwater and Filter. The main guitar/bass riff rumbles along atop a drum track that shows little variation — but you gotta love the distorted harmonica solo. Track two fits the song with an ’80s new wave arrangement (an alternate version arranged and performed in the style of his first band in the late 1980s, Colloidal Mixtures). Is that The Fixx, I hear in there? I think so too. And then track three returns to the original tune except with some dirty vinyl and distorted vocal effects. All in all, a catchy tune, done with perfectly snarly vocals and made better with distorted harmonica.

When he sings “it’s good to be back,” before proceeding to “dance like hell,” I must wholeheartedly agree.

LINKS

Download the entire single on one zip file.

Moaner Lisa’s MySpace page.

SSS Records netlabel home page. SSS Records on MySpace.