Published by Davide Pappalardo on January 20, 2018
Kollaps are an Australian industrial trio hailing from Melbourne, composed of Millar Teratoma, Robin W. Marsh, Wade Black. They are dedicated to a post-punk influenced industrial/noise sound, recalling (obviously, if we think about their name) early Einsturzene Neubauten, the hasher side of Foetus, and the more experimental pioneers of industrial and post-punk music.
In 2015 they have published their debut EP on cassette called Heartworm (Silken Tofu), characterized by a “punk” songwriting based on drums, bass, guitars, disfigured by a taste for deconstruction and unsettling fusions of organic and mechanical sounds. Now things go further with their first full length Sibling lovers, published by Silken Tofu and Trait Records. The harsh side of their sound has taken prominence, but the post-punk and guitar based moments are not gone, simply they are better integrated in an industrial soundscape with atonal and noisy elements.
The shrilling effects of Cancer open the album, soon reached by monotone, obsessive vocals, while Capitalism is the first “real” track on the work, a rhythmic industrial dirge with grave riffs and outer-worldly chants, in which post-rock and industrial-noise find a common ground made of tension. It has a mouth is a cacophonous power-electronics attack recalling Genocide Organ in its militant and monolithic delivery, Heartworm is a new version of the title track from their debut cassette EP, a crawling and dark ambient-tinged number with nervous but controlled sounds.
The album is closed by its own title track, a long post-punk march composed by looping rhythms and pressing drums, enriched by dark, distorted vocals and grave guitars. A fine way to end a work where menacing industrial vibes and post-punk darkness are one and the same, in a coherent and captivating sound.
Once again, a modern work in which elements of the past are taken and elaborated in a new vision. Dramatic soundscapes, grave sounds, obsessive and distorted rhythms are the weapon of choice in an eight-pieces album dominated by an oppressive and menacing atmosphere which hides the social-political undertones of the work, true to the tradition of the music it is influenced by. One band to keep a close eye on, for sure.
Label: Trait Records/Silken Tofu
Rating: 8