Published by Davide Pappalardo on August 6, 2018
Caustic Grip is the solo old-school EBM/electro industrial project of Australian artist Scud Viney (one half of EBM project Deader, the other one being Lou Ellen Cormick) dedicated to enthralling tunes inspired by 80’s sound. Expect groovy bass-lines, steady drum machines and a DIY production recalling the first days of the genre. After some singles released digitally on his bandcamp page, he now collects the first set of 4 tracks (plus a bonus live version of one of them, and a cover of Replicant by Covenant) in Volume I, released both in digital, both as a strictly limited cassette edition of 20 copies. Here he showcases his love not just for Front Line Assembly, as the name could suggest, but for a plethora of pioneers in the field of EBM music. You will find hints of Cabaret Voltaire, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, and not just rigid rhythms. A certain “funk” is always behind the corner, as well as synth melodies, cold vocals and groovy lines.
Burn sees the collaboration of Veronica Sawyer on vocals (who helped with the artwork too), offering a pulsating intro underlined by crawling rhythms then subdued by more energetic patterns and old-school shouted vocals. The evocative development of the track, full of ghostly refrains and body-music attacks, is a perfect representation of Caustic Grip’s music, employing analog synths and robust beats, as well as frantic bass-lines and well placed cyber-melodies. Dredge starts with broken rhythms at its beginning, while throbbing bass-lines and 4/4 drum machines conquer the scene preparing the episode an incursion in the territory of Digital Tension Dementia-era Front Line Assembly. Emotions engulf the listener thanks to suave choruses and enthralling synth-sounds. In the cassette edition we find a live rendition with more of a raw and spontaneous quality, but at the same time keeping all the main elements of the episode.
Hollow offers microbrute lines ala DAF and Cabaret Voltaire’s dancing moments, recalling alternative dancefloors of the past. Charming vocals and well crafted grooves are once again the agents of a trip in nostalgia, indulging in retro rides and syncopated rhythmic patterns. Downward uses minimal drums
and synth-vortexes, generating an instrumental mantra with a hypnotizing stream of sounds with an almost acid quality. This time we could talk about mid-90’s Front 242 and their technoid experiments, in an adventurous track expanding the palette used by the Australian musician. Replicant sees again the help of Veronica Sawyer on vocals, giving us a nice cover version which focuses on rhythms and synth-grooves, while keeping the atmospheric and eerie aspects of the original, as well as its captivating refrain.
Volume I works perfectly as a love letter to the robotic yet eerie and evocative atmospheres of old-school EBM, influenced at the same time by the European and the Canadian school of the genre. Melancholic synth-lines, groovy bass-lines, cold but soulful vocals, rhythmic patterns guide us among tracks recalling the past with a convincing attitude and a proper songwriting. It seems this is just a first collection in a series of cassette which will be released collecting the tracks he will release on digital in the meantime. We can already perceive a more focused songwriting in the first tracks of this cassette, chronologically newer, so we can’t be no curious about his further evolution. A promising new name.
Label: self-released
Rating: 7