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Regis - Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss (2LP)Downwards

¥4,778

Finally, Regis lets his rhythmic noise opus out into the world, a bruising and hauntingly absorbing new album - his first since 2001 - recorded in Berlin with Einstürzende Neubauten’s engineer/producer Boris Wilsdorf and an absolute must if you want a dose of highest grade industrial rhythmic noise or into anything from British Murder Boys to Test Department, Jeff Mills and Cabaret Voltaire. On a masterful twenty-year followup to ‘Penetration’, Karl O’Connor yields a definitive solo LP that distills his passions for sonic brutalism and bastardised Chicago tracks with syncopated UK swagger and reverberating warehouse ballistics. Its lip-bitingly gripping effect is testament to a resounding reputation as one of Industrial music’s most influential producers, and sees the artist bring his own influences - from Test Department to Jeff Mills - into line with his potent palette of narcotised tones. Recorded in Berlin with Einstürzende Neubauten’s producer/engineer Boris Wilsdorf, the album’s supple, spartan, and rhythmic gymnastics notably benefit from acres of icy room to roll around and lash out. Snagged around muscular bassline revs, and caressed with keys and vocals by post- punk catalyst Annie Hogan (whose recent turn for Downwards was a total revelation), the 9 tracks portray Regis at his leanest and most mesmerising, which is all the more impressive coming from an artist who’s deliberately held his line through Industrial mutations for more than 30 years. Between the razor-sharp electro of ‘Everything is Ahead of Us’, and the pure voodoo of ‘Calling Down A Curse’, he sharply carves a uniquely UK and shark-eyed style that lets on to influence from tech-step D&B and dark garage rolige as much as Test Department’s seminal ‘Beating The Retreat’ or 23 Skidoo and ‘Crackdown’-era Cabaret Voltaire. Highlights such as the swingeing 11 minutes of swordplay drums and bubbling acid in ‘The Sun Rose Pure’, and the straightjacketed funk of ‘I See Fire’ epitomise the rudeness at play, and together with the viscerally personalised sound design virtues of ‘Another Kind of Love’, the immaculate noirish vignette ‘Alone of All Her Sex’, and the lush tristesse evoked by ‘Eros in Tangiers’, this album effectively defines Regis as peerless in his field, and is essential to fans of the artist’s solo classics and with British Murder Boys, Sandwell District, Ugandan Speed Trials and CUB. KILLER!!!

The Wolfgang Press - A 2nd Shape (LP)Downwards

¥5,198

Formed from the ashes of Rema-Rema and Mass in the early '80s, The Wolfgang Press were originally a trio of bassist and vocalist Michael Allen, keyboardist Mark Cox and guitarist Andrew Gray. They were one of 4AD's longest-running acts, and shifted from pitch-black, industrial-tinged post-punk in their early years to funky, hip-hop-inspired avant-dance as they stepped into the '90s. But since '94's 'Funky Little Demons' they've been relatively quiet. There was a compilation of unreleased career-spanning material mostly penned by Allen and Gray released in 2020, but 'A 2nd Shape' is the first all-new gear from the duo in almost 30 years, with Gray's brother Stephen replacing Cox on keys. It's a fitting move for Downwards too; not only do The Wolfgang Press neatly straddle the label's musical poles, but the band's '88 high point 'Bird Wood Cage' is an enduring favourite of Karl O'Connor.

'A 2nd Shape' reflects The Wolfgang Press's output up to and including that touchstone - the soulful, sampledelic mood of 'Queer' (and it's popular single 'A Girl Like You') is nowhere to be found. Allen's signature dubbed-out basslines are front and centre on 'The Garden of Eden', booming over gnarled synths and a blitzed, slo-mo drum machine - the bleakness of 'The Burden of Mules' is latent, but sliced into bits by discordant feedback and dissociated FX. The band have always been hyper aware of contemporary musical developments, and it sounds as if they're offering a corrective here in a landscape pocked by post-punk pretenders. On '21st Century', Allen snarls knowingly over menacing oscillations: "The 21st century can tell you who you are, can tell you what you're thinking." The music's not a remnant of the past, but a way for The Wolfgang Press to acknowledge their tenure while peering into tomorrow.

'Take It Backwards' is the album's most direct post-punk stomper, it's got all the hallmarks you'd expect to find - reverberating guitars, resonant bass, ice-cold synths - but sounds as if it's been infected with modern paranoia. If the trio's early run was marked by inky depression, their new material sounds just as umbral, but far more self-assured. "The future has been set to one side," Allen deadpans on 'Rest Your Mind', slurring over horizontal drums and fuzzy clouds of electronics. They might have lost their appetite for funk, but The Wolfgang Press's claws have never sounded so razor sharp - 'A 2nd Shape' is the rarest of comeback albums, one that captures the OG magic without a shred of pastiche or a trace of repetition.

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