| UNITUS Cross Contamination |
There are a number of ways for an artist to deal with hopelessness and despair. S/he can turn it into a condemnation of evil, or a testament to human survival. S/he can attach the obligatory Hollywood Happy Ending, or follow Greek tragedy's grim path toward defeat. S/he can even use the ironic distance of "Camp" to transmute suffering into a "Hand-Stapled-to-Forehead" fashion statement. Daniel Ross, recording as UNITUS, has chosen a different tack altogether. Surrounded by smooth, bland darkness, Ross has looked squarely into the wasteland which is today's city -- and today's synthpop scene. His reply, Cross Contamination is harsh as a shopping-mall shooting, a celebration/indictment of modern culture and a reminder of Industrial music's potential raw power. In 1913 Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo wrote of "... the sounds of water, air, or gas in metal pipes, the purring of motors ) which breathe and pulsate with indisputable animalism), the throbbing of valves, the pounding of pistons, the screeching of gears, the clatter of streetcars on their rails, the cracking of whips, the flapping of awnings and flags." (If you call yourself an Industrial fan, yet haven't yet heard of Russolo, then get thee hence to Luigi Russolo and the Art of Noise without further delay!) Cross Contamination shows that Ross has learned the art of transforming grind-into-groove. The tight riff which underpins "Obmutecre" charges through the crumbling landscape like Cthulhu looking for a snack, while in "Cable Winder" a heavy guitar line rumbles forward on a bed of pumping machines and whipcrack percussion. Despair transformed into beauty has been a staple, and a stereotype, since Poe was in diapers. Despite the brutality and dissonance, Cross Contamination has some moments of eerie, mournful grandeur. "Metal to Ashes" strings sampled machine noises together into a hypnotic requiem, while "Recombinant" recasts screeches and caterwauls into atonal fanfares. It is not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination, but neither is it unrewarding. Many "hardcore" artists wallow in noise-for-the-sake-of-noise. The better ones -- artists like Ross -- understand that Industrial music should not only destroy outdated aesthetics, but should create something new in their place. At its best, Cross Contamination has the beauty of a Deco skyscraper, or of Rotwang's robot in Metropolis. If you're looking for an introduction to Noise, or for an alternative to "alternative" music, this might well be a good start. It's challenging stuff -- I reviewed this CD in fifteen-minute shifts to avoid headaches, nausea and irritability -- but it's well-crafted. I wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart or eardrums ... but it's got a good beat and most of the time you can dance to it. All aspects of composition and execution carried out by Daniel Ross 1. Obmutecre DTrash Records Online |