41 minutes, 37 seconds

Manufacture
Voice of World Control

Kind of a nostalgic recording to listen to--it harkens back to the days when the only two major industrial labels were Nettwerk, out of Vancouver, and Wax Trax!, in Chicago. What a long time ago that now seems. In any case, Manufacture released only two albums (both in 1990) and then called it quits or disappeared or got jobs or whatever else kids do after starting a band.

Their first disc, Terrorvision, gained them minor notoriety because it featured the guest vocals of one Sarah McLachlan, then at the dawn of her multi-platinum career, on the song "As the End Draws Near." Voice of World Control sees Bel Canto vocalist Anneli Drecker lending her services to the track "Running Mad." Both are great songs, and it's a shame there aren't more like them on either disc.

Yet even the more identifiably "industrial" tracks on the two albums are solid--Brian Bothwell and Perry Geyer, the nucleus of Manufacture, had a sure hand with the sampler and used unusual source material to help them create music that holds your interest even as it moves your body.

The only missteps, really, come on Voice of World Control. "New Decisions" and "Control Yourself" add yet another guest vocalist, this time songwriter and singer Nigel Butler. The result are two ill-advised, insipid, sub-Depeche Mode electro-pop songs that would have been better left on the mixing-room floor.

So the inevitable question: Where are they now? Bothwell is apparently a photographer in New York, and Geyer is a music producer in Boston. Good for them--at least they're still working in creative fields. As opposed to, say, writing marketing materials for the World's Most Boring Software Company. Which reminds me that I should get back to work now.

Also today:

41:36 Haven, The Last Breath of Lonely Buildings
41:36 Run Level Zero, In Between
41:36 Sophia, Deconstruction of the World
41:32 Cocteau Twins, Four-Calendar Café
41:31 Evil's Toy, XTC Implant
41:27 Lisa Gerrard, Whalerider
41:27 Nature and Organisation, Death in a Snow Leopard Winter
41:25 Karjalan Sissit, Karjalan Sissit
41:24 Doubting Thomas, Father Don't Cry
41:22 Rukkanor, Deora (CD 1 of 2)
41:21 Cdatakill, Valentine