Mechanical Christ, the demoralizing second LP by Australian post-industrial trio, KOLLAPS, is out this Friday through long-running UK-based Cold Spring Records. As the record’s street date looms, BrooklynVegan is giving the public an advance listen to the entire album with an exclusive stream.
A seven-song journey into the desperation and lack of resolve that is both the crux of modern social ills and at the very heart of the human condition, Mechanical Christ delivers seven tracks of blistering harsh noise akin to acts such as Swans, Whitehouse, Khanate, and Pharmakon. The album was recorded and mixed over a two-month period at Aviary Studios by Mike Deslandes, except “Ankara” which was recorded, mixed, and produced by the band’s Wade Black. The tracks were mastered by James Plotkin at Plotkinworks (Khanate) and the record completed with photography by Kazimierz Zdzieblo and design by Ligeia Black.
Issues the members of KOLLAPS with the album stream, “We experimented with time constraints on Mechanical Christ with the intention of creating stress upon ourselves and having this translate into an atmosphere of friction and discord. The pressures of this process inflamed our natural inclinations towards self-loathing and successfully gave the album a feeling of suffocation and anxiety.”
BrooklynVegan offers, “As you may expect from a band named after an Einsturzende Neubauten album, KOLLAPS make industrial/noise in a way that’s abrasive but not unapproachable. The album’s lyrically bleak, and in addition to making use of traditional bass, vocals, and percussion, the trio used things like scrap metal and raw plastics to aid the confrontational sound.”
Explore and endure Mechanical Christ from KOLLAPS at BrooklynVegan RIGHT HERE.
Mechanical Christ will see release on CD, LP, and digital formats via Cold Spring Records this Friday, May 3rd. Find preorders and more info HERE, and see the video for “Fleshflower” RIGHT HERE.
KOLLAPS is working on a large European tour for later in the year, including their announced participation in Tower Transmissions VIII in Dresden, Germany on September 20th with Lydia Lunch, MZ.412, Burial Hex, and more. In the meantime, the band continues to book shows regionally surrounding the release of Mechanical Christ. Watch for tour updates in the weeks ahead.
KOLLAPS Live:
9/20/2019 Tower Promotions – Dresden, DE @ Tower Transmissions VIII w/ Lydia Lunch, MZ.412, Burial Hex [info]
KOLLAPS creates a unique brand of primitive noise “intended for degenerates and outsiders,” as per the members. The band’s distinctive primordial tones are created using appropriated waste materials like scrap metal, raw plastics, and steel plates, combined with blistering percussion, bass, and vocals. This is no empty “industrial” gesture; for the band, this process of creation facilitates the literal use of postmodern society against itself.
Mechanical Christ KOLLAPS is a conceptual continuation of its predecessor, Sibling Lovers. The LP sees KOLLAPS further their exploration of the inherent societal sickness of our times, one that manifests itself in the debasement of individual morality. Themes of exploitation, vengeance, drug addiction, paranoia, and slave labor are part of a dissonant, inverted morality play. Testament to the band’s evolving conceptual depth are the overarching themes of love, life, and death, which offer a sense of shared experience in the discomfort of the universal human experience. Known for their violent and nihilistic stage performances, this recording encapsulates with harsher clarity the visceral confrontation that is the KOLLAPS live act.
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