CD, Ant-Zen, 2009
www.100-blumen.de
This latest release in an interesting career of industrial music is just another stepping stone in 100blumen’s campaign to, in their words, “destroy western civilisation with the burning beats of rhythmic noise!”
And if that doesn’t tell you all you need to know, then stop right here.
Stylistically, 100blumen may come across as just another pounding dance machine on overdrive, but repeated listenings bear fruit, as the music and concepts behind the crushing beats make their presences felt. 2008’s “Floral annihilation” was fun (the entire idea of murderous post-industrial anarchic neo-hippies is hugely diverting), but “Down with the system, long live the system” manages, between all the distorted percussion, to squeeze in aspects of alternative (and eccentric) influences. These include the trance-like repetition that slowly withers away your consciousness like an anti-mantra on “Tired Green”, or the use of guitars (courtesy of new live member, Chris van Blumen) to enforce the punk-like drive on “Klimaveränderung” – an awesome end to a massive album.
Sadly, there is only so much texturing and filtering that can be overlaid on percussion-based music before it descends into the realm of the unintelligible. 100blumen teeter precariously on that edge, but nevertheless deliver a stomping set of club pieces that easily hold their own against their many contemporaries on “Down with the system, long live the system!”
[7.5/10]
— David vander Merwe