2CD, Pflichtkauf, 2002
www.pflichtkauf.de
Personally, I find this compilation to be a great showcase of the “state of the art” of experimental, noise and industrial music, in a double-CD compilation. It’s not even particularly unbalanced, considering the disparity between some of the bands present at the 2002 edition of the Maschinenfest festival and that the track listing pretty much follows the band line-up at the festival.
For those well-versed in this kind of music this compilation probably doesn’t bring many news apart from a couple of new upcoming or (even more than usual) obscure bands and eventually new material from established acts being probably worth more as a festival memento. Nevertheless, it is particularly good for those new (or mostly ignorant) to industrial noise, as the diversity of the bands and music presented clearly shows that industrial noise isn’t just ‘noise’ and in some cases even crosses over to more mainstream music styles (music by Panacea and Klinik comes to mind).
As would be expected with any good compilation, this one also features a few “exclusive” tracks that were not featured anywhere else (and probably won’t be), like song versions that didn’t make it to the final album, remixes and live recordings.
[8/10]
— Miguel de Sousa