V/A :: Terminal Operations 01 (Terminal Operations)

A young upstart, Terminal Operations, comes from this landscape of forgotten factory floors and raw rage.

I’ve mentioned, over the last few techno centric reviews, about the blackening of the genre. Industrial tones looming large, sooted synths and punishing percussion. A young upstart, Terminal Operations, comes from this landscape of forgotten factory floors and raw rage.

Kuno, of Berceuse Heroique fame, opens the 12” with the ragged edges of “Tactical Deception.” The track is steeped in distortion, bulging bass giving way to crunched claps. A bitter and jagged melody begins to take hold; see-sawing synthlines bend and blister under the Berliner’s hand. Those same assembly line sounds are carried by Fallbeil. Fresh from their recent appearance on Contort Yourself the aggression of “Direkte Gewalt” is carved from crooked chords and clattering drums. Vocals are driven past hoarse and into deathly dirge, a septic screech doling out pain and suffering through the choke of a 303. The other two denizens of the 12” are new names, new to me anyway. Spaceinvasion is the co-founder of this fledgling Berlin imprint and continues the less than civilized audio dialogue. Rancid acid bleeds and blooms behind a clashing rhythmic cacophony. Neuspotter NS465 debuts to close with “1.18.” Perhaps the least brutalized of the 12” the track staggers keys with some extra whack being provided by boiled beats.

This is electronic music polluted by punk, but polluted in a good way. Doom and sludge corrupted music that refuses to play nice. Dented, dinged and dirty this is the kind of record that won’t ask questions, it won’t argue, it will simply pull a knife and go for the jugular.

Terminal Operations 01 is available on Terminal Operations.