The early ’90s were heaven for people like us. Postage was low, CDs became accessible in production, vinyl plants weren’t occupied by Adele or Taylor Swift, and people in the scene felt the urge to make statements. Statements of the kind where you were not afraid of possible consequences or retaliations connected to it. So music-wise, when it came to the underground or alternative scene, those were the days of Cold Meat Industry, Ant-Zen (both still active albeit in a different form) and Slaughter Productions. This last one was the brainchild of Italian-born Marco Corbelli, who we also knew as Atrax Morgue, A prolific, highly creative, sincere, beautiful and sadly also troubled artist who we lost – 37 years young – in 2007.
Slaughter Productions was his label, and he gave people a platform where others may be held back a bit. Not afraid to touch subjects like murder, necrophilia and alienation combined with styles like death-industrial, power electronics, harsh noise and dark ambient, the Slaughter roster gave birth to excellent releases, one of which EVERYBODY should have because of its meaning to the development of ‘our’ scene, being the “Death Odors”-sampler. I got that album in ’94, and it was how I heard of Megaptera, Shee Retina Stimulants, Atom Infant Incubator and (my personal favourite) Deaf Machine. So reading that Tribe Tapes was re-releasing three of the old Slaughter Tapes to CD, I was like… Damn, So good to see Marco’s spirit still living on and still having people paying respect and honour to the guy that did so much for us.
In 1995 Dead Body Love did three releases with Slaughter Productions. Two solo releases, of which “Prayers For The Sick” is one, and an untitled split with Atrax Morgue which in 2016 was put to vinyl by Urashima. And Gabriele Giuliani recorded and released even more in that incredible summer of ’95 because he must have felt bad in those days. The noise of unknown origin splatters from your speaker in “Hammerhead Blues”. Spoiler alert: Not one single blues-related sound was used in the production of this track. Though the general feeling of blues, a.k.a. feeling blue, oppressed, abused, etc, might be part of the misery thrown upon the listener. But it’s only 10 minutes long, still 50 minutes left. “Murder Obsession” is the second track, 20 minutes in length and something completely different. Deep droney layers, which – with a slow rhythm and some vocals – would be the most sincere death industrial possible. It sounds so meticulously on the edge of feedback, with looped pedals (I think) in full control of the artist. He knows what he’s doing and how this obsession has to sound.
The closing track of this album is “Electromasturbatorfailure” 30 minutes of… well … Electronic wanking? The track opens with a rhythm / looped sample or sound, which could indicate a certain manual movement. Then, on top of the looped background, more aggressive sounds and layers are positioned, and the whole rhythm becomes a hypnotic structure, A mechanical, loveless but ‘can’t stop listening’ thing. But around 11 minutes, it gets sped up, and the growling becomes more irritated and louder, and it builds up to the 18-minute mark, where the looped is slowed down again and then put into a chaotic equilibrium. And if the description sounds weird, just get that CD and play it loud. You’ll know what a ‘chaotic equilibrium’ is by then. Massive.
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