News-Letter

While the term "industrial" may conjure up bleak images of PVC and fishnet-clad dark-siders writhing around in suspended cages, these notions should not at all be attached to the sort of innovative noise William Bennett's band Whitehouse have been producing for the last thirty years. Sure, three decades is ample time for any formula to grow stale, but Asceticists proves just as pleasurably abusive to the ears as anything you're likely to hear off contemporary noise labels such as Load Records.

That's not to say the cuts on this LP will leave you for dead in some pitch black, malevolent dentist's office like the straight-up power electronics of Bennett's compositions on 1981's Erector. For someone new to the band, Asceticists is surprisingly catchy, and will likely hold appeal for fans of later Einstürzende Neubauten or even The Fall. The irate electronic buzzing of "Language Recovery" isn't mere drone --- layers of searing static and computer-talk noises make this the most appropriate soundtrack to being lost and drugged-up in some apocalyptic Tokyo arcade I've heard in a long time. "Ruthless Babysitting" is another highlight from the seven-song LP, its lyrical inventory of attacks spewed out Fuhrer-style over a pummeling yet cohesive rhythm. These lyrics are representative of a psychological theory the band sometimes employs (neuro-linguistic programming, anyone?) to entrance and perhaps even persuade the listener into certain thoughts and obsessions. Whether or not this actually works, Bennet's cut-and-paste, roll-call lyrics on these tracks are undeniably compelling.

Harsh noise, power electronics or even industrial: Whatever you call them, for better or worse, Whitehouse have structured their usual clamoring din into a more palatable release which with enough publicity, is sure to introduce more fans into the band's excruciating, twisted and hazardous yet ultimately gripping psyche.

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