Ozone Bandits - We've Come For Your Atmosphere mp3 album

Remember the adage "Power Corrupts - Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" - more than an element of truth? And from past experience - we know our politicians to be utterly corrupt, and yet we still vote for them still have faith in them, expect them to give a damn for the rest of Mankind & their own decedents? Why not face it - these are the Last Days Of Earth - let's have one f**k of a big party & blow what's left of the Earth's chronically depleted resources. And yet ... and yet there are small voices - nagging little voices of conscience & reason, wearing away at an almost subliminal level within the corruption-feathered nests of our beloved leaders - moral mites - eco-doom-mongering bugs who through attrition are willing to fight the Good fight against the defilers we have been programmed to respect as being Right. And who will win? In history Might has always won over Mite, yet we can all live in hope .... The OZONE BANDITS' music falls more or less into the category I'd describe as 'Trad Industrial' - pure noise with much distortion & little or no beat, yet they are moving, consciously or not, towards the kind of noiseworks heard on the classic "Mouvements" album. Indeed, most of these tracks could fit alongside the likes of UN DRAME MUSICAL INSTANTANE, DE FABRIEK, BRUME, ZOVIET FRANCE etc without looking out of place. The 'A' side opens with the title track "We've Come For Your Atmosphere", opening on spidery synth jingle while machine-like sounds fade in out of the ether. Nerve-jangling sounds - harpsichord chords and seemingly disconnected trills break in here & there, all growing in a shapeless fugue. It concludes in a sudden ragged break, giving way for "The Black Pain". This track opens on warm washes of synth chords before a cluttering rhythm, as played on a string of small animal bones, breaks into the mood, changing it momentarily before itself becoming an uneasy mood, jingling along as other percussive sounds join in, synth specks dot around the background & sounds - almost biological - peep through between the 'chinks'. "When The Air's All Gone" rises on a more passive machine sound - strange breathy anti-beat, deep-set marimbas?, violin rising in dramatic sadness, painting a picture of depressing hopelessness. Actually this reminds me a little of the instrumental music someone like A.J.P. TAYLOR would use to compliment the visual pictures of total devastation during the war. "A Message From The Bandits" is a sustained machine sound with a wet, bubbling backdrop and distorted voice changing into something a lot less easy to discern - warping machine sounds honed to a passive wave, backward echoes and disconnected sounds bring to mind at times early TG, although this is a lot less threatening. The 'B' side opens with "Funeral Dance Party", a deep, atmospheric beat sounds about ½ a mile off, following the similar simplistic-but-effective beat of "Discipline" while harpsichord-sounds and xylophone-like sounds shiver. The beat breaks down allowing the weird fractured piano rhythm liberty. "Empty Lizard" is a heavy & convincing Ethnic piece, which would stand well beside such people as O YUKI CONJUGATE, VASILISK & MUSLIMGAUZE (another from that classic LLDV album mentioned above). This rhythm however is more African, has much noise going on in the background, all adding atmosphere. As it draws towards it's conclusion more synthetic noises join in, gathering, masking, following the wonderful rhythm, scraping against, flowing with this great feast of what I take to be marimba. "The Long Fight Back" crashes in on smashed sounds - not harsh, but distorted in both sound & construction. This sounds more like the previous OZONE BANDITS' tape - "The Shifting" - ie along the lines of ANOTHER HEADACHE, but splitting off, going towards more dramatic, less trancey soundwaves, shimmering pools of noise, all threatening to rip apart. The next part bursts in on a wave of harsh feedback, then portrays (I imagine) a scene of traffic chaos - cars bumper-to-bumper, police whistling ineffectually, an image right out of BEN ELTON's "Gridlock". This fades back, changing again, swelling with sound, transforming, metamorphosing through huge walls of silver sound, amusement arcade noises and more. "Death Rattle" is a huge barrage of noise, purporting to be a rhythm, although it is almost too dense to tell. It's a far better album than the last, although as a debut it was impressive. With this sort of quality, the OZONE BANDITS should start thinking of a more permanent medium for the next release. Get into their music now, before the world consumes them. Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.