- Sean Eric McGill
The first album I ever bought by an "industrial" band was Front Line Assembly's Gashed Senses & Crossfire album back in 1989. Nobody else that I knew really liked it a whole helluvalot, and when pressed, I couldn't explain why I liked it. But there was something about that album that stuck with me.
Now, almost a decade later, Reclamation comes across my desk. And while the phrase "Greatest Hits Album" tends to conjure up memories of .38 Special more than it does dance/industrial acts, that's essentially what Reclamation is: a trip through roughly a decade of some of the best industrial music.
When Front Line Assembly first hit the scene in the late eighties, "industrial" was still exactly what the name suggested. But in the case of Front Line Assembly, Front 242, and Skinny Puppy, it wasn't the reliance on machinery that defined industrial; it was the overall sound. Early industrial was cold and distant - the music was what you could envision being created by a character from a William Gibson novel. There was a human underneath all that machinery, but the voice wasn't so much human anymore as it was the machine's.
Tracks like "Digital Tension Dementia" and "No Limit" are instantly recognizable to those of us who frequented alternative dance clubs in the early nineties, but alas, it was about that time that the world of rock radio lured me into its steel grasp and I more or less lost all touch with the industrial scene for quite some time. And that's a shame, because I missed other great songs on the album like "Provision" and "Mindphaser". Of course, those of us from the United States (without easy access to import albums) have missed a few tracks on this album altogether. "Heatwave" , "Target" , and Mark Staggs "Pro-gress" Remix of "The Blade" are available for the first time in the U.S. on this compilation.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Reclamation is the chance to hear how the sound of Front Line Assembly stayed essentially the same, despite a decade of recording and numerous personnel changes. This isn't to say that the group didn't progress in their skills - but you can always tell a Front Line Assembly song when you hear it. Even now, I can't describe what it is, but I do so like it.
