I'd never heard Leech Woman's music before, so I put my Google powers to work while listening to this remix disc. After thirty seconds, I gave up, as I feared that nothing could possibly surpass the quality of what I was experiencing. Let me explain.
Uncertainty Device #26573 is what would happen if Ministry actually took the plunge into the noisy territories they hint at on some of their instrumentals. Leech Woman is the band that Alec Empire could have started if he'd spent a little more time on the music and corrected his offensive mixing techniques (just because he did it on purpose, doesn't make it less irritating).
THe album fuses hardcore, industrial, punk, grindcore and other noisy styles into a nasty, spiky mass, and offers something that's surprisingly inviting -- depending on your tolerance of pain, that is. Though Noize Punishment's take on "Tool" will prepare you for the rest of the disc, only a steady diet of Wolf Eyes or Merzbow could prepare anyone for its sonic punishment. A droning white-hot bell starts the riot, then gives way to an equally powerful bass rumble and a mix of synthetic and acoustic drums; it makes "When the Levee Breaks" seem like a lullaby. The vocals, chanting "I stay awake, I will not sleep", only add to the chaos -- and then it actually gets louder. Trust me when I say that you've never heard guitars like this, or a mix this physically loud. However, the disc was somehow mastered in-between two worlds: it reflects the impending doom of Leech Woman's sonic assault, but ensures that you can still hear all elements of the holocaust on plastic -- all the timbres of percussion and all the colors of the distorted rainbow.
"Breaker", remixed by Ambassador 21, gives a nod to Einstürzende Neubauten, demonstrating Leech Woman's penchant for perverting acoustic and "found" instruments according to their will. Clanking oil can "drums" serve as the backdrop to pummeling guitars, jet engine samples and a monstrous men's choir shouting "I am nothing (like you)." Schizoid's version of "Knucklehate" relents a bit, but only compared to what you've heard so far. A stripped-down ensemble of beatbox and pervasive, moody atmospheres carries the vocals, which come off like a slam poet burning at the stake. "Solid State" (Total Output) follows a similarly minimal path, adhering to a drum 'n' bass model of break beats and sub-bass tones, but holding onto the album's prevailing gloom via maniacal guitars and screaming vocals. Exitboy takes the garage band approach to his version of "Cardinal"; it's a piece that you could imagine being played in a live setting, with the band members exiting the set covered in bruises and blood.
Out of 18 tracks (plus the obligatory "mystery" track and four tracks of silence/subliminal Satanic messages), you'd be hard pressed to find a lemon; as any that seem like also-rans turn out to be sleepers, usually on the very next listen.
Wasp Factory claims that Leech Woman is "the first UK band since Throbbing Gristle coined the term 'industrial' to fully re-embody the aesthetic," and you should believe it. After just a few days of Uncertainty Device #26573, I'm having a hard time going back to anything in my library I thought of as "challenging" and "hardcore". Now, back to that Google search...
