LAB REPORT unhealthy (Invisible)

I must admit I didn't think this would be all that impressive. What with an oh-so industrial layout featuring top billing of two celeb contributors to only two of the CD's eight tracks, a certain Genesis P. Orridge and Lydia Lunch. But the noise is real (if more or less ambient) and throbs and pulses like it couldn't care less. It's pretty removed from the softcore techno I pegged it to be. There's lots of carried tones and subtle background texturing, maybe a bit like Severed Heads, nothing too out there. And the aforementioned stars' involvement doesn't interrupt the hypnotic density of the samples entirely; Lydia sounds like a b-movie evangelist while Genesis is the self-absorbed shaman. The two central members of Lab Report, Matthew Shultz and Eric Pounder, are wise to avoid talking themselves. The frequencies are more effective without implying any recognizable meaning. They melt brains quicker. (Franz Kunst)