Andi Sexgang

Opening with "The International Third Position," a strange mix of techno-meets-minimal-meets-industrial, which sounds as if the duo from Suicide found themselves being stretched inside a taffy maker for close to seven minutes, this CD from Andi Sex Gang explores a variety of ideas with some of those ideas hitting and some missing. Recorded and mixed by Ragnar at Eaglehaus and UFO Studios in Berlin, the album title alone, Inventing New Destruction, should tell you that the "musical" movements are meant to reflect things falling apart more than things being put together. "Rhineland Barbie" is like some dark soundtrack to the Little Rascals in danger at an amusement park, methodical, slow, and quasi-eerie while "Optidog (A Certain Kind of Silence)" is Gothic spoken word with oozing organ from Ragnar and Matthew Saw's bass and voice kept to the bare minimum. One can hear Lou Reed's "Berlin" (the song) being mimicked, not only the first two words to Reed's title track but a little nod to that gem on the keyboard as well. Try playing "Kamikaze Beauty" on your CD player while cranking up another selection from the disc, "Sick Kicks" on MySpace, and listen to it all fit like hand in a glove. There are 12 selections including an "edit bonus" of "Dust and Death," this one with more production and a minute and a half longer than the more hollow five-minute version that is track four. It works better in its shorter, more polished rendition. "Hasenschwanz" was definitely written to annoy and could be an aural impression of the film Eraserhead -- at least it evokes the same uneasy feeling that the movie generates. On the other hand there's pop excitement in "Celebrate!" that emerges as the most listenable, and thus commercial, cut on the disc. It could be the Buzzcocks in a keyboard blender (as opposed to the aforementioned taffy stretching machine) and this construction of a song is far more entertaining than the intentional "destruction" at play. "Celebrate!" should have been the opening track and stands apart as a true diamond in the rough. "King Richard in the Heartland" could be five Kraftwerk albums being played at once with vocals put over the result. The solo career of Andi Sex Gang is seemingly more prolific than his band, Sex Gang Children, packing a number of releases into the new millennium. Inventing New Destruction is interesting to a point, but even the most hardcore gothic/industrial freak can only take so much. "When humans lack power, those in power lack humanity" is written inside the spine of the CD and there's a slick, 12-page booklet with the lyrics and photographs; everything in English except for "Hasenschwanz." ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide