The curtain rises once
again on the electro-creepshow as London's AlterRed unveil their
fifth full-length studio album 'Trauma: Trauma Reinforcement'.
Picking up where 2015's 'In The Land Of The Blind' Left off, the band
continue to evolve a heavier and darker sound that leaves the
cabaret-tinged electro rock style of their first three albums behind.
A dark mournful piano
intro opens the album providing a stylistic link back to their
earlier material, but the inclusion of the sample over the top hints
at the darker more industrial material which is subsequently revealed
by the first track proper the frantic and grinding 'Speed Test'. The
guitars are louder and nastier, the beats are harder and faster, the
synths more scathing and sharp and Mikey's vocals take or a
distinctive snarl.
The album maintains a
hard rocking angsty backbone with tracks such as 'Wait For The
Recoil', 'Mad Dogs', 'Breaking News', 'PS Fuck You', 'You Get
Nothing', and 'Bohemian Class' providing plenty of opportunities to
wreck your neck. But there is also playfully disturbed edge that
incorporates the dramatic flair of their previous work with tracks
such as 'Dead & Cold', 'Only Way Is Down', and the inspired cover
of 'Wild Boys' bringing some variety to the fast tempo rage.
This is the band's
heaviest work too date and while there are still nods to the sound
pioneered on their early work, this is a much darker and grittier
production. More raucous and punk rock in it's spirit and industrial
in it's outlook. Not quite electro-punk and nor quite industrial
rock, but rather an intelligent take on both. They've nicely balanced
their melodic avant-garde charms with with violent incorporation of
heavier elements well. It continues to show that AlterRed have a lot
more versatility to their sound than they have previously shown.
'Trauma: Trauma
Reinforcement' is a strong, pissed-off album that grabs you by the
ears and forces you to follow it to the end. AlterRed have hit their
stride with this album and it is sure to attract fans of the heavier
end of the electro rock/industrial rock scene but it still does
enough to keep the interest of long-term fans. The band's continued
musical evolution sees them stronger than ever.
“They’d usually be ideas based on our own
childhood (and sometimes adulthood) fears and nightmares. Disjointed
faces, carved features and dissociative identity disorder came up a
lot!”
London's electro-creeps AlterRed have across the
course of their first three albums weaved a rich tapestry of dark
cabaret infused electro-rock and conceptual narrative, in the process
becoming one of the UK's must-see live acts. Since putting their
original story arc to sleep, the band have struck hard and fast with
their new album 'In The Land Of The Blind...' showcasing a darker and
harder sound that builds on the previous album sand develops beyond
expectations. Throw in a new record deal with US label WTII Records
and the future is looking bright for the band.
Intravenous
Magazine caught up with AlterRed maestro Mikey fresh off the band's
tour with industrial rock maniacs Be My Enemy, to talk about the new
album, inspirations, visuals and the importance of live presentation.
Intravenous Magazine: Your latest album 'In the Land of the Blind...' is
about to be released. What has the feedback been like for it so far?
Mikey AlterRed: Very good so far. We’re
finding a lot of new fans and a new audience, and we’ve had a lot
of great feedback from existing fans, which is great. Always a bit
precarious when a band changes direction!
IVM: Where did the
inspiration for the title of the album come from?
MA: It’s from Desiderius
Erasmus's Adagia or so I understand, but it has derivatives in
many other sources. It’s a little bit of a jibe at popular culture
and how so much of mainstream culture has become diluted to appeal to
as wide an audience as possible, which in turn has resulted in the
creation of so much arrogance and ego for little more than just being
not quite as awful as the rest! The song 'Unpopulism', which was
originally going to be the title track, is probably a more defined
and pronounced rant about this. The actual title track, an
instrumental, was written as a sort of soundtrack to a fictional
movie trailer about a huge behemoth of an industry, issuing wave
after wave of the same banal, tried and tested product to a passive,
sedated consumer.
IVM: The album showcases a darker, heavier
sound. What led to this direction and how do you feel it complements
the material on your previous releases?
MA: I’ve been a fan
of harder and heavier bands for as long as I can remember, but I
became a little bit weary of them. My last band (D.U.S.T.) was an
electro rock band that ended in 2007, so when we started AlterRed we
wanted to try something new. Well, we did that. We played with
synthpop, with cabaret, with the spooky kid sub-genre and several
others too. Then in 2012 we played a live show with Sulpher, who I’ve
long been a fan of, and then in 2013 we toured with William Control,
and I found myself craving to perform more energetic and aggressive
tunes. I’d had a bunch of ideas for songs for previous albums that
didn’t really fit as they were too heavy and fast, so I figured
now’s the time - let’s put these together in a set list and see
how they play live. They actually fit perfectly well with some of the
older stuff, particularly stuff from our first album, but are
absolutely at odds with some of the others! But I don’t mind that!
I’m a huge Alice Cooper and Bowie fan; both have had very diverse
output over the years.
IVM: 'In the Land of the
Blind…' is the first release since wrapping up the story-arc of the
previous three albums. Has this significantly changed your song
writing approach on the new album? MA: Yeah it has, actually.
I have found myself writing self-contained concepts now, rather than
carrying a narrative over the whole album. I’ve also found myself
restricting the more theatrical ideas to instrumental pieces. I think
that way, the music delivers the mood but without directly imposing a
narrative onto the audience. Instead the listener can decide for
herself/himself what it is about.
Lyrically what have
been your main inspirations behind the new album, and which authors /
poets / lyricists have inspired your style over the years?
MA: Hmmm… I’m not sure if any have directly influenced me. I
re-read a lot of Clive Barker still, and I find myself re-reading
Huxley, then a lot of the atheist philosophers or polemicists
(Hitchens, Dennet, Harris, Dawkins…) but I don’t think I could
name a direct influence.
IVM: The new album will
come out on US label WTII Records, through which you've already
released a compilation album. How did this deal come about and what
has the relationship been like so far?
MA: It came about when
both Mechanical Cabaret and Deviant UK signed with them. I’ve been
friends with both bands over the years and both Jay (Deviant) and Roi
(MC) both recommended us. I spoke with the label, who said they’d
been following our progress anyway, so it progressed from there.
IVM: Your music videos go
hand in hand with the strong visuals of the album. Are there any
plans for music videos in support of this album as well, and if so
what can you tell us about your plans for them?
IVM: You've had a long
standing relationship with Duncan Catterall of Clockwork Amoeba for
the creation of your videos. How does the collaborative process
typically work?
MA: Yeah, Dunc played a big part in
translating a lot of the narrative to video. Vix, Duncan and I would
sit down with a bottle of absinthe and a note pad and spend hours
going through ideas for characters, stories and imagery. They’d
usually be ideas based on our own childhood (and sometimes adulthood)
fears and nightmares. Disjointed faces, carved features and
dissociative identity disorder came up a lot! Like Rene Magritte does
Multiple Miggs! It was great fun.
IVM: In addition to the
videos, the artwork and photography of Vix Vain is integral to the
presentation of the band. How important is this to the AlterRed
philosophy and do they come before or after the song writing?
MA: They usually happen at the same time but it varies. Sometimes
I’ll mention a theme for a song and Vix will instantly come up with
her visual interpretation of the theme. We have also had instances
where we’ll disagree on a topic, and I’ll find myself writing
about it only to receive her rebuttal in the form of the image. It
can get quite interesting when two creatives disagree and argue with
their output! That said, the new material is a lot less cabaret and a
lot more stripped down so the new imagery is appropriate for that.
IVM: Your live shows have
always had a theatrical/vaudeville element to them. How important is
this live invocation and how do you go about planning the live
presentation?
MA: The live performance is everything to me,
actually. I like recording new songs but it’s not my first love
when it comes to the music; it’s the performing live that I do this
for so getting the overall show right is essential. I suspect to
answer this honestly I’d need to make the distinction between the
shows that accompanied the first albums and the new show. As we’re
currently a little more straight forward electro-rock, the live show
is less of a theatrical play, though we still find ourselves playing
out many of the moves from the old show (I don’t think we’ll ever
manage to perform and not “stop-start” during certain songs!).
The addition of James, our new guitarist has really brought something
extra to the live playing as well as the performance on the whole.
With the previous
albums and shows we’d put the set together based on the songs we
loved performing, which of those carried the narrative on stage, and
which we could build a dramtic performance around with our other
performers. Once we’d put together a 45 minute show we generally
developed it, show by show. One thing I wish we’d been able to do,
and I’d like to try more in future, is set more live set-pieces to
add to the mood of the song… yeah, watch this space for that!
IVM: You've recently be
touring with Be My Enemy. How was that for you and how did the crowd
react to the pairing?
MA: Yeah, it’s been great and has gone
down surprisingly well. BME are far more stompy and aggressive than
us, so I was unsure how it’d work, but I think there’s a common
attitude that we share when it comes to playing live, especially with
our new songs, which has given the tour a certain flavour! It’s
pretty punk, actually. Add to that, “Mad Max:Fury Road” came out
just before the tour started, making us all act like post-apocalyptic
rock-star-road-warriors! Hahaha!
IVM: Are there any more
live shows planned for 2015?
MA: There are indeed, we’re
opening the Saturday at Infest in a few weeks, which we’re
absolutely stoked about. Then we’re hitting the road again with Be
My Enemy in October, visiting Manchester and Glasgow this time
(hopefully a few more). We’ve something potentially awesome
pencilled in for October in London that I can’t quite announce yet,
but if it goes ahead it’ll be an amazing event. Then in December
we’re headlining Carpe Noctum in Leeds. We’re planning on playing
this album live as much as possible in as many places as will have
us! (Attention promoters!)
IVM: Going back to
the trilogy of 'Mind-Forged Manacles', 'Dollstown', and 'The Time It
Takes To Smile'. Given the strong lyrical and visual narratives of
the album has the thought of expanding on the story as either a novel
or graphic novel ever been a thought?
MA: Well the first part,
Mind-forged Manacles has already been written as a short story; in
fact the concept started out that way. We have had many conversations
about what else we could do with it. Full-on musical, has been one
suggestion that’s come up a lot, a series of short films and yes, a
graphic novel even. The tricky part is having the time and energy to
invest in it while we’re still pumped and on fire for the current
album and show. I’m sure it’ll happen at some point though. There
are too many unfinished ideas for it to let go just yet!
AlterRed's
latest album 'In the Land Of The Blind...' is available to purchase
now through WTII Records. For more information on the band, including
live dates and future releases, please visit their official website.
The electro-creeps return with their
fourth full-length studio in the form of 'In The Land Of The Blind'.
London's AlterRed have been pushing their own brand of dark cabaret
infused electro-rock for a few years now with albums such as
'Mind-Forged Manacles', 'Dollstown', and 'The Time It Takes To Smile'
earning them critical acclaim while their theatrical live shows have
earned them respectable reputation as band that always delivers.
The conceptual story arc of the first three albums may have
reached its conclusion on the last album, but them new songs are not
short of a sense of narrative in their own right as Mikey's lyrics
and compelling vocal performance drive the album. Musically however
'In The Land Of The Blind' feels much harder and darker than anything
the band have produced so far. The guitars are turned up, the tempos
are faster, and the combination of beats and synths is just a bit
more ferocious than usual in a way that almost harks back to Mikey's
pre-Alterred project D.U.S.T.
Songs such as 'I Breath You',
'Trepanning', 'Click', 'Love Like Vanity', and 'Unpopulism' give the
album a hard rocking backbone that will undoubtedly see plenty of
club exposure as well as injecting a different dynamic into their
live shows. However, the band can still bring out that deliciously
demented avant garde edge that makes them so endearing with tracks
like 'Become...', 'The Wraith', 'Run And Hide', and 'Nameless' adding
a hint of madness to the proceedings. While the title track, which
closes the album, brings both sides of together nicely to round
things off.
The album is once again nicely mixed and
produced. It has a minimal and modern feel that is heavy on
atmosphere, but keeps the bass, guitar and vocals nice and high in
the mix to keep that body-grooving element at the fore throughout.
Once again AlterRed show that they are a force to be reckoned
with, and any doubts about their direction following the close of
their conceptual trilogy has been firmly put to rest with 'In The
Land Of The Blind'. The album is dark, powerful, and fresh, but keeps
plenty of the quirkiness that has helped define them over their
previous outings. It is a strong move forward that sees the band
continue to evolve their sound and seem all the stronger for it.
London's
cabaret-baiting electro-creeps AlterRed have been taking their
audience on a conceptual storyline surrounding the characters of
AlterRed and Emily, which reaches its conclusion on their third
full-length outing, 'The Time It Takes To Smile'.
Musically recalling the
likes of David Bowie, Depeche Mode, The Dresden Dolls and IAMX,
AlterRed on their previous albums, 'Mind-Forged Manacles' and
'Dollstown', have crafted a rich sonic formula. One that combines
strong electronic grooves with dance beats and a knack for avant
garde piano melodies that skilfully blends genres like ebm, synthpop
and dark cabaret into a fresh and engaging multi-media
presentation.
However there is a
shift in emphasis on 'The Time It Takes To Smile'. The album is as
lyrically driven as always to create a strong sense of twisted
narration, but the musical atmosphere feels darker and more chaotic
than the band's usual standards. This is perhaps best summed up by
the instrumental songs 'Coping' and 'Not Coping', which show the
extent of the unravelling psyche of the album.
Songs like 'Suits Me
Like A Coma', 'Spine', 'Dread' and 'Better Than Mending' are
excellent examples of what the band is capable of commercially,
crafting whimsically demented vocals with dance floor-friendly beats
and sleazy bass. Whereas the likes of 'Red And Black Coins', 'Me And
Conrad Veidt', and the instrumental 'She Still Fascinates Me' show
off the bands conceptual ambitions at their best, with their
flamboyant edge and grandiose sense of scope.
Production-wise the
album presents the band in the best possible light. The mix feels
minimal and modern, which allows Mike's vocals the room to push the
album along, especially through the choruses. While the piano feels
as though it is being played in a deserted theatre and allowed to
really haunt the songs.
This is a fitting
conclusion to a compelling trilogy of albums. 'The Time It Takes To
Smile' shows have far AlterRed as a concept as well as a band has
come in a relatively short space of time. However, the pressing
question is that, now the original story has come to a close... where
can AlterRed go from here?
Electro
creeps AlterRed have announced the release of their forthcoming third
album and follow-up to the critically acclaimed 'Dollstown'. The new
album, 'The Time It Takes To Smile', will be released on 3rd
May 2013 with an official launch party on the 5th
of May at Electrowerks, London (as part of the William Control tour).
The
supporting tour will kick off at Manchester's Ruby Lounges and
includes the following dates with more to still be confirmed:
28th
April - Manchester, Ruby Lounge 1st May - Bristol, Tunnels 2nd
May - Cardiff, Bogiez 3rd May - Birmingham, Eddies 5th May -
London, Electrowerks (album launch!) 8th May - Newcastle,
Trillans 10th May - Glasgow, Classic Grand 25th May - TBC 28th
Sept - Liverpool, Lomax (Club Macabre) 5th Oct - TBC 26th Oct
- Whitby, Bram Stoker Film Festival.
For more information on
AlterRed and to keep up-to-date with news on 'The Time It Takes To
Smile', please visit the official website.
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