Spain's greatest treasure, asset, and claim to fame in the whole 'industrial' genre has been, unquestionably, the pioneering Esplendor Geometrico. Since 1981, these boys have been producing some rather extreme meldings of hypnotic electronic beats with punishing sonic noise and ferocity. EG is rhythm - forceful, insistent, and aggressive. Imagine if Kraftwerk's robotic percolations met up in a back alley with Whitehouse or early Throbbing Gristle, and you'd be somewhere in the ballpark.
'8 Traks And Live' contains an audio disc of, yes, 8 tracks of machine beats and varying degrees of noise. No two songs sound alike, certainly a credit to the programming skills of Arturo Lanz and Saverio Evangelista. You could dance to this, likely, but EG's music cannot in any sense of the word be considered commercial. It's packed with depth, subtle rhythmic fluctuations, and some oppressive re/percussions.
The live DVD, recorded at the Decibelio Festival in Madrid in 2006, shows the duo's complex beat-driven madness (ranging from noise-oriented to almost jungle/drum & bass) in a public setting, and it works exceptionally well. Backing abstracted visuals by Luigi Perilli and Evangelista set the tone for a series of well-shot, multi-angle performances, some with the unprocessed, raw shoutings of the group. The camera-work maintains the excitement and energy of the show, and the group really breaks a sweat punishing those machines. A great set of heavy-duty tunes that prove without a doubt that Esplendor Geometrico are a force to be reckoned with, even 27 years into their careers. Now if only someone stateside would do these guys some justice and release a retrospective or collection on these shores. (Geometrik)
EG official website
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