Inline Sex Terror- 11 11

Artist: Inline Sex Terror

CD title:  11 11

Label: Danse Macabre

Genre: Industrial, EBM, Electro

Website: https://www.inlinesexterror.com/

Reviewer: DJ Kantrip

Date: 06-20-11

Buy Here: https://www.amazon.com/11-Inline-Sex-Terror/dp/B001DZT4OO/ref=sr_1_1_digr?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1308637639&sr=1-1

11 11 is the Debut album from the Greek EBM Industrial act, Inline Sex Terror.  Released in 2008, 11 11 is reminiscent of Front Line Assembly's Re-Wind remix collection and Northborne's Force It.  It sounds a bit weird to compare this CD to two such specific examples, but that's just because the DJ portion of my brain started scrambling through the tracks of said albums and playing around with 11 11  just to see what fun I could have with it in a set.  And for a DJ this is a fun album, which is not surprising considering the mastermind behind IST, DV/H, has been a club DJ for over 10 years.

The first indication of this perspective/influence is the myriad of beats.  The percussion doesn't seem to be copy pasted from one track to the next, which is usually what I hear in debut albums from new electronic acts.  Find a few good loops, tweak them slightly over 12 tracks and hope that no one notices when the album doesn't seem to leave the 130 to 132 beats per minute range, except for the obligatory atmospheric instrumental.  Razor Blade Revenge has a nice plodding beat that you can do slow stompy dancing to, while Fear No Evil makes everything all grindy and distorted.  B.I.T.C.H and Traumblen, go into that happy safe world of Four to the Floor at 140bpm that DJ's like to whip out around the 11 o'clock hour and the dancefloor is packed.  The tracks are organized in such a way that the listener doesn't feel like it is monotonous and is encouraged to slow down, speed up, kinda chill out, or just go berserk with their “stomp-fu”.

As far as vocals go, there isn't much to comment on.  The track Nosedives does features Marko from the band Xp8, and My Curse does have some rather raspy vocals buried underneath distortion, but the vocals here are treated more as a sample and less of a focus.  The focus is actually on the synths and other sampled items like movies and some German speech.  The sampling on 11 11 actually builds a story in many of the tracks very much like a Hopeful Machines song would.  It's used responsibly and to make a point. Not to show off how it can dissect a popular movie into a 6 minute song.  This is why I made the comparison to FLA and Northborne in the beginning of this review.  Force It, and Re-Wind are excellent albums that demonstrate how to make good EMB/Industrial that is largely instrumental, without being monotonous.

Even if you don't go to the clubs or DJ, this is good music to spark you to get up and go.  Work out, or blast it on a long drive.  During the course of writing this review I got a load of laundry folded and danced my way through doing some dishes.  This album is infectious with its energy and that's not always a bad thing.

11 11 is a strong debut release for IST.  Coming from a DJ's ear of what does/doesn't make dancefloor candy, there is no single weak link on this album.   Its not the most original sounding album in the world.   That is the downside to this unique perspective.  There are hints of FLA, VNV Nation, and Suicide Commando in all of the songs, but that is what will turn people on to IST.  The elements of that which is familiar but not blatantly copycat.  If you are considering purchasing this album it is available via Amazon for download, however for those fans looking for hard CD copies it is only available via import through Danse Macabre.