Idiot Stare- Welcome to Babylon

ARTIST: Idiot Stare
ALBUM: Welcome to Babylon
LABEL: Bodybag Productions
REVIEWER: Matthew J.
DATE: 2007-10-24

Idiot Stare's newest release may be the quintessential coldwave album of the year, if not the decade, but given the fact that the band is comprised largely of alumni from legendary Los Angeles acts STG and Insight 23, could you expect any less? It's all here: you've got your throbbing drum machines, acidic synth lines, razor-sharp guitars, and sneering punk-inspired vocal work. There's even an extended burst of ear-shattering noise, an homage perhaps to Chemlab's abrasive "Suture" interludes. Opening things is "BabyLAon," a sarcastic tribute to the Hollywood music scene that's so caustically cynical it'll reverse facelift surgeries and burst saline breast implants if you play it loud enough, and then "Mainframe God" just kicks things into an even higher gear with a fist-pumping chorus and a sound so classically coldwave you'll think it was an undiscovered classic from the 21st Circuitry days. That's not to say, however, that Idiot Stare haven't grown with the times. They may not be the first act to combine techno beats with driving guitars, but tracks like "Ghost" display a mastery of dark but driving electronics that owes more to modern avant-garde techno than industrial keyboard-smashing. "Dead2U," on the other hand, is as visceral as a punch in the teeth, and proves that while their music may have matured, the guys still have plenty of that old-time violence left in them. Without sounding dated, this album manages to capture everything that used to make the California industrial scene so great. If you've ever bought a Kevorkian Death Cycle album, been spit on at a Hate Dept. show, or heard of Bol, you need to get this right now.

Idiot Stare welcomes you to "BabyLAon" at www.idiotstare.com.