Torture Gallery
Opening Wounds of the Shocking Truth
Hands Productions
David Christian of Cervello Ellotronico and Claus Larsen of Leaether Strip coming together to make a vocal rhythmic noise record is one of those things that is unexpected, but also makes perfect sense given each of their individual catalogues. Christian’s longstanding work on the storied Hands label has been a stalwart representation of classic rhythmic noise as a musical practice, while Larsen’s own work as a pioneer in dark electro was clearly an influence on that style’s evolution towards crushing, violent atmospheres. Still, hearing the two established artists come together in ways that defy your expectations for either of them on their debut as Torture Gallery Opening Wounds of the Shocking Truth holds a great deal of appeal, both for the novelty and for the gap it fills in the current industrial landscape.
To be very clear, and by Torture Gallery’s own admission, their music is a very clear homage to the style pioneered by Dirk Ivens’ Dive, especially its earliest and most brutal form. That means you get a lot of songs like “Surveillance”, where distorted squeals, crushed bass and intense fuzzy sequences roll along with mechanical precision, the variations coming from exactly how intense any given element of the ugly, scraping sounds is at a given moment. It also means you get comparatively minimal numbers like “Turning Hate” where precisely programmed drums, both overdriven and clean establish the body of the song, with what little melody that exists being sketched about by Larsen’s agonized yells and massive bass drones. Both artists are no strangers to making sounds like this work, and the execution is spot on; a chaotic number like “Trauma Response” with its section switch ups doused in waves of noise and machinegun drums could have lost all form in the hands of lesser producers, but Torture Gallery tame its frequencies and corrosive atmosphere into a bracing, coherent whole.
Importantly (if unsurprisingly given their discographies), the duo understand that the point of the exercise isn’t to replicate the hostile anti-musicality of power electronics, but to engage via rhythm and texture. The excellent “Future Evil” worms its way into the listener through a simple but pleasingly coarse percussion loop, breaking into less gritty bass sounds halfway through only to have the song build back to its grindhouse beginnings with inevitable certainty. Similarly, “Unelected” syncopates its bass programming and drums with an elastic approach to rhythm that never goes fully into overdriven chaos, but threatens it enough to prevent it becoming easy to ignore. It’s music that prompts movement, either submitting to its overwhelming rhythms, or to get out of its way.
Saying that Opening Wounds of the Shocking Truth is a fun record might sound odd given the hostility of its design, but it’s hard not to charmed by Torture Gallery’s slightly modernized, but reverent take on a style of industrial that we so rarely get to hear. At least part of the that comes from hearing what Larsen and Christian bring out of each other musically, and the simple vibe that emerges across its well-calibrated sequencing. Two distinct voices in industrial combining their strengths to do something familiar but new is nothing to scoff at, and something of a gift for fans of their individual catalogues, or the genre in general.
