When the Blood Turns Black

The problem with the current crop of bands attempting to "revive" the many flavors of '80s electronic music is that most of these acts seem to be functioning from a point of pure nostalgia that leaves little room for the 15 years of musical innovation that followed 1988. Kill Memory Crash doesn't suffer from such a retro-ist view, having spent much of the '90s exploring the agnostic edge of Detroit techno as Feed the Machine. So while their new project is certainly grounded in the industrial dance sound of Front 242 and Skinny Puppy, it still utilizes a 21st century sophistication to keep things moving. The metallic vocals on "Inside the Box" are augmented with a tight electro beat while "Technasty" brutally attacks the listener with a sound that is equal parts Throbbing Gristle and hard European techno. "Throw Up Your Mind" offers a groove that could have been lifted from Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode, but, again, with a technical precision that those '80s pioneers could have only dreamed about. This is EBM that sounds just the way we want to remember it, without most of the embarrassing affects that most would just as soon forget.