Two years after the astonishing “Destroyer” album we welcome the new full length by Red Industrie. Helder Camberos remains the creative force behind this project. Camberos received some fame with his Isis Signum project, which seems to have stopped all activities, while Red Industrie has become more successful.
“Censored” sounds typically Red Industrie-like for its great analogue elector treatments resulting in a great vintage-like sounds reminding me of the 80s. The formula remains pretty identical to previous albums on which Helder Camberos invited several guests to achieve his work. He this time collaborated with artists like Psyche (Darren Huss appears to be one of the favorites), HIV+ and People Theatre while bands like Neikka RPM, Tecnoman, Dark Control Operation, TourDeForce ao were asked for a remix.
The debut song “Dark Angel” directly reveals to be a surprise as I didn’t exactly expect Red Industrie to compose some new-wave & punk-like songs. “Elektro Censura” coming up next reveals the familiar minimal EBM touch of this band. Helder Camberos has called ‘future-clash-body-music’, which is a definition that totally matches with this great sound approach. The minimalism moves on reaching a first climax at “Strength” featuring Psyche. This cut is powerful, danceable and carried by impressive sound treatments of minimal body music. There’s a nice twist between the vocals of both singers, Huss symbolizing the ‘clear’ side and Camberos the ‘dark’ one.
Red Industrie comes up with a surprising cover version of Apoptygma Berzerk’s famous “Kathy’s Song”. The album features 2 parts of this cut. The 1st one progressively evolves towards a danceable climax while I have a little preference for the 2nd part featuring People Theatre. No doubt it, this is a kind of ode to Apoptygma Berzerk and one of the most pop-minded parts on this release.
“Censored” rapidly appears to be the most diversified work of Red Industrie. The songs are moving from the familiar EBM approach to some electro-punk (cf. “Fetiche Futuro”) to some post-punk work (cf. “Still Breathing”) to some industrial approach (cf. “Make Some F*cking Noise”), but the best part of the album remains the electro-minimalistic side. I highly recommend “Fashion Suicide” for its early electronic side reminding me of Cabaret Voltaire and “The Future Is Ours”.
Some of the best tracks can be found in the chapter of remixes. Neikka RPM accomplished a terrific and EBM-driven remix and sound metamorphosis of “Dark Angel V2”. There also is a cool remix of “Dark Angel V2” by Tecnoman. Dark Control Operation is another band delivering a great EBM-like remix of “Fetiche Futuro”. TourDeForce goes electro-clash like at “Fetiche Futuro” while Mastfer (known from Black Leather Records) delivers a fine final remix of “Fashion Suicide”.
Conclusion: Red Industrie is always a guarantee for great electronic music made with genius sound treatments although this is not my favorite album to date. It all sounds like Helder Camberos wanted to exorcise some old ‘punkish’ demons, which are nice intermezzos, but not exactly the best side of this great artist.