In celebration of the release of Songs of Love and Decay, part of the Dekmantel UFO Series, Broken English Club shares his Top 5 under the theme of “Art of Noise.” This latest album from UK techno stalwart Oliver Ho serves up a visceral blend of industrial wave and techno, while also paying homage to the late Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), whose influence resonates deeply throughout this enticingly dark corner of underground electronic music..
Songs of Love and Decay reflects Ho’s expert production skills, honed over a decade at the forefront of machine music. The album oscillates between dancefloor energy and moments of suspended tension, unified by a gritty aesthetic that reinforces both an uncompromising artistic vision and a heartfelt tribute to Mendez—echoing the darker nuances of dance music he so profoundly represented.
1. Emptyset – Gloam
“I have aways loved Emptyset, the music rises from the earth like some kind of tectonic electronic thunder spirit. Its purely elemental, pure noise and atmospheric sonics. I can get completely lost in this stuff, it acts like a portal, it shows that music is magick, that it can be something that is as powerful as lightning.”
2. Pissgrave – Malignant Worthlessness
“I have been into death metal since the late 80s, its a form of music that I find incredibly nourishing, it energises me and makes me feel healthy, like a dose of b12. These guys have the best name in show business, and the music is rotten to the core, its a cacophony of gurgled vocals and sludge guitar, I love it.”
3. Borusiade – Darsteller
“Beautiful haunting electronica with an eerie 80s atmosphere mixed with sparse synths and dirty drum machines. It’s hard to resist this, it pulls you in, there’s something very cinematic about it.”
4. Alessandro Cortini – VALVOLE
“A single 37 minute track, with 1 bass drum and a synth pattern that mutates and evolves slowly, moving through nightmarish minimal arpeggios. Like Plastikman meets Pan Sonic. I love this kind of stuff, its extreme in its dedication to an objective, the pursuit of a very pure and distilled sonic idea.”
5. Russell Haswell / Florian Hecker – UPIC Diffusion Session #23
“Russell Haswell is a force of nature, equal parts hooligan and artist. He teams up with Florian Hecker here to experiment with software originally designed by Xenakis. They feed the UPIC system a series of images, that converts them into sound. This is alchemy, a soundscape of bizarre bursts of sonic data, white noise and synth-like drones. If music can unlock new dimensions, this stuff certainly smashes open the doors of perception.”
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Songs of Love and Decay is out now: https://linktr.ee/oliverho
