Institut - The Struggle Never Ended [Cold Meat Industry - 2005]Institut are a power electronics act fronted by Lirim Cajani, they have released several CDs and singles on the Swedish Cold Meat Industry label, this is their latest offering or audio spite. The CD opens in style with Destroy their Organisations, a track that begins in unnerving fashion with excepts of courtroom testimony from a murderer discussing his crime. The atmosphere becomes more tense before a wall of intense electronic noise cuts through amid a torrent of screams and news samples. Cajani’s deranged vocalisations follow shortly taking the listener into the brutal world of the killer. With No Return continues in a similar vein, with the harsh grinding electronics set against repetitive almost chanting vocals from Cajani. Throughout much of the album there are these warped testimonies (mainly American) that create an atmosphere of disorientation. These under-layers draw you in allowing the full on assault of the electronics to seep into your unconscious becoming like a ritualistic mantra. Comepure is more of an instrumental where the sampled testimony is constant in the background behind a barrage of noise. However on this track there is a subtle melodic layer that floats between the vocal samples and the electronics that is an interesting addition and gives the track an almost trancelike feel to it. It’s an interesting experience when the obvious power of the sound drops away and the rhythms (which are a rather underrated aspect to PE) take over, asserting their visceral force. The Ghetto Fights is like a machine gun firing off rounds of electronic hate in all directions with the masses running for cover. Cajani’s vocals struggle to force themselves through the net like an insurgent in the midst of battle. The vocals deal with ideas of uprisings, military action and urban warfare, and fit the aggression of the music like a glove. It Should Be Well Understood begins with a mix of wind tunnel like screech and throbbing bass grind. The vocal recordings are further back in the mix here but still have that mind warping effect. This is the most rhythmic of all the tracks on offer, the nihilistic lyrics permeate the noise through the discordant rhythms and slicing static attack. The albums longest and most brooding track is Every Prison Cell Unites Us All. It has a sinister, more restrained feel to the other tracks and focuses more on atmosphere than full on brutality . The samples have a man recounting his hatred for police and authority, a consistent theme of the album. The disquiet is smashed after two minutes when the sound of a thousand malfunctioning death machines crashes in. Blockade is a thick impenetrable wall of sound that leave no room to breath, only space enough to surrender to the force of Institut, while Long Live the Brotherhood finishes the album off in apocalyptic style, the sound of buildings collapsing, systems crashing and empires falling. The tsunami of electronics fades out leaving the remnants of an eastern melody, all that is left of civilization after the battle for survival. Duncan Simpson
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