Die Warzau

If you don't know this band yet, may I be the first person to welcome you back from your alien abduction? (Did the probes hurt?) Having enjoyed a decent amount of exposure from their last album, 1994's "Engine", Jim Marcus and Van Christie return with an album even more engaging than that previous work. Die Warzau have gotten better with each album, and this is no exception to that.

On the first song, "Crusaders", is very similar to the style of the last album, with Jim Marcus accomplishing more with subtlety in his voice than just yelling.

These are classic Die Warzau political lyrics, comparing the troops overseas to the hapless religious fighters of the past ("Just go on and on and fight ordinary people"), and it is this consciousness which pervades throughout.

"Go Going Gone" sounds a bit like KMFDM, where you just know the song is building up to something. "Permission" is mellower, with light guitars and female backing vocals.
"Radiation Babies," though, is the first one to really grab on to you, dance atop and inside your head simultaneously, all the while shouting out its personal creed. It's funky, poppy, and has that flow which only Marcus can pull off. The drums are brilliant, and the chorus is damn catchy ("I'm gonna love you like you're someone else" will pop into your head at the oddest times after wards).

Track five, "Glare," has western guitars, and showcases the band's ever-improving vocals. Hell, it's worth listening to just for the myriad elements thrown together. "Bliss" hearkens back to Die Warzau's beginnings, with loud, raw percussion, and lyrics about the tribulations of gays in the military.

"Linoleum" is the closest this band has ever sounded like old tour mate Nine Inch Nails, and "Superbuick" is a grinding, dirty song about an indifferent gas consumer. You might want to strap yourself in for "Terrorform," as it is classic breakbeat, with Jim Marcus spitting out rhymes as fast as he can possibly can.

Compared to that, "Curious" is relatively quiet and slow, but before you have a chance to take a mental powder, "Gone Chemical" comes in with high quality dance music and heavily distorted vocals. "Kleen" is just what it says, and is so slick sounding, it is what keeps this album from being a "10". It's just too devoid of everything that makes this band interesting.

"King of Rock and Roll" makes it all up, though, with power, distortion, and a bit of glitch.

Any doubts as to where this band is from are answered with "Come as You Are", which puts a Chicago House feel to an upbeat synthpop song. Track 15, "As We Are So We Are", is EBM at its most brilliant, and is followed by "Shine" which purports to be a sequel of Engine's "All Good Girls", and blissfully brings the album to its conclusion.

If you have liked Die Warzau's previous work, then you need to buy this. If you like electronic music done with unmatched skill, and tethered with political thoughts sadly lacking elsewhere, then you need to buy this. If you do, then we may not have to wait another 10 years.

Haakon Nelson, 21 Jun 2005
- http://www.virus-mag.com/index.php?a=1268

For fans of musical genre known as "industrial," 2004 was a year considered by many to be a comeback of sorts: new releases by Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front Line Assembly, Chemlab, Hate Dept., HuG and others signaled a return harsh electronics and heavy guitar riffs mixed with post-apocalyptic lyrics. The mid-90's saw the greatest mainstream penetration of said genre with Nine Inch Nails' release of The Downward Spiral and Ministry's Psalm 69. We even saw industrial crossover acts like Gravity Kills and Stabbing Westward getting radio play. However, subsequent follow-ups by the above bands didn't fulfill expectations and the spotlight shifted to another flavor du jour. Labels such as the Wax Trax!, Re-Constriction and Fifth Column fell by the wayside and the music went underground--even more so than usual!

This brings us to another industrial band, which made a reappearance after a long seven year hiatus: Die Warzau. Now even though they are not considered industrial in the most modern and commonly accepted definition of the term, they perhaps are the best representation of the spirit of the genre as it was originally conceived--as an indefinable sort of "anti-music." Jim Marcus (vox) and Van Christie (programming) have delivered an album containing a vast cornucopia styles, textures and moods, constantly morphing and evolving into something new. At sixteen tracks and over an hour in length, it is virtually impossible to digest it on one listen or perhaps many more.

In an industry primarily populated with manufactured bands sporting a marketable single or two and eight tracks of filler, it is a complete novelty to experience an album literally crammed to capacity with fully-realized and unique songs. That is why the album is so hard to absorb; every track is important and logically leads you to the next, taking you on a journey that you really have to devote a full hour of intent listening to appreciate.

Die Warzau is also a band which has grown from a political tribal-funk affair to being a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted experience. Their previous album Engine has long been considered one of my favorites of all time. For me, it is for all intents and purposes as perfect album. Not a bad song, perfect track listing and flows magically from beginning to end. The approach used on this disc reminds me of what they did with Sister Machine Gun's The Torture Technique--linking each song with bits of sonic distortion (or "sutures" as Jared Louche from Chemlab calls them). This makes for a very coherent listening experience--an ALBUM in the truest sense of the word. Die Warzau is one of the few bands that could put a boy-bandish pop-savvy ballad like "Kleen" next to a chaotic and noisy track like "King of Rock and Roll" and have it work.

It would really take too much space to break down and dissect every song, as such a wide variety of musical styles are represented. Suffice it to say, the band still brings the noise, the funk, the beats, the pop sensibility and everything else we know them for from their backcatalog. If you enjoyed Engine, Convenience is a logical progression. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up! Even the packaging and jewel case are cool.

[MrDM]
- http://www.supercoolnothing.com/musicreviewsframe.htm

The whole genre of industrial music has been an enigma to me for some time. Years ago I would have called myself a big industrial head, never to the point of wearing black 24/7, but it just held elements that were not present in other forms of music: a carnal level of sexiness tied up with deep down dance grooves to keep you going all night long. 16 Volt, Hate Dept., Snog, Download, Spahn Ranch, Machines of Loving Grace, Sister Machine Gun, and of course the classics from Front 242, KMFDM, Ministry, and Front Line Assembly were all regular visitors to my CD player. Dance nights like So What! and Bondage A Go-Go in San Francisco or at Club FX in San Jose were weekly rituals.

After a while, like everything else, more and more releases coming out were just stale, almost to the point of being comical and contrived. Industrial seemed to loose its way, but the light is starting to shine itself on the disco ball again. NIN is back with a new release, Pigface is gathering their troops for their Free Form tour, and Die Warzau is showing big signs of ingenuity with Convenience, released on their own Chicago based label, Pulseback.

At first listen, tracks like “Crusaders” and “Permission” are more akin to Dirty Vegas than anything from the Die Warzau back catalog. Although it may alienate the true fans of the group’s hardcore material of the past, I see it as a brave, creative, and welcomed move instead of taking the predictable path, as with “Bliss” and “Linoleum.” Not that those tracks don’t provide a provocative hold, it’s just refreshing to hear a group that’s been around since 1988 reinventing themselves and the genre itself. And in 16 tracks, they make the full round of soft grooves and to the wall abrasiveness, leaving one spent and fully satisfied.

-Kim Owens, April 29, 2005

- http://www.kaffeinebuzz.com/musicreviews-diewarzau.php

The Chicago duo of Van Christie and Jim Marcus possesses a wide range of stylistic interests (the former has a guitar-rock background; both have experience in house and techno music and a fondness for samples, industrial percussion and a pounding dance beat), all of which come together on the promising Disco Rigido. Though the opening song "Welcome to America" immediately announces "This is a racist nation," the group's political agenda never gets in the way of the fun. Melody is minimal; vocal tracks like "Jackhammer" and "Strike to the Body" tend to involve the shouted repetition of simple phrases (à la Nitzer Ebb). Die Warzau's forte is pure rhythm and samples, and this first album offers up many inspired examples, including "Free Radio Africa" and "Y Tagata en Situ." (The CD and cassette contain six bonus tracks.)

Big Electric Metal Bass Face is stronger and smarter, a worthy blending of funky rock, chanted vocals, spoken-word samples and proto-electronica. Much closer in sound and spirit to the Red Hot Chili Peppers than My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Die Warzau's second album is almost a step backwards, relinquishing the clinical brutality of industrial while clinging to its sonic adventurousness. Even club-ready tracks like "Never Again" and "Brand New Convertible Car" retain a rockalized aspect that ensures daylight appeal as well.

Die Warzau's move to Chicago's industrial nexus, Wax Trax!, occasioned an album more in keeping with the label's roster of metronomic noisemakers. The duo enlisted a large group of contributors to help out: ex-Tin Huey hornman Mars Williams, Mindfunk guitarist Louis Svitek, the Swans rhythm section of bassist Algis Kizys and Vinnie Signorelli and others. Although some of it is simple and straightforward in an early Spandau Ballet vein, Engine also gets busy with crashing beats, distorted vocals and disorienting sonic effects. What holds the disparate pieces together is invention and an overriding sense of fun. Even with the air is heavy, the mood stays upbeat.

Returning after a long layoff as a quartet, Die Warzau greeted the 21st century with Convenience, an album that tacitly acknowledges the rise of ambient music in techno as an antidote to the aggro (as well as the rolling cadences of current rap as an alternative to harsh chanting) and winds up being more attuned to pop than anything else. The beats here are rubbery and rounded rather than sharp and hard; Marcus' vocals are relaxed and gentle, even melodic (!) at times. "Permission" is a truly lovely tough-love song, underlaying singer-songwriter sensitivity with adorable electronic squoinks. Surprising, original and appealing, Convenience breaks the mold and begins a new phase for a band that is clearly unburdened by stylistic stereotypes.

[Tony Fletcher / Ira Robbins]
- http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=die_warzau

A surprise split-shift schedule at the job site had me returning to the dusty apartment landing to find a UPS package awaiting my arrival. Slapped atop the package, I find also a familiar Pulseblack logo floating on the flat black background. My heart does a few flips as I escort the coveted package into my apartment and shut out the encroaching commerce of the real world.

What do I expect to find from the legendary Die Warzau? Well, I didn't expect to find sixteen tracks on this preview of Convenience, nor did I expect to find complete lyric sheets for each track. The track listing also includes a BPM range spreading from 90 BPM — 161 BPM with only seven tracks exceeding 100 BPM.

Convenience represents sixteen new recordings by the same Die Warzau who unleashed nearly a decade ago their heavily lauded full- length release, Engine. Convenience marks the fourth album by Die Warzau, including once again Jim Marcus and Van Christie now joined by Abel Garibaldi and Dan Evans.

Nearly two-dozen additional collaborators also contribute talent and skills to these sixteen tracks. We'll touch base on credit to those folks prior to concluding this new music review.

First impression begin with the overall appearance, which in this case reflect attention to detail with forethought given to the fact that this preview is made available as a promo; "Not for Sale or Resale" is printed upon a postcard, taped by well-worn (perhaps recycled) packing tape affixed to the tattered manila-coloured sleeve prepped for the black vinyl album. It peeks out from the album's cover artwork. The atmospheric attitude of these visuals gives me that warm and fuzzy experience reminiscent of investing college student loans in a local indie music store in pre-post-modern side of town.

So what am I expecting now? I have heard that Die Warzau has a penchant for funk, electro, industrial, and whatever groovy dance mix junk may seem to fit the mood at the moment. I've also heard that Jim Marcus is a genius with complex musical arrangements.

Flip the top, CD drop, press play, and begin to rotate...

Immediately, a mixture of elements floods my mind; Die Warzau is all about supplanting the external dull cacophony of reality with a subconscious shift into the realm of noise, samples, and well-arranged compositions that pull from a fetish for electro-funk, shoegazer, and synth-pop that brings to mind recording artists such as Radiohead, Jesus & Mary Chain, and various funk and trip-hop DJ styles. At times, I even hear a momentary flirtation with Pet Shop Boys just before we turn a sharp corner and encounter a range of vocal passion and intensity reminiscent of the Stone Temple Pilots, Nitzer Ebb, and Ministry.

The transitional progression throughout the album and between tracks is virtually seamless, sinking the complex arrangements into the dance floor like French toast melting in your mouth (right?).

Track eleven, "Gone Chemical" (129 BPM), jumpstarts with tribal rhythms surrounded by echoing vocal reverb funk and industrial aggression. Like splashing a bucket of gasoline onto a fiery oil spill, Die Warzau sends waves of audio cascading toward frenzied dance shores where crowds of club kids and seasoned music enthusiasts rise to meet the melodic tsunami.

Inside of "Superbuick" (91 BPM), Die Warzau deploys noise and sound samples to trick the mind into slipping away from the here and now and drifting into a parallel dimension triggered by auditory cues that tell the tale, embellish the atmosphere, and set the cinematic cameras rolling. Music as perfect for a David Lynch plot as it is for a scenic car chase along a coastal highway as dusk deepens into night.

"Terrorform" tilts the odometer at 161 BPM and a blur of lyrical chatter that reminds me of the voices murmuring incessantly behind the closed doors of grey matter. This track seems flawless and yet the applications of the inherent intensity may be left open for your personal exploration. I'm certain that all of us here at SickAmongthePure would be delighted to read your feedback regarding the suitable scenarios in which "Terrorform" seems most applicable.

"Come As You Are" (140 BPM) bears no indication of revisiting Nirvana. Instead, this track floats and glides like Sonic the Hedgehog on a cyber-sex mission to poetically impress the socks off Ms. Piggy.

"As We Are So We Are" (131 BPM) portends to be something extra special with no room for remorse or disappointment. Get out your glow sticks and rip the dance floor to shreds! This track is going to become a club DJ favourite.

Die Warzau closes out well over an hour of Convenience with the celebration of "Shine." Let the album repeat and take it all in again! The beauty of strings, percussion, hot velvety chocolate vocals melting like a glacier in springtime, and the decadence of noise and special samplings scattered seamlessly throughout the mix with contributions from:

Chris Connelly, Sanyung Cho, Chris Greene, Chris Morford, Louis Svitek, J.C. Stokes, Ted Cho, Kevin Temple, Mars Williams, Biff Blumfengagne, James Wooley, Rick Dody, Jason McNinch, Matt Warren, Marydee Reynolds, Andre Filardo, Marcel Henderson, Matt Marcoto, Zoë McKenzie, and Vinnie Signorelli.

Mastering of Convenience provided by the legendary Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, NY. He definitely should receive kudos for a most incredible job!

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SickAmongthePure
Review by: Jett Black - http://satp.homestead.com/files/2004/10/DieWarzauReview/DieWarzauReview.html

Die Warzau's “Convenience” is a smooth train ride through vast stretches of electronica as seen by one of the field's most classic contributors. It seems that recent times have smiled on electronic music: with Skinny Puppy releasing an album this past year, a Pop Will Eat Itself reunion, and now this release by Die Warzau (If you don't recognize the names mentioned in the last sentence, I highly recommend you use the internet's supreme powers to learn as much about them as you can. Trust me. It will improve your life greatly).

Anyhow, back to the album. Let the great omniscient forces overseeing industrial music please forgive me when I make my next bold statement: Die Warzau has gone pretty soft.

Although comparatively much lighter than their other works, Die Warzau shows off an immense degree of musical skill with each track. They are a versatile band with the capability to produce nearly anything. The first track, “Crusaders,” is ridiculously groove-worthy. It seems to take influence from the world of downtempo techno. The melodic “Radiation Babies” shows off a slow ambience, highlighted by a catchy-as-hell vocal performance.

Throughout all the tracks, it seems as if Die Warzau is giving credit to a number of styles that have gained popularity in recent years. It's almost as if they're saying “Yeah...we haven't been around for a while, but we can still do all this music just as good as the new generation.” Track 13, “King of Rock and Roll,” is an IDM influenced rock opus and track 10, “Curious,” is an absolutely fantastic slow brood that throws a little ounce of NIN influence into the end (listen to it. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about if you're remotely intelligent).

Track 11, “Gone Chemical,” is more of what you'd expect Die Warzau to bust out with. It's got those joyous hard-hitting drums of the industrial age mixed with melodies that could only have come from people spending their prime in the 80s.

Track 9, “Terrorform,” is fantastic. It's got fast vocal stabs and a driving rock chorus (think Skinny Puppy's “pro-test” off of the new album. It's not a rip-off but the two songs are comparable). Each track is a new surprise, as the 16 track album refuses to copy any song technique twice. The tracks mentioned here are simply examples picked at random. Songs not mentioned are not kept out because they are any worse, but because this reviewer wants the listener to be surprised at what Die Warzau throws at them.

The following segment is actually going to cause me pain to write. It's like the keys of this keyboard are growing small pins to come up from them as punishment for what I'm about to do. Each keystroke is gonna hurt.

The cons of the album, though few and far between, happen when Die Warzau tries to mix their style into a non-industrial field and it turns out sounding, well, less-than-good. This reviewer is currently praying that these tracks are mockeries of their pop-world counterparts and purely jokes.

Track 5, “Glare,” sounds almost like it was a thrown out slow Godsmack song that Die Warzau picked up on the street. Track 6, “Bliss,” is pure industrial goodness- It features heavy beats, catchy guitars, and is the perfect song to walk around crowded streets feeling like a badass...until the chorus hits. Marcus' singing on this track shows a blatant resemblance to that wonderful(insert sarcasm here) frog-in-throat style that Creed has made so popular. (Please, industrial music gods forgive me...I am but a man and know not what I do). Track 12's “Kleen” is CLEARLY a mockery of modern boy bands and all that generic “I love you baby” style that's all over the radio. I refuse to accept a world where this track is not a joke. Track 16, “Shine,” does the exact same thing, even going so far as to highlight the pop-vocoder(you know what it is. Its a vocal effect that digitizes the voice and allows it's pitch to be changed by MIDI control. Cher uses it in that stupid song that got really popular a while back). There. The cons are over. I will sleep well at night knowing that these moments of the album are satire of pop.

The cons should not distract any red-blooded industrial music fan from checking this album out. All things considered, “Convenience” is a full 16 course meal through an electric landscape of sound. Like any rollercoaster ride, there are ups and downs, twists and turns, and a ridiculous desire to throw your water bottle up in the air hoping it'll hit another passenger in the face(...or maybe that's just my rollercoaster rides). In closing, Die Warzau is shameless in proving their competence in a modern world.

Sure to please: Industrial fans who are willing to accept Die Warzau going a little bit lighter than you'd expect. Newcomers to the hard electronic scene. Fans of downtempo. Fans of IDM.

Sure to disappoint: Anybody who thought Skinny Puppy's “Too Dark Park” was the best album they did and anything afterwards was too light. Rap fans. Heavy Metal fans.

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In the Pit with Die Warzau
by Brad Podray

- http://www.antimusic.com/features/04/diew.shtml

After a careful listen to Convenience, Die Warzau's fourth studio album, released nearly decade after their 1995 release Engine, it becomes clear that this is a band still at the top of their game. Moreover, they've expanded their bag of tricks. Between the years 1988 and 1995, when the Chicago-based Wax Trax label ruled the industrial and electronic scene, Die Warzau was at the forefront on a competing label Fiction, creating a new approach to writing and recording electronic music. Their quirky approach would later influence the methods of Sister Machine Gun, Stabbing Westward, Chris Connelly, Gravity Kills, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and other such prominent acts.


To appreciate Die Warzau fully, one needs to understand that Jim Marcus and Van Christie, the founders of Die Warzau, have a background as performance artists in and around the Chicago scene. Their early shows were less about music and more about destruction and visual abandon. While they quickly picked up some impressive musical and engineering skills, they never abandoned their avant garde roots. Some would later call their approach the beginnings of the anti-pop movement. Early success with their first single "I've Got To Make Sense" on Billboard's dance and college charts pigeonholed them as an "industrial" band, a label that was never accurate for the type of music they record. It's even more inadequate when used to describe their most recent effort, a mind-bending return to the album format. Convenience weaves effortlessly through many genres and styles, including overt influences of The Beatles, Prince, and The Beach Boys, without ever losing that signature Die Warzau sound.


It opens tentatively, but increases in potency with the passage of each song, further expanding a rich emotional tapestry. It's so rich that more than a cursory listen is required in order to pick up the slew of sub-text. Along the way, they present some of their familiar industrial sounds as well as crossing over into territories of funky down tempo, '60s-inspired pop harmonies, trip-hop, rock, and folktronica.


I found "Permission," "Radiation Babies," "Curious," "Gone Chemical," and the Martin Gore-esque ballad "Kleen" to be particularly interesting songs that nailed the lyrical intent while keeping the ear entertained by a fresh, unexpected approach.
(www.pulseblack.com)

Die Warzau
Convenience (Pulseblack)
by Wa
- http://www.lollipop.com/article.php3?content=issue67/diewarzau.html

Attack on All Fronts. If we were paying attention, we could have seen it coming.

Die Warzau never shied away from the funk. Die Warzau were always a little more organic than the average band that got lumped into the 'industrial' genre. Die Warzau managed their biggest club hit with what basically amounted to a synthpop song. Die Warzau, in the final days before their breakup in 1995, employed a full-time saxophone player as part of their stage show. Indeed, as a band they never quite ascribed to the same nihilistic, mechanical aesthetics of their black-clad brethren, even if they used many of the same musical techniques. Instead, Die Warzau chose to transcend those limitations by melding them with elements of other genres and putting a bona fide crooner over the top of it all, coming up with a product that just might be as enjoyable to Joe Average as it is to Nivek Rivethead.

So really, it shouldn't be all that surprising that, reuniting nine years later, nine years older and nine years wiser, Jim Marcus and Van Christie decided (with the help of new members Abel Garibaldi and Dan Evans) to give in to their pop tendencies, dispose of any preconceived notions of what kind of band they should be, and just make a pile of music that they happen to enjoy.

The album is called Convenience, and that name could mean a couple of different things as far as Die Warzau is concerned. For one, it was convenient that they recorded at their home studio, which likely made them more comfortable trying new things. For two, it's convenient for their fans to have pretty much every single genre that the band has ever experimented in contained over the course of a single CD. Or it could be a stab in a totally different direction, a title that, combined with the packaging and the almost shocking sound of the pop songs on this album, satirizes the current prepackaged, manufactured state of the music industry.

Supporting the latter theory are some of the lyrics that show up in the most obvious (some would say egregious) example of Die Warzau's new pop-oriented direction. "There was a time when you could feel the weight of the world on you / When did you turn so cold? / Turn off the radio," Jim Marcus emotes in his best imitation of late teenage tenor. The juxtaposition of those lyrics with the sterile electronics and major key melodies of the worst late-'90s boy-band ballads suggests that Marcus and company are trying to make some kind of anti-establishment statement, but whatever message does exist tends to get lost in the shock of music like this existing on a Die Warzau album. Other forays into pop are a bit more musically successful, like the tender "Permission", which hides its pop tendencies in washes of static, and album-closer "Shine", floating in Duran Duran airspace while acting as a surprisingly successful sequel to the Engine hit "Allgoodgirls".

Lost in all of the hoohaa over the pop songs on the disc is the fact that the sheer variety of styles displayed on Convenience borders on mind-numbing. Plenty of tracks steer closer to the Die Warzau that the industrialites of the mid-'90s came to know and love -- "Radiation Babies" features a funky slap bass lifted straight off of 1992's Big Electric Metal Bass Face, and fast-paced electronics and vocals push the song into club hit territory. "King of Rock and Roll" juxtaposes distorted vocals and a slow beat with a bit of Aphex Twin-influenced drill 'n bass, and "Superbuick" features as grungy a guitar riff as modern music has seen since grunge itself died its own slow, painful death. An homage to Skinny Puppy appears via "Terrorform", with cut-up vocals and a faux-metal guitar that owes more than a little to Skinny Puppy's recent hit "Pro-Test", not to mention that it features the lyric "kill to cure", referencing a slogan from the mid-'80s incarnation of the mighty Puppy.

The neat thing is, for every "Terrorform" there's a "Glare", which while it's a decent song might be a bit too much like a folky, brooding Everlast song for a lot of peoples' tastes. For every "Curious" (industrial dirge with explosive guitar ending à la Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt"), there's a "Come as You Are" (light, fluffy techno). Convenience is 16 solid tracks long, clocking in at nearly 70 minutes. It never gets tiring or monotonous, because the listener is in a constant state of wondering just what the next song could possibly sound like. It's like listening to a mix tape of songs that all just happen to have the same vocalist, and it is a success for that reason more than any other -- Convenience effectively proves that Die Warzau is a band that cannot be pinned to any musical genre, and not only is it a fantastic listen, it also points to unlimited possibilities for the future.

PopMatters.com

DIE WARZAU
Convenience
(Pulseblack)
Rating: 8
by Mike Schiller
- http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/diewarzau-convenience.shtml