Chemlab
Oxidizer (Invisible/Crack Nation)
Oxidizer is the first shot fired by Jared Louche in over 8 years while operating under the Chemlab banner. Sure he was in H3LLB3NT and Pigface and even put out a nice lil’ solo effort with the Aliens, but for my money Chemlab is that cozy comfortable home where Jared Louche belongs.
I’m not entirely sure what his previous partner in crime Dylan was up to this time around. However, Jared has chosen a new bevy of boys to aid him in carrying out some of the best damned industrial rock you’ll ever hear. That hot chocolate Charles Levi Levi keeps the mega ton bottom shock in check, and plucked right from planet Crack we have Acumen Nation providing more mayhem for Jared to wield his sneering, esoteric lyrical outlook on modern society. If you’ve never paid attention to what this man says then listen up. Jared’s lyrics wryly teeter on the edge of beat poetry with a stream of consciousness cut-up sensibility that is shaken and strained through a mixture of introspection and commentary guised in neo-futurism and sarcasm. That may sound a bit ridiculous but just know that Jared is no slouch behind the pen.
Check the lead off track Monkey God or Binary Nation or even Scornocopia to get a reminder of just how fucking cool Chemlab have been and still are. Oxidizer clocks in at just under 50 minutes, which is to say that this is not some kind of pretentious, boring over blown come back record. Nope, quite the contrary, it’s short and snappy. No meandering around in silly sound-scapes or 8-minute breakdowns. Oxidizer just gets down and dirty. Of course some may argue that the 4 new ‘sutures’ are just noise but I’m not gonna get into that. If you’ve been with Chemlab for the long haul then you know that a ‘suture’ is an arty set piece unto itself.
Personally I could go on and on about this record. Readers of this mag ought to be all too familiar with Chemlab and shouldn’t need to be beaten over the head about it. - C. Curry
Posted by MK Magazine