Past Darkly/The Future Li, the

2 CD release of a rare triple LP box set retrospective originally released in 1989. Milwaukee instrumental noise combo that “originally began as a home taping project” in the early 80’s, a la Throbbing Gristle, SPK, evolved into a psyche rock band a la Hawkwind. 1st CD documents mostly the former while the 2nd the latter. This used to be what one meant by “industrial” or “industrial noise” before Ministry and Skinny Puppy and NIN changed that for some reason. CDs progress chronologically. The 1st growing more harsh and noisy as it progresses (analog synths or treated found sounds), the 2nd being more psyche rock oriented (noisy guitar, bass, rock drums, with swirling analog synth sounds). These guys collaborated w/ noise cronies Boy Dirt Car (whose amazing LP box set we have in main). In the last 20 years this genre has been thoroughly explored (see Bardo Pond, early Bowery Electric, Jessamine, terrastock, et al); consider these guys Lewis and Clark. All good, though I am partial to CD2 because I am a noise stoner jam analog synth rocker at heart, and this is the best stuff I’ve ever heard. Period.

CD1 (all cool weird noise/synth experiments):
1) creepy blippy drony
2) quieter, near ambient
3) mellow
4) semi-beat
5) low buzzes, echoey voiceover
6) really goood low heavy groans, drones, evolves to great simple beat and good noises
7) good noisy looping synths
8) lo-fi subdued tape looping w/ subliminal voiceover
9) harsher noise looping
10) industrial noise
11) noisy
12) noisy droney w/ city/train sounds
13) drony
14-15) trademark nosiy synth appears (good purchase, guys!)
16) organic acoustic industrial noise by orig definition
17) looping synths, stripped down rhythmic
18) melodic high synths w/ strange leads

CD2 (all great dirge-psyche rock):
1) slow dark pladding electrobeat
2) here we go: cool rock beats with dirty guits and swirling noisy analog syth
3) more upbeat driving
4) NOTE: starts after 15 secs of dead air, another cool rock dirge jam, lead guit in front
5) noisy collage intro, launches into epic Loop’ish riff, hits all cylinders with bass and analog synth
6) pure rock feel with very low fi VOCALS, just guit/bass/drums, garagey
7) crisper production, slow dirgey, thick
8) crisper, epitome of F/i space jam VOCS, buried
9) looping noise, drum beats are gone
10) noise collage
11) drum beats are back, tone isn’t as raw, goes into space noise, then launches back into the beat, long track
12) 15 secs of silence or so then ambient spooky noise