I’ve received this nice digital promo from Machine Man Records, a New Jersey (USA) label specializing in electronic/industrial/metal underground music – so let’s have a look what do we have here.
Krebs is a spooky electronic project hailing from Philadelphia (PA), created by Michael Haggerty in 2012. As the profile says: “Rooted in noise, and influenced by multiple artists within the electronic genre, Krebs is a fusion of all things heavy, dark and spooky.”
Now, I’m not an expert in electronic music, but I’ve heard a thing or two and I can appreciate the honesty. I probably won’t be mistaken hearing the influence of artists of VNV Nation or Wumpscut, or even The Prodigy (and I am sure of Apoptygma Berserk) in some tracks, but that’s fine with me. I like those artists and Krebs follows in their steps, although in its own way.
Actually, I’m not sure if I would call this music “spooky”. I guess not, but I am much impressed by the stuff presented. You just can’t know what to expect, as Michael goes from hard beats and aggressive melodies to ambient tracks and almost whispered voices, all the way back and forth.
What about the current material from January 2018? Corvus’ opening is “Corvus”, and it really brings to me that grandeur vibe of Wumpscut. Song works well with the few layers of music bursting into the majestic chorus of multiple layered soundscapes and beats, constantly changing, but still being the same. Nice work indeed.
The second track is a surprising one. Totally ambient “The Street” with underlaying sounds of the actual street sounds, people talking, cars passing by, mixed with the bass loop and other noise. It’s like a song being created from some movie, nicely building the atmosphere of anxiety and anticipation of some spooky (I said that!) stuff. I won’t listen to this one on repeat, but as a sound experiment in Krebs’ catalogue of music, good idea.
The third, and the last, song here is “HoAx”,a track with almost a military beat machine rhythm, again, nicely putting together a collage of sound and loops and whispered multilayered voice on top of that all. Well thought structure of the song doesn’t allow the listener to get distracted and all tracks are of a reasonable length – you know, long enough to be interesting and containing all the elements, but short enough to become boring. And that’s how it should be, I think we all can agree on that.
Oh, and if you like this one, don’t forget to check Krebs’ back catalogue. Some great stuff there as well!
Check Krebs on Bandcamp: https://krebs.bandcamp.com/
Other releases by Machine Man Records: https://machinemanrecords.com/
Wish you would make another album Krebs.