There is a real beauty in browsing otherwise half-forgotten, half-remembered pages on the internet, as many times one can find nice stuff there, folks. One day, still in a post-apocalyptic mood after hearing Enbilulugugal‘s „The Day After“ release, I started to browse other selectons of Dipsomaniac Distilleries, Izedis‘ own netlabel and what did I find…
With a name like Radioaktive Children you don‘t need to doubt I went for this release like a dog for a bone. Expecting some harsh noise wall or similar fringe genre recording, I was pleasantly surprised. Why?
Radioaktive Children are no noise. They play industrial/EBM and I do ocassionally enjoy this genre too. So I‘ve chosen the latter of their two releases, entitled „Vomit from Cosmos“ and it would be a crime not to share with you my feelings about it.
Let me tell you this. For the last week I listen to this release, and this statement could tell you one of two things – either I like to suffer or it‘s a great stuff. Guess which one it is.
The record (I think it could be properly labeled as EP) opens with a fuckin‘ great „Reactor #4“ itself with a fuckin‘ great intro about the explosion of Chernobyl Reactor number, well, 4. And I can relate to that, in 1986 I still lived in eastern part of then Czechoslovakia, not far away from Ukraininan (then USSR, of course) borders and we do remember the Communists‘ cover up of the explosion (yep, we even had our annual May Day celebrations that year despite a real danger from radioactive clouds moving around). But hey, it‘s not about me, OK? Aforementioned song has everything a great industrial/EBM songs has to have. Catchy, rythmic, tense…indeed great opening.
The second offering is my second most favorite song from this release, and it‘s something I call a bastard child of Ministry and Johny Rotten. Really, listen to the opening lines…it really brings up the era of „The Land of Rape and Honey“ (another classic favorite of mine) and the clean voice is indeed similar to Rotten‘s vocal expression. Instant favorite, hell yeah!
Not a minute long (0:58) Unto is full of vocal samples and it‘s midtempo reminds me a little of Laibach‘s „Kapital“ album (and do I love this one). Good one? Yes, but I want a longer version!
„Spider Shit“ is funny name for the song on the 4th position and it differs from usually sung songs here, with its lines screamed, the sample, which could be right from Depeche Mode‘s „Masters And Servants“ keeps everything in order and „everything floats down here“ ending is again a balsam for my soul. Not that I would go for that ship in sewers!
„Vomit from Cosmos“, is more in an industrial than EBM way and good, but again, as with Untro, it could be a little, just a little, longer, as in this form sound more like a soundclip than an actual song. Shame, it sounds good.
„Cannibal Lecture“ follows and I can tell you, from my intense listening, Radioaktive Children are stronger with clean vocals than using distorted voices. This song confirms it quite well. Not that distortion is bad (how could it be, right?), but I just prefer their clean singing. They are not bad singers nor „shouters“ (don‘t have a more suitable word at the moment, lol).
I had to google what „Amygdala“ was (I knew I‘ve heard it before, but couldn‘t recall what it was) and this slow paced song with sampled voice lines, ear-eating bass line (fuck yeah!), transdimensional keyboards and intense vocals („it‘s only fear“ line is worth putting on the loop), I‘ve already heard this song on repeat for a couple times.
And the last one, „Pitch Black“, opening with interesting sample from unknown-to-me movie (perhaps?), brings the same outer space keyboards into play again, along with sampled guitars and vocal samples it builds up a great wall of intense experience. What a great finish.
Now, don‘t get me wrong, those of you more skilled in industrial/EBM stuff than me (that means, basically, almost everyone) could probably spot many deja-vu moments (as you can tell, listening to this release has brought up memories of similar songs from the past), but RC are in no way a copy or a cheap imitator of more established acts, as it would be unfair to say something like that.
Like it or not, myself, I will wait for some new material (and guys already put something new out through their Facebook page) and I hope they won‘t abandon their radioactive scary shit anytime soon.