Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Industrial Soup — A Flagrant Display of Subtlety
(Technomedia Labs TML-001, 1995, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 1996-03-01

A Flagrant Display of Subtlety Cover art

From San Jose, California, Industrial Soup is a trio of keys+bass, drums, and vocals+sax, sporting a hard driving and quirky keyboard dominated sound that, together with the humorous lyrics (well... they made me laugh a lot!) and manic spoken / shouted vocals makes for a pretty unique musical journey. The music moves along in a herky-jerky rhythmic way with flashes of melody popping out during breaks in the lyrics, or competing with them for center stage; this release would fit in nicely with others on the FOT / Ponk label, totally over the top. Lyrically, I am sometimes reminded of that early 80s EP by Bedful of Metaphysicians, but I suspect that with songtitles like "Tiny Bladder" (its lyrics describe standing in the bathroom line at a football game) or a song about a bureaucratic encounter at the DMV, that there is at least a little Zappa / Beefheart influence hiding somewhere in the shadows. The music is urgent, aggressive and restless, and a good support vehicle for the lyrics on tracks like "Evolve or Die" or "Burrito of Love." In summary, Industrial Soup's opening shot is a lot of fun on a lot of different levels, and one that most should enjoy.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 9, 1995 releases

Related artist(s): Industrial Soup, Erratica (David O'Neil)

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.