Attrition / Alu – Attrition / Alu (Album – Peripheral Minimal)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, electro, industrial.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: This album is a re-release and for the very first time on CD format of a split album between Attrition (UK) and Alu (Germany). The work was originally released in 1983 on cassette format by IRRE Tapes. For both of the projects this split work was one of their first releases.
Content: This work features 6 songs by Attrition and 5 songs by Alu. It’s an opportunity to (re)discover the first steps and especially experiments of Martin Bowes, but still a somewhat forgotten –or rather unknown project like Alu. You’ve to imagine this work in the context of the early 80s when artists such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Monte Cazzazza, Nocturnal Emissions ao revealed their first experiments to the world. It’s a mix of industrial- and experimental music. It’s hard to hear what’s improvised and what not. Creating and manipulating noises appeared to be more interesting than composing ‘songs’. It was a period of ‘anti-music’.
+ + + : It’s just great to get back to this forgotten record and especially (re)discovering the work of Attrition. This composition has nothing in common with the later electro style of Martin Bowes. No, this is total experiment and improvisation although resulting in a few little jewels like “Day I Was Born” –which might be considered with a little bit of imagination as the basis for the later sound of the project while “You Will Remember Nothing” is pure Throbbing Gristle-music. Alu is comparable to the work of Attrition and yet it sounds more diversified. Sometimes industrial with a funky touch on top and next total improvisation. The fans of Throbbing Gristle will like these songs as well.
– – – : The extremely experimental approach and impro style both made it hardly accessible for a wider audience.
Conclusion: This album belongs to the history of industrial/experimental music and it’s really great it has been recovered from dust to get now released on CD format.
Best songs: Attrition: “You Will Remember Nothing”, “Day I Was Born”, “Onslaught” + Alu: “Vendetta”, “Unaba”.
Rate: (7).
Artists: www.attrition.co.uk / www.facebook.com/ATTRITIONMUSIC / www.alugenerator.de
Label: www.peripheralminimal.com / www.facebook.com/PeripheralMinimal
About Attrition & Alu
Attrition is the project of English musician Martin Bowes, formed in Coventry in 1980 with Julia Waller and her brother Ashley after Bowes ran the local fanzine Alternative Sounds from 1979 to 1981. Alu was a German project formed from the remains of the Krautrock band Sand in 1979 by Ludwig Papenberg and Johannes Vester, joined by Nadja Molt in 1981 before disbanding in 1986. The two acts shared this split release on IRRE Tapes in 1983, reissued on CD here. Attrition remained active for over four decades, releasing “The Black Maria” in 2024 with returning original singer Julia Waller, discussed by Martin Bowes in a Side-Line Click Interview.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
