“Forms of Hands” is now in its 23rd edition, showcasing 14 tracks from some of the most esteemed names in modern Industrial music who have long been associated with the German label. This installment is notably intense, featuring a robust selection of Rhythmic-Noise that often blends with hard Techno elements and IDM. At times, Breakcore rhythms cut through the sonic landscape, creating a dynamic and powerful auditory experience. Among the merciless tracklist, S.I.N.A. offers a unique yet understated moment of rest. This edition features exclusive tracks from legendary artists such as Esplendor Geometrico, Sonar, and Greyhound, alongside prominent figures like ICD-10, MS Gentur + Sven Phalanx, Heimstatt Yipotash, 13TH Monkey, Saturmzlide and SKET. Additionally, emerging names like Anarchotech, Hysteresis, Strobo.Lolita, and Supersimmetria contribute to this extraordinary collection. “Forms of Hands” Volume 23 is truly a grand cru of the genre. (Rate:9).

Listen to “Urgencia” from Esplendor Geometrico:

About Hands

Hands Productions was founded in 1990 in Fürth, Germany, by Udo Wiessmann as a platform for his own projects Winterkälte, Atrum and Severance. Over the years the label’s catalog spanned minimalist ambient, breakbeat and rhythmic noise, with Winterkälte’s early vinyl releases helping define the drum’n’noise style associated with the label. Hands later moved its operations to Dortmund, Germany, and has released early work from acts including Orphx, Needle Sharing and Ah Cama-Sotz. “Forms of Hands” is the label’s recurring various-artists compilation series; this 23rd volume gathers current and past Hands artists.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial, Rhythmic-Noise, Power-Noise, Industrial-Techno, Electro-Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: The legendary “Forms Of Hands” festival got cancelled in 2020 because of the ongoing pandemic. So the 20^th edition took place in 2021 and was accompanied by the good-old compilation. We got fourteen projects and tracks.

Artists: <1979>, ICD-10, Hysteresis, Maschinenkrieger KR52, Heimstatt Yipotash, Mono No Aware, Monolith, Strobo.Lolita, 16Pad Noise Terrorist, Cervello Elettronico, MS Gentur, Greyhound, Nullvektor, Winterkälte.

Content: If you’re familiar with Hands you for sure recognize most of the bands. This new sampler is dominated by merciless Rhythmic/Power-Noise assaults from projects like Winterkälte, MS Gentur, Greyhound, Maschinenkrieger KR52, Mono No Aware and Strobo.Lolita. The Industrial-Techno format has been featured by ICD-10, HysteresisMonolith and Nullvektor. Other formations like <1979>, Heimstatt Yipotash and of course Cervello Elettronico bring a more sophisticated, minimal and intelligent sound. 16 Pad Noise Terrorist stands for the most Experimental touch of the compilation.

+ + + : Hands is a label I deeply respect for numerous reasons; first of all as leading label of qualitative ‘Industrial’ music, next for its longevity, but also for the will to innovate and give a chance to artists with a new and sometimes visionary approach of Industrial music. It has been perfectly represented by this new compilation. It’s interesting getting back to the first issues of this series and comparing it with this 20^th edition. It’s an amazing evolution in sound although the label always remained driven by Industrial music. The evolution of a band like Heimstatt Yipotash perfectly symbolizes the evolution of the label.

– – – : If you’re not into the harder Rhythmic-Noise side of the label, there are for sure better compilations in this series.

Conclusion: A hard, powerful and ultra-danceable vintage of Industrial music and who says Industrial, thinks Hands!

Best bands: Heimstatt Yipotash, Cervello elettronico, ICD-10, Nullvektor, Monolith, Hysteresis, >1979<.

Rate: 8.

Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official

About Hands

Hands Productions, known as Hands, was founded in 1990 by Udo Wiessmann in Fürth, Germany, as a platform for his own projects Atrum, Severance and Winterkälte. The label later moved to Dortmund and widened its catalogue to full-length artist albums, releasing early work by Orphx, Ah Cama-Sotz and S.K.E.T.

Since 2001 the label has issued an annual “Forms Of Hands” festival compilation gathering one track from each act on its roster. The 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled, so the twentieth edition took place in 2021. “Forms Of Hands 20 – 20th Edition” was released on 10 September 2021 with fourteen artists and fourteen tracks.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial-Techno, Dark-Techno.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Two years after the official debut album “Differential Diagnosis” ICD-10 is back on track. The band now consists of three full-time members: Henning Hinck, Daniel Himmelreich and Thorsten Felix.

Content: The new stuff moves on where “Differential Diagnosis” stopped; a heavy sonic travel throughout the realms of Dark-Techno music mixed with heavy Industrial components. This is music for Industrial dancefloors. The tracks feature multiple subtle noise treatments accentuating the dark side of the work.

+ + + : The sound formula created by ICD-10 is not new at all, but they achieved it with intelligence. It’s not just a heavy, pumping production, but also a composition with numerous sonic details like refined noises, which you better can discover by using headphones. “Ishimura” is a track I want to mention as it’s a brilliant composition revealing explicit Electronic sequences and evolving into a transcendental climax.

– – – : The only point that might hurt with this kind of production is the repetitive character of the songs. So in the end it starts to become a little bit predictable.

Conclusion: If music could bite, ICD-10 would be a merciless T-Rex!

Best songs: “Ishimura”, “Flatline”, “Dark Matters”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/ICD10official

Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official

About ICD-10

ICD-10 is an industrial techno project from Marburg, Germany, named after the WHO classification of diseases. Henning Hinck and Daniel Himmelreich started making music together around 2011, according to the September 2019 ‘Click Interview’ with ICD-10; Discogs dates the formal start of the duo to 2013. Both worked with Wolfram Bange of Phasenmensch, supporting him on stage from 2016 and sharing the collaboration album Divinity Unity Nothingness, released on Hands in 2017 and reviewed on Side-Line in January 2018. Techno producer and DJ Thorsten Felix joined at the start of 2018 and is a full member since 2019.

The official debut album Differential Diagnosis came out on Hands in 2019 and was reviewed on Side-Line in August of that year. “Irregular Cerebral Device” followed on 4 June 2021 as a CD in a Hands paper pack and as a download. The ten tracks are “Flatline”, “Simex”, “Shenzen”, “Dark Matters”, “Collective Idealism”, “No Mercy”, “Ishimura”, “Hitech Warfare”, “To Be A Bat” and “Endorno”. The trio wrote and produced the album, Interzone Mastering mastered it and Nicola Bork made the artwork and photography.

The band contributed to the label compilations “Forms Of Hands 18”, “Forms Of Hands 19”, Forms Of Hands 20, Forms Of Hands 23 and “Forms Of Hands 25”. Later releases are the digital EP “Enter The Vault” (2023) and the CD album “Quantum Disruption” (2026), both on Hands. ICD-10 is on the bill of the Beats and Noise event at the Kulttempel in Oberhausen on 10 October 2026. “Irregular Cerebral Device” is the second ICD-10 album for the label.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

ICD-10 is a medical classification for systematization of diagnoses. It means ‘International Classification of Diseases‘ and was created by the WHO (World Health Organization). Industrial- and a lot of electronic music very often focused on structure and deconstruction. This definition of pathology gives ICD-10 the conception they might be able to define a clear line between health and sickness without diffusion, although the border between physiology and pathology often isn’t quite that clear. Like the definitions between a so-called crystal clear tone or rhythm at one hand and site riot sounds at the other hand are not that accurate as they seem to be. A distortion makes sound sometimes more interesting than a clear phrase and the sickness in sounds helps them to find roughness, drive and groove. This is the way Daniel Himmelreich introduces ICD-10, which recently released their official debut album “Differential Diagnosis” on Hands. This work is a judicious mix between industrial-, techno- and trance music. I got more details about it all from Daniel Himmelreich.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I noticed you are already active for several years now. Can you briefly summarize how you guys met and what have been the main facts in ICD-10 history?

Daniel: Henning Hinck and me became friends around 15 years ago now. We both shared a preference for mainstream electronic music. Henning already started producing music at this point and organized industrial parties (“Rise of the Machines“). He’s still producing in many genres dealing with alternative electronic music like dark-psy, industrial, techno, IDM and many others (Voidscream, Constructor, Decuntstructivision etc.).

Back in time we had many exchanges about music we had in common, so in 2011 we had the idea to create music together. We started slowly, but were continuously working on ideas and tracks. We experimented to find our sound, workflow and drive. Very often we felt alright with tracks, which made us tap our feeds and nod our heads to the beat. Our sound got more and more shape at this time. Also we were playing a handful of gigs per year on little techno- and industrial events.

Around 2012 Henning started to work together with Wolfram Bange and his project Phasenmensch (signed on Hands). In 2016 I joined in to support Wolfram live on stage and we were working on remixes for each other. After creating “Divinity Unity Nothingness“, we tried to figure out which of our bundle of pure ICD-10 tracks would fit on an album. Since the beginning of 2018 we work together with a techno producer and DJ Thorsten Felix aka Toneflex. We found out that our ideas of music work very well together and our production processes got more balanced. So now we are a happy trio since the beginning of the year.

Q: You recently released your first official album “Differential Diagnosis” on Hands. What does this album mean to you, what is the title all about and how would you introduce this production?

Daniel: It is a great feeling to have an essence of our work and it shows the people a result of what we are doing. Sometimes it’s more industrial-techno orientated and sometimes even more on the noisier side of our personal taste.

Maybe the title is allegorical for the whole process of creating. First you have to find out what you want, you have a vision, but on the way to get there you have to balance the facts which may lead you to some other direction. Like in “Differential Diagnosis” you have to bring parts together, drop or modify parts which do not fit. Crystallize to the core, using neither too much nor to less information. Balancing between structure and intuition. We hope we had a little touch of that in our album and the diagnosis is well and differential enough to make people dance, get energized and shaken. To give the album a short and common trademark: it is an industrial-techno/dark-techno album with parts of rhythmic noise and IDM. Thankfully Udo Wiesmann from Hands shared our opinion to release this album. We enjoy the familiar, lovely atmosphere and support in the Hands family as already experienced before working together with Phasenmensch. So we are very happy to be part of Hands.

Q: “Differential Diagnosis” is not only driven by a dark-techno format mixed with industrial music, but still featuring sophisticated sound-treatments. Tell us a bit more about your ‘sound’ and the sound creation?

Daniel: We often build sketches separately, sometimes digital- and sometimes analog like. Henning is very structured, crispy, punchy and professional in his sketches. I’m more chaotic and ragged in my outlines, coming often from jamming with different digital or analog gear. Then we come together and are looking if our stuff fits into the ICD-10 sound and if we could build it up. The core concept of our workflow might be: every playfulness, texture or soundscape needs the direction forward surfing on the bassline.

ICD-10 tries to convulse the vessels in your mid ear and diaphragm. A short half-joking summary of the description of our sound is: ‘some make music to open hearts – we aim to perforate other organs’.

Q: Do you feel closer to the ‘techno’- or ‘industrial’ scene and how do you explain the fusion between both genres, which becomes quite ‘trendy’ today?

Daniel: I personally feel closer to the industrial scene. That’s where it all started. Henning is a bit more related to the techno-, breakcore- and dark-psy scene than me, but also has a main pillar in the industrial scene. In our view of electronic music historically, family comes together again with this new trend. We think the early drive of the industrial scene was quite equal to the early non-conform or independent techno scene. Surely industrial was more stick to a dystopian or anarchistic view and never became as popular as techno, but you can’t blame techno for becoming part of the mainstream. There is still much underground drive in that kind of music, particular nowadays.

Often there are all the discussions about the simple 4/4 rhythm or other repetitive patterns which make the sound techno and thus mainstream. So drumming on a steel sheet is the same cliché for so called true industrial? We both welcome an energy of openness and connectivity between genres which influence each other. That should be the attitude these days not only in music. And we also appreciate that parts of techno get more dystopian, rough, experimental and non-conform.

Q: You’re clearly in close terms with Phasenmensch. Two years ago now you released the album “Divinity/Unity/Nothingness” as a collaboration between both projects while they contributed on one of the songs on “Differential Diagnosis”. How did you get in touch and what makes this kind of chemistry between both projects?

Daniel: Henning organized Phasenmensch first bigger gig in our hometown Marburg while he was also doing some DJ-sets. There Wolfram was inspired by Henning’s techniques and production methods. So Henning became kind of a mentor for him and was working on mixing, mastering, remixing as well as writing collaborative tracks for most albums of Phasenmensch. When we started to support Phasenmensch the idea to make a full collaboration album happened very fast. Sometimes it wasn’t easy to bring our ideas together, but it helped a lot to sharpen our profiles, which guided us at the bottom line to our combined character. The fusion of Wolfram´s ambient, dreamy and as well internalized tone on the one hand and the more effect driven, pulsing, aggressive, rumbling sound of ICD-10 on the other hand finally directs us to something that feels new, but guided us also to important facets of our projects.

Q: How do you transpose the album to the stage? How do you see yourselves on stage and what did you try to express?

Daniel: If our music is the lightning we try to evoke the thunder on stage. A bit less overblown description might be: we try to bring the punch and energy of our sound on stage and make people move, but also fill up the presentation of our album with some new, also unexpected elements and textures or variations. We were lucky to have our first live presentation of “Differential Diagnosis” at the well known “Forms Of Hands”-festival this year. On most of our stuff we’ve the intention to bring a faster heart rate to the audience. Let’s say it with the ICD-10: R00.2 – that’s the code for throbbing. Now we are three people and lately we work on new ideas how live performances could be in the near future. So we will see what the future brings…

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial-techno, IDM, rhythmic-noise.

Background/Info: Hands label has used to release this annual compilation, which is a look back at the “Forms Of Hands”-festival each year reassembling some of their hottest bands. Fourteen artists who contributed to the festival have been featured at this sampler.

Artists: S.K.E.T., Mono No Aware, Heimstatt Yipotash, Gatto Nero, Supersimmetria, Geistform, Winterkälte, Tomohiko Sagae, ICD-10, Katran, 16Pad Noise Terrorist, Sans-Fin, Yura Yura, Talvekoidik.

Content: Even if Hands remain one of the uncontested leading labels from the industrial music scene, industrial music has seriously evolved. The music style has been progressively, but severely contaminated by techno music, resulting in a harder, darker and underground format of industrial-techno. Most of the featured bands are clearly experimenting with techno while remaining faithful to darker influences. But a few die-hard bands or call them ‘purists’ are still into the familiar industrial format.

+ + + : If you compare early “Forms Of Hands”-compilations with this latest one, you only, but have to agree this is a label in progress. This is the new standard of industrial-music, one that will bring people to dance a frenetic way till reaching a state of trance. From the minimal-like techno format of Supersimmetria to pure techno by Gatto Nero to an experimental format by Mono No Aware to the sound intelligence of Geistform, the techno heads will be ravished. Sans-Fin, Yura Yura and even Tomohiko Sagae bring us a more ‘classical’ industrial style.

– – – : I sometimes ask myself what early Hands fans would think about this industrial (R)evolution! I’m not sure it will please all fans.

Conclusion: This is the kind of sampler simply confirming each year again that the label from Dortmund remains ‘the’ absolute reference in this kind of music!

Best bands: Geistform, Yura Yura, Sans-Fin, Katran, Heimstatt Yipotash, Talvekoidik.

Rate: (8).

Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official

About Forms Of Hands

“Forms Of Hands” is the annual compilation the Dortmund label Hands ties to its own festival of the same name, gathering acts from its roster each year. Later editions continued the series with “Forms Of Hands 20” (2021), “Forms Of Hands 21” (2022), “Forms Of Hands 22” (2023), “Forms Of Hands 23” (2024) and “Forms Of Hands 24” (2025). This 19th edition features several artists reviewed individually by Side-Line around the same release window: Geistform, Talvekoidik, Supersimmetria, Sans-Fin and ICD-10.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial-trance, industrial-techno.

Background/Info: Henning Hinck and Daniel Himmelreich are already active for several years now under the ICD-10 moniker. While this is their official debut album as solo-project they already released the album “Divinity/Unity/Nothingness” together with label mates Phasenmensch, with whom they seem to have a friendly relationship. “Differential Diagnosis” reveals 13 tracks from the German duo.

Content: The techno virus is seriously contaminating the industrial music scene. ICD-10 are clearly driven by techno and trance inspiration, which they crafted into a darker and harder industrial approach. Heavy kicks, vibrating bass tones and a few spoken samplings will get you into dance! One’ of the tracks is featuring Phasenmensch.

+ + + : Dark-techno music is getting more and more common today. This is not only dark-techno music, but a perfect merge with harder, industrial fields. I especially like the transcendental sensation emerging from most of the tracks, but I especially have to mention “Squeeze”, which stands for pure frenetic dance stuff! The work also has something sophisticated and that’s already what I heard on their work together with Phasenmensch. This input is more IDM-like, but the basis remains industrial-trance!

– – – : I sometimes regret the songs are not harder and maybe a little bit more industrial or rhythmic-noise driven.

Conclusion: ICD-10 appears to be a real sound ogre when it comes to get people dancing on industrial-trance stuff!

Best songs: “Squeeze”, “Complex Shape feat. Phasenmensch”, “Dark Channels”, “Centerline”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/ICD10RhythmicNoise

Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official

About ICD-10

ICD-10 is the German rhythmic noise, IDM and industrial-techno project formed in 2013 by Henning Hinck and Daniel Himmelreich, later joined by Thorsten Felix. Before “Differential Diagnosis”, the pair released the joint album “Divinity/Unity/Nothingness” with label mates Phasenmensch. ICD-10 followed up with a Click Interview the following month and the 2021 album “Irregular Cerebral Device”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: IDM, industrial, industrial-trance, experimental-techno.

Background/Info: Wolfram Bange better known under the Phasenmensch moniker joined hands together with Henning Hinck and Daniel Himmelreich aka ICD-10. Those artists are soulmates as the ICD-10 duo already contributed to previous Phasenmensch work while they both also assisted Bange on stage.

Content: This is a diversified piece of work moving from IDM towards industrial-techno and trance. Sometimes on the edge of experimentalism, but always driven by transcendental rhythms, this album covers a wider sonic canvas. I also noticed goa-like kicks and a kind of passion for sound effects and other meticulous treatments.

+ + + : Diversity is the main strength of this work, but it also reveals artists who feel comfortable experimenting with diversified influences. It’s an intelligent exposure of techno music mixed with dark noises or you can call it visionary industrial music for the next generations. The least I can say is that this trio stands for sonic chemistry!

– – – : This album definitely stands for ‘modern’ industrial music, which sounds like ages away from the ‘classical’ standards in the genre. That’s probably why this kind of production is too ‘techno’-minded for industrial purists.

Conclusion: Phasenmensch confirms its avant-garde sound in mixing techno with industrial, but now has found the perfect soulmates to create a great piece of dark dance stuff.

Best songs: “Shape Of Dissolution”, “Divinity”, “Unity (Auda)”, “Freedom Of Speech”, “Deep Within”.

Rate: (8).

Bands: www.facebook.com/phasenmensch / www.facebook.com/ICD10RhythmicNoise

Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official

About Phasenmensch & ICD-10

Phasenmensch is the project of Wolfram Bange from Dortmund, Germany, with a discography built around German-titled works including “Schweigen,” “Der Letzte Mensch,” “Begegnungen” and “Die Welt Erfriert.”

ICD-10 is an industrial techno project from Marburg, Germany, named after the WHO classification of diseases. Henning Hinck and Daniel Himmelreich started making music together around 2011, according to a later Click Interview with Side-Line; Discogs dates the formal start of the duo to 2013. Both worked with Bange on stage from 2016, leading to “Divinity/Unity/Nothingness,” reviewed here.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com