V/A Forms Of Hands 19 (CD Album – Hands)

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

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