Vicious
Blutiger Rosettenwalzer
Tired Templars
The King Of Siam
Das Gebet Für Den Lebensmut
Roman Strength
.M. Blows
Champagne!
Grille Fickt Killerfliege
Time To Die
Angst Der Geschlechter

Before any of you start reading this please go immediately to my review of the V/A - Steinklang Industries Disco release [read here]. If you’ve bothered to do as I’ve just asked you should now have an overview to the way the Steinklang label works. What you won’t know is that Institution D.O.L appeared on that compilation with a track called ‘Time to die’ but I didn’t include it as an essential track because it sounded too close to the likes of Leather Strip or Klinik for comfort. Ok if you like that sort of thing, which I can take in small doses, but nothing to get wildly excited about. This is the problem with compilations. The tracks that appear don’t always match the full musical range or spectrum of the artists featured. ‘Time to die’ certainly bears this out.

Before I continue I had better tell you that unlike the majority of Steinklang releases "Eleven Anticlerical Supersongs" isn’t strictly limited in number and has been given a decent (if you can call 500 copies decent that is) release so befitting of the artist concerned. Eleven tracks. Eleven pieces of varied musical styles all interwoven within those tracks. Think of a genre and you’ll find it somewhere in here crawling out of the organised chaos. Simplified electronics stripped down to the bone. Crunching rhythmic passages. Sample dominated pieces. Glitch and hums that crackle insanely. EBM that doesn’t actually appear out of place. Ambience of every colour. Bits of metal clanking together. Harsh domineering vocals from Hell itself compete against sexy vixens from planet Slut. Want some guitar and harmonica? Have it. Add some avant-garde general weirdness into the mix and the result is "Eleven Anticlerical Supersongs". Heck…even ‘Time to die’ sounds great when it eventually appears. Its releases like this that fully restores my faith in music today. The sheer inventiveness and ingenuity of the artist to make every track sound different and yet to hold it together so completely is, quite frankly, amazing.

Institution D.O.L has taken a gamble by throwing so many things into the melting pot but it’s a gamble that’s paid off handsomely. Here’s a recording that not only sounds better with every repeated listen but actually reveals more intricacy’s as the layers of music are slowly peeled and stripped away. Here’s music not afraid to take chances. Here’s music that has the audacity to go into areas others would shy away from. Have you got the balls to give it a try? If you have then you’ll be amply rewarded for your time and effort.

ANM