music review:

iNsuRge ::: "Power to the Poison People"

industrial - rock - politics

iNsuRge, perhaps Australia's best known industrial group along with SNOG, evolved out of "Soulscraper" in the early-mid-1990s, one of Australia's earliest cyber-industrial bands. This was Insurge's first album though most of the material was released on the 3 or 4 E.P.'s they'd released previously.

Releasing this album so soon after most was released on E.P.'s was perhaps a bit of a gamble that I imagine would have affected sales to a fair degree. I for one had 2 of the e.p.'s and a single and wasn't going to fork out $30 for 3 or 4 tracks when most of the money would not go to the band but to a major label. Perhaps if they had different versions of the tracks on the album, it might have provided a better incentive for many to buy it. A tricky decision. Anyway, i've borrowed this from a friend to review:

You get 12 tracks over 44 minutes here. The highlights for me are "51%" about corporate ownership of industry, media etc., "Time Bomb" about chemical pollution and industrial waste, "Welfare State" and "Not So Free" with it's slower groove, great percussion ending and diatribes about the lack of real choice in today's world when so much is actually controlled in the hands of a small number of transnational corporations and banks. The liner notes outline Chris Dubrow's thoughts on solutions to current world environmental, economic and social problems and the inequities dealt out to the 3rd World by European financial institutions.

There are actually several tracks on the EP's which I think are much better than some of the tracks here. But you can now get them via mp3 from the web-site. Perhaps if they'd had slightly different remixes on the album it would seem to work better.

In sum, if you're like me and like innovative music with substance, go fetch it!