How much money is your time worth? How much of your own humanity are you willing to sacrifice at the altar of commerce and urban living? At what point do you become one of the drones, falling into the open mouth of Moloch? These seem to be the questions that come to mind when listening to “Working Ecstasy”, the latest double CD release from French Industrial artist Nocturne. For over 15 years front-man Saphi has been honing his craft as a purveyor of French Industrial culture, and with “Working Ecstasy” he has achieved his finest work yet.
The album is split into two titles, “Working” and “Ecstasy”, which articulate what I believe to be the theme of the album. That is, the overwhelming sense of demoralization as a result of living in a post-Industrial society. For some, Stockholm Syndrome takes place as a means of survival and one embraces their lot, after all… arbeit macht frei.
Much of what’s featured on “Working” is composed of layers of delayed synth noise, dense drones, and distorted factory samples, all of which harken back to the early days of Industrial music in both sound and theme. The first disc is book-ended by two live action recordings, titled “No Nature” and “No Lies”. These are a couple of the more abrasive pieces of the entire set, attacking the listener with compressed samples interspersed amongst modulated high-pitched noise. “There Something Brewing”, “So Be It…”, and “Gaseous Depression” slow it down to a rumbling crawl, and this back and forth between high intensity aural assaults and hypnotic drones carries throughout the album. I liken it to fits of spastic panic attacks upon realization of one’s dreary modern reality, or as the liner art states over a field of factories, the “Modern Middles Ages.”
The second disc opens with “Des Portes”, a collage of what I interpret as sadomasochistic whipping samples, possibly referencing the hidden pleasure one takes in labor slavery. Nocturne achieves Industrial mastery on “Overpopulation”, a crushing delivery that brings to mind Genocide Organ and Mz. 412. Another highlight would be “Moloch”, which samples and references the mechanical demon in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis. In this classic scene the Ammonite god of human sacrifice is envisioned as mechanical reality and consumes crowds of human workers. Much has been written about this dream sequence in the film, but many would interpret it as the terrible price paid by those who devote their lives to modern, industrial living. It’s worth noting that this is not first Fritz Lang reference in Nocturne’s work, the theme of the 2006 album “Terroriser-Manipuler-Convaincre” was the villain Dr. Mabuse from the Lang film Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and the subsequent films of that series. Honestly, I’m not sure what the track “Das Wagner Haus” references, but the thought of a Wagnerian opera house brings to mind the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk. This German aesthetic term refers to a “total work of art”, most often associated with Wagner’s opera productions which bring together music, architecture, effects, costumes, and dance to create a total environment. I can see a correlation between the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk and the aims of Nocturne, and Industrial culture in general. I commend Saphi for putting much effort in creating more than just music, but also bringing visual art and drama to his presentations and live performances.
The overall ambiance of the album is of depression, suffocation. There are hints of struggle, but ultimately the listener is trampled by the overpopulated hordes. So maybe I can’t fault the album for being too much to bear over two discs, but one can’t help but feel a certain bit of repetition. Still, this is pure, true Industrial music for Industrial people, and in my mind more deserving of the label than the most recent releases by the genre pioneers.
Track List:
Disc I:
01) Live Act I – No Nature
02) There’s Something Brewing
03) Fearlessly
04) So be it…
05) Gaseous Depression
06) Alarmadrama
07) Work and Fantasy
08) No Way
09) Earth in Fire
10) Live Act II – No Lies
Disc II:
01) Des Portes
02) Déperception
03) Extreme Venin
04) Moloch
05) Das Wagner Haus
06) Message Radio (1994)
07) Cris Sans Larme
08) Calme.. Vous Croyez!
09) Overpopulation
10) Mass Suicide
11) Tous Jusqu’Au Dernier
12) Village Global
Rating: 4.75/5
Written by: Raul A.
Label: Old Europa Cafe (Italy) / OECD139 / 2xCD
Industrial
