Review Summary: Unpredictable, interesting and catchy industrial - available free!
It’s called
Noir. The band name is Lo-Fi Scorpio. Pictured on the cover is some sort of large circular structure above a town, and song titles include “The Late Great Times Square”, “Devil Logic”, and “Atomic Red Rader”. If I was forced to guess the type of music here, it wouldn’t be industrial, but that’s exactly what
Noir is.
Lo-Fi Scorpio formed in the mid-nineties, touring almost constantly for quite awhile in their native Kalamazoo, Michigan, as well as the reasonably close Detroit and Chicago areas. After breaking up about 7 years ago, they put their short but strong discography up on leonstemple.com, which features a strong collection of (legally) free music. It’s a good thing too, because
Noir is worth paying for.
The obvious comparison here would be to early Nine Inch Nails, but the album goes well beyond normal industrial as well. Drum and bass, acoustic guitars, keyboards and sampled female vocals can be found across
Noir, sometimes within the same song. Of the three members, you’ll hear vocalist Mike Yeager the most, and he’s surely a pleasure to listen to. Industrial isn’t exactly known for having great vocalists, but don’t tell that to this man. With a degree of control that at times
might suggest classical training, Yeager croons, wails and yells throughout
Noir, simultaneously branding his voice and dozens of hooks on your memory as well.
Yeager’s bandmates aren’t slouches either. As already mentioned, Lo-Fi Scorpio constantly juggle acoustic guitars, abrasive drum and bass and various samples (usually female vocals), which accent already excellent industrial and catchy, biting guitar riffs. This is exemplified within the first three songs (excluding “Just a Moment”, one of four interludes spread across the tracklist). The title track and “Animation Part 1” (oddly enough, there is no sequel) are a bit slow compared to the rest of the album, but “The Late Great Times Square” sees the appearance of Rammstein-esque riffs. Said riffs will appear on most of the following tracks, especially “Salvo”, which, as its title suggests, ends the album with a salvo of almost everything you’ve heard previously.
Oh so often, a great band is unable to get signed to a major label. Sometimes, we music fans are lucky enough to get their music completely free, and
Noir is one such instance. Catchy, fairly unpredictable, and enticing, it’s the band’s most consistent and complete album, and despite a length of 61 minutes,
Noir rarely feels overly long. So what are you waiting for? Industrial fan or not, you have nothing to lose, so go get it.
Lo-Fi Scorpio’s discography can be downloaded at:
http://www.leonstemple.com/lofiscorpio.html
