Autobahn - Ecstasy of Ruin ((CD))

Close to five years since their last record, Leeds denizens AUTOBAHN re-enter the fray with the release of their third record, Ecstasy of Ruin. Many of the hallmarks of their characteristic blend of industrial post-punk remain intact, but under the bonnet theyre a much leaner, more focused machine. Live drums have given way to drum-machines and sample-based percussion, and with it the band reconfigure their typically blackened aesthetic into a hardened take on Electronic Body Music. As with their previous record, its an entirely self-produced collection, recorded between two self-built studios on a range of analogue equipment, the ghosts of their industrial forefathers haunting the circuits. Indeed, some of Ecstasy of Ruin was made with pieces salvaged from Martin Hannetts legendary studio. AUTOBAHN certainly feel part of the long tradition of crepuscular music to emanate from Northern Britain, be that the transgressive activities of COUM Transmissions from Hull, Sheffield Steel Ci