L.O.T.I.O.N.

Reviews

L.O.T.I.O.N. Machine Hallucinations LP

Dance music for a collapsing civilization. L.O.T.I.O.N. returns to the mainframe with eleven transmissions of cyberpunk-soaked punk mixed with glimpses of gabber, industrial techno, and digital hardcore. The riffs are punishing, the rhythms are relentless, and Ben Greenberg’s production keeps the machine sounding hostile. Imagine G.I.S.M. trapped in a neon dystopia, playing songs by DOPPLEREFFEKT and SKINNY PUPPY. With appearances from Iggor Cavalera, LA PREGUNTA?, and the ever-present Lulu, the band pushes their sound into stranger territory. “Celebrate the Suffering” carries the weight of a lost Chaos A.D.-era remix, while “Spiral of Destruction” crawls through the shadows of noir post-punk, but they manage to retain their identity throughout. Alexander Heir’s artwork completes the nightmare with a cold, mechanized image from a future ruled by surveillance, AI, and militarized technology. Violent, paranoid, hypnotic, and built for the dancefloor at the end of the world.

L.O.T.I.O.N. W​.​A​.​R. in the Digital Realm LP

The Valhalla of my sweetest dreams looks something like a dust-filled warehouse in which survivors of the apocalypse mutually exchange their wares, spoils, scavenges, and excesses. At the center of these festivities is a massive circle pit. Spiraling layers of punks, ravers, goths, heshers, and other survivors each dancing their own individual dance. The bass-heavy music filling this sacred hall is L.O.T.I.O.N. MULTINATIONAL CORPORTION’s W.A.R. in the Digital Realm on repeat, ad infinitum. Sure, there are a million reasons to hate this album, from having too many capitalized letters and periods, thereby making it a real bastard to type when searching online, or the insidiously infectious pop dance drivel of “Cybernetic Super Lover,” but somehow I keep coming back to this album again and again, Pavlovian-style. If you have no idea what I’m on about, imagine a talented  Sakevi Yokoyama impersonator singing over a perfectly orchestrated mashup of WHITE ZOMBIE, MINISTRY, DISCHARGE, and ’90s rave music. The good news: this album makes for a great entry point into the world of L.O.T.I.O.N. The bad news: you’ll find out when you play this.

L.O.T.I.O.N. World Wide W.E.B. LP

This is the one. This is the moment that L.O.T.I.O.N. evolved from an interesting concept into a fully-realized, impeccably executed cyber juggernaut. The base of early industrial is still there (they’ll never not owe a debt to SKINNY PUPPY) but that skeleton is fleshed out here with a range of new sounds and textures, including thrash riffing (“New Prosthetic Metal Arm”), industrial dance (the KMFDM-ish “Gabber Punks of Dabs/Downed Police Helicopter”), and even downtempo electronica (the wonderfully out of left field “I.C.B.M.” with its club-ready female vocals). If you’ve been a bit dubious of this band’s earlier output, put that aside because this is a new-model L.O.T.I.O.N., equally prepared to conquer fetid punk dives and velvet-roped VIP rooms. It probably goes without saying, but this packaging is fantastic as well, utilizing a Soldier of Fortune mag-styled sleeve and insert along with a fantastic poster featuring one of vocalist Alexander Heir’s best works yet.