Filament 38
Techno Punk Music
“What came first, music or the misery?” I’ve always wondered, if an ill-suffering industrialist found a cure for their misery, would they take it? Or are they hopelessly addicted to their natural emotional state that gives rise to such dark beauties of pain? And do they actually set up horrid situations to accentuate their own art? It probably doesn’t matter either way unless you’re a social behaviorist sickly fascinated with understanding the drama of emotions. For the industrial fan, though, it’s more a sick fascination with enjoying the paranoid pain that is familiar to all on some level. Certainly, Filament 38 are neither trailblazers or genre innovators but Fractured is acute and weighty, drawing deeply from the Goth underground for electronic textures that move assuredly, and as equally from German industrialists for music and themes that portray themselves as wounded but protectively dangerous prey.
Just listen to the beautiful electro lithes drifting through “Unconscious,” perhaps the group’s most personal song from an instrumental perspective. The vocals do speak dread and evil distrust but the electronics speak of hope, purity and need, the trio of fragile human emotions that must be protected invaluably.
While it’s humorous to hear a finger-pointing sample speak of the dangers of misery in music, it’s much more fascinating to hear the results of those precious emotions after a scarring mishandling. So, what did come first? With Filament 38, the answer is easy – Fractured would be nothing of its enthralling, contrasted nature if their misery did not exist.
By Bill Mahoney