Nocturnal Emissions - s/t 2xLP

Label: Mannequin

Our Review:

This eponymous recording is an impressive anthology into the broad history of Nocturnal Emissions, which started as an oblique electronic project, immolating at first with an industrial fury and later gliding into supple ambient soundscapes. Nocturnal Emissions was birthed in 1980 by Nigel Ayers and Caroline K who also both ran the Sterile Records, which released highly influential records by Lustmord, M.B., SPK as well as many of the seminal Nocturnal Emissions albums.

This historical document tracks through the many impressive albums of the '80s, including Tissue Of Lies, Viral Shedding, the band's masterpiece Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss, Songs Of Love And Revolution, Spiritflesh and Stoneface. Nocturnal Emissions' earliest works are creeping mutations of primitive electonica implode into audio collages of overblown noise, distorted media cut-ups, and tape loops. Upon the adoption of more gear and technical prowess, the band began to embrace minimal-wave rhythms while keeping to their noise bursts and dead-eyed tonalities. By the late '80s, Ayers had re-invented Nocturnal Emissions through the strategies of ritualized ambient composition through accretions of loops cast in echo and delay, not dissimilar to the equally hermetic projects :zoviet*france: and Cranioclast.