Pitch us an artist that’s not only in one of our most favorite genres (Industrial!) but also from one of, if not our, favorite places (Um, Boston should be the obvious answer here) and it’s pretty much guaranteed we’ll clear some headspace at the least to dive in. It, of course, helps when the music turns out to be supremely awesome as is the case with the double single release from relative newcomers Drive Thru Facelift!
There was a time in the mid-’90’s that was like the second coming of Industrial. It followed the carnage left in the wake of incendiary seminal records from Nine Inch Nails and Ministry (Wish and Psalm 69 respectively) and was almost the antithesis to an extent with a focus less on guitars and more on grooves. Pop Will Eat Itself mastered this. So did Snake River Conspiracy. Gravity Kills tread a fine line in there, too, as did Kidneythieves. Even Sneaker Pimps, who was more in the Trip-Hop spectrum, could be lumped in there especially with a track like “Long Hard Road Out Of Hell” (And a collaborator who shall not be named in these pages) for the VERY Industrial/Electro Spawn soundtrack.
And now we have Drive Thru Facelift who’s honoring that sound with something new that’s a little bit of a throwback but also having that torchbearer quality to it for those fans not around for the initial run. According to their bio, Drive Thru Facelift is “Two humans and a drum machine writing the soundtrack for our dystopian times” with Nilagia McCoy and Mike Allen (Both of whom fans might recognize as part of The Jacklights) as the humans in question. “Control” has those programmed beats front and center before that bass starts booming and guitars start to swirl and swell as McCoy’s sultry delivery weaves its’ way throughout the menacing soundscape enticing listeners to dive deeper in. The deeper in here would be “Call Him Daddy” which follows in a decidedly different direction as the bass and beats play off each other in an almost hypnotic way while McCoy’s voice offsets the combined holistic hum with a playful croon that’s a cross between KMFDM’s Lucia Cifarelli and Sneaker Pimps’ Kelli Ali.
“Control” and “Call Him Daddy” are out now and you can get your copy to download/stream over on their Bandcamp page here or at the embed below for $5 with all proceeds from the sale of this release being split between MIRA Coalition and LUCE Immigrant Justice Network which are organizations that help protect immigrants in Massachusetts (More info on those orgs here and here). And for more on Drive Thru Facelift, head out to their socials here.