PROCEED TO BEYOND ... THE RAPE OF EUROPA by Solar Enemy Audio CD, T.E.Q. Music?, TEQM93001, £9 (Europe £9; r.ow. £10) from The Empty Quarter, P.O. Box 87, Ilford, Essex IG1 3HJ.

I've always been a sucker for heavy synth music, so this excursion by electro/techno band Solar Enemy hit the mark right from the start. In their previous life as Portion Control, Solar Enemy are said to have influenced virtually every industrial band today, from NIN to Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. They haven't lost their touch here, with hard dance and even harder voiced electro-punk/pop flowing freely against a backdrop of harsh instrumental landscapes. Rugged drum machine sequences provide the foundation not only for upbeat danceable tracks such as 'Chrome Eternal' and 'Inter-Stellar' but also for more atmospheric instrumental pieces like 'Coder 11' and 'Slow Hell' -- definitely one to play very loud on auto-repeat.

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