Brutal Nature Redux
by Rhys Fulber
Brutal Nature Redux is a continuation of Rhys Fulber’s “Brutal Nature” album and art concept, featuring remixes by carefully curated artists.
Years of Denial’s take on “Rogue Minority” injects some emotion and humanity into the stark and aggressive original while preserving the driving bass riff and lifting it into the sound of a futuristic tribal gathering.
Berlin’s Sarin is up next, leaning into the future EBM style he also shares with Fulber but amping up the intensity and apocalyptic dance floor elements of Central State Institute.
Night Render is given a darker and more sinister sheen by up-and-coming Bulgarian producer, Evitceles. The nature elements of the original are replaced by a cinematic dystopia, akin to salvaging lost technology in a ruined city.
Orphx add their rhythmic sophistication to “Stare at the Sun, tripping and refining the original down to its base elements while tuning Sara Taylor’s (Youth Code) screams across what appears to be several channels of short wave radio.
Qual’s radical re-interpretation of “Pyrrhic Act” brings elements of Fulber’s past history in EBM right to the fore, creating a groove that’s both retro and very modern, slowing it down so the tension hangs heavier in the air.
Lastly but certainly not least, Vanity Productions highlights the “nature” of “Fragility”, accentuating it with delicate clouds hanging in an air of contemplation; darkness and light coexisting in thick emotional textures. A fine way to close out this collection of cohesive individualism.
releases July 14, 2023
Brutal Nature
by Rhys Fulber
Rhys Fulber is a Canadian electronic musician and producer best known for his lengthy (and ongoing) tenures with industrial standard bearers Front Line Assembly and ambient pop exponents Delerium (both with Bill Leeb), his solo project Conjure One, plus a series of recent dark techno-based albums released under his own name. As a producer, he has worked extensively with established metal acts such as Fear Factory and Paradise Lost, as well as the industrial hardcore act Youth Code.
For 'Brutal Nature', the lockdowns caused by the global pandemic enabled a more sharply focused period of writing and composition. Utilising a smaller home set-up rather than Fulber's usual preferred studio made for an engaged environment and the creation of a greater number of intimate compositions to sit alongside club and night culture influenced tracks that dominated his previous releases for the Sonic Groove label. This time around, shimmering ambient textures and floating voices add light to pulsating technoid rhythms, while a curveball appears at the very end with the harsher sounding EBM-flavoured 'Stare At The Sun', which features a guest vocal from Sara Taylor of the aforementioned Youth Code.
Relocating halfway through the writing process from Los Angeles to a small town on the coast outside his original home city of Vancouver provided additional inspiration via the quietly unfolding power of nature. Here is where the album concept was born; the contrast between Brutalist architecture and nature, the legacy of humanity in conjunction with nature and its juxtaposition thereof, and the power and variation of the ocean becoming the ultimate judge.
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