Metropolis Records – 11th September 2026
Christopher Nosnibor
Red Lines, the new EP from international electro-industrial group Damage Control – centred around a core quartet of Bill Barsby, Richard Thacker and Alex Wise (all based in Australia), plus Markus App from Germany – and finds them in collaboration with the Canadian duo OHMelectronic.
“‘Red Lines’ is about psychological warfare, the endless cycle of human conflict and the hunger for power that lies in the hearts of men,” says Huxtable of the EP title track. “While the lyrics were inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the same themes haunt America and it’s global conflicts. As tyranny and the fog of war repeats itself through every age, so too does the hope that we learn from our mistakes.”
I only wish I had that same hope, could share that optimism: the trouble is, we never do seem to learn from our mistakes. One might have thought that we – as a species – would have learned from the outcomes of two worlds wars, the second of which involved genocide and nuclear annihilation. Yet somehow, we’re in a place where to suggest that there’s a genocide taking place in Gaza is controversial, and we have world leaders who are so unpredictable that in recent months, I’ve taken to checking news sites on my phone on waking at 5am to make sure the world hasn’t ended. But then, it’s not just world leaders who seem perilously close to the button – because despite myriad dystopian sci-fi works detailing how AI will destroy us, those who run the multi-billion dollar corporations developing it are more interested in next year’s profits than the future of humanity. I say humanity, but something has changed in recent years. A trigger has flipped. Where is the humanity?
Russia had seemingly been biding their time during the pandemic, and pounced on Ukraine the moment restrictions were lifted. But the whole world changed during the pandemic: people emerged from restrictions fired up and angry. The mask – and the gloves – were off. The evidence was plain to see: people were suddenly ok driving aggressively, yelling at random strangers in the street, and being openly racist. Politics turned a new shade of ugly, and while America leads the way there, the rest of the world isn’t far behind, and war is all around us and escalating by the week, to the point that much conflict around the globe goes unreported in Western media. Even the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, have seemingly faded into the background in much of the news media, giving the impression that it’s mundane and life goes on. What the actual fuck happened? Is this really where we are, who we are?
Before we arrive at ‘Red Lines’, the EP’s lead – and title- track, the percussion-driven ‘Manifesto’ pounds in, and thunders and pumps hard under a thick sonic haze. It’s a quintessential techno-electro / industrial cut, which reaches back to the late 80s and early 90s Wax Trax! catalogue for references.
The title track is tight and oppressive, quiet, queasy, dense, grinding bass with serrated edges, and thudding beats are welded together as the backdrop to minimal synths wavering cautiously. The vocal is understated, monotone, but breathy, while reeling off a list of horrors. By the end, the sensation is suffocation, and there is no room, and no air, to breathe. It’s not only Damage Control at their absolute best, but one of the most gripping tracks in the genre in a while. It’s the claustrophobic intensity that makes it.
‘Modernity’ is tense and dense, a pumping hard-edge disco groove, and a snarling response to the to the dark and difficult word in which we find ourselves. It marks a fitting close to a powerful document of these difficult and alienating times.
AA
