Posts Tagged ‘genCAB’

The US electro-industrial act genCAB have returned with a single entitled ‘Open Grave’ on Metropolis Records. A dancefloor confession that digs into a narrative of self-sabotage and quiet collapse, it demands to be heard as much as it begs to be ignored.

“The song explores the decay of our own undoing. I’m a self destructive person, and ‘Open Grave’ is about lying in my own mess that I create for myself,” explains group founder David Dutton. “Most of the advice we get is to keep our inner pain hidden and so we isolate further. So, here it is for everyone else to hear, whenever they feel like hearing it. This track is more accessible than some of my past work, and I think it complements a message that is universal. At the end of the day, sometimes life is as simple as a dance track and an easy outlet to lose yourself. Who knows what’s left when you tear yourself apart, but at least it’s an honest practice.”

The first new music by genCAB in 2025, ‘Open Grave’ has been made available together with an ‘Unsolved Remix’ by labelmate Lost Signal and a cover version of ‘Last’, a 1992 song by Nine Inch Nails.

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Having founded the industrial-electro act genCAB in 2006, David Dutton put the group on hold following the release of their debut album II transMuter two years later. A forward thinking record in the genre, it had blended elements of EBM and synth-pop into song arrangements perfectly suited for aggressive rock.

genCAB eventually returned in 2022 with a long-awaited follow-up entitled ‘Thoughts Beyond Words’, as well as the genre-bending ‘Everything You See Is Mine’ EP. These were promoted on a US tour with Aesthetic Perfection, for whom both Dutton and genCAB drummer Tim Van Horn had spent the intervening years playing live.
2023 saw genCAB sign to Metropolis Records, with the album ‘Signature Flaws’ appearing in the autumn. A meditation on one’s own demise, it introduced elements of shoegaze and post-hardcore to an already dense melting pot of disparate sounds.

‘Let It Rip’ is a new EP that precedes the cryptically entitled album III I II (THIRD EYE GEMINI), due out in late September 2024. Half of the full-length record is a modern day update of the best material contained on their 2008 debut, with the remainder consisting of brand new songs inspired by the re-recordings.

An improvement in the genCAB sound was already apparent via a recent rework of the 2008 track ‘Perish The Thought’ released as a single in 2023, but everything else is also now amped up to 11. Although retaining a raw and fresh feel that is faithful to the original renditions, the songs have been completely restructured and are sung with more confidence and conviction than ever by Dutton.

Listen to the EP in full here:

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18th November, 2022

James Wells

Perhaps I’m sensitive. Perhaps I’m just aware, attuned. But certain phrases trip me. And on reading ‘Everything You See Is Mine’ I feel my skin crawl a little. Something about it says power trip, something about it says control, something about it says manipulation, something about it says shades of wrong. It’s not something that explicitly makes its way through the music, but then, who do you trust?

This gnarly four-tracker is a furious frenzy of high-octane, uptempo industrial that draws many cues from early NIN with snarling electronica driving things hard from the get-go, with first song, ‘Soft’ being anything but as driving electronica slams home with the kind of abrasion that blasts the chest. It’s a strong start to a release that tapers off rather after that initial blast.

‘Wasp Factory’ – which I like to think tips a nod to Ian Banks’ debut – goes a bit emo and hints a bit awkwardly at Linkin Park and then the last song, ‘Only Skin’ brings a satisfying trudging crunch but also an unexpectedly accessible vibe, as it drives the EP home to its conclusion.

It’s not as dark or hard as all that and perhaps isn’t the dominant sneer the title suggests, but Everything You See Is Mine is certainly not an entirely accessible attack either. One to explore.

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