APARTMENT 26 Hallucinating (Edel/Hollywood)
Apartment 26 play noisy, industrial metal, a welter of growling and guitars with a rash of samples, synths and machinery breaking out on top. They took their name from the mystical significance the number 26 seems to attract in the films of David Lynch, one of them is the offspring of Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler and they've already snagged a deal with a major American label (Hollywood, who I think handle Queen's back catalogue in the States). And Burton C Bell of Fear Factory guests on one track.
Which may well add up to somebody's idea of a good time, but unfortunately it isn't mine. "Hallucinating" has neither the frightening structural diversity and crashing contrasts of the best metal nor the hypnotic strength through repetition that most half-decent dance music can conjure up. A barrage of paranoid technofear babble posing as lyrics doesn't help matters either. There's undoubtedly a market for this sort of music, which is little removed from that peddled by industrial acts like Front Line Assembly and Cubanate, but if you're after something with a little heart, soul, warmth or humour you're in the wrong building.