The Italian cassette label Infidel Bodies returns on October 4th with a limited edition release of 11xxx27‘s newest effort, No Hope, No Fear. The work of musician Erminio Granata, who co-runs Infidel Bodies with Marika Pagano, as well as operating the electronic projects Code27 and Hyperlacrimae, No Hope, No Fear is a bleak sonic meditation on the destructive forces of war.
The album finds Granata embarking on a deep dive into his subject matter employing analog hardware and sampled historical material to explore desolate atmospheres and oppressive rhythmic structures. The cassette release also features graphic design from the artist with unique packaging that includes a hand collaged zine of images taken from old newspapers and history books, as well as a vile filled with barbed wire. Quite the poetic keepsakes, to say the least.
No Hope, No Fear‘s 14-tracks include remixes by UVB, Raffaele Attanasio, and Operant. Below, the album track “Hard Commission” is remixed by the Berlin-based industrial project Operant. The original’s harsh ambient textures soon give way to include blistering and scorched drum loops that sound like a tank brigade destroying everything in site with mechanized efficiency.
For their part, the Operant duo of August Skipper and Luna Violenta continue 11xxx27’s mordant stylings, but the addition of distressed vocals and a slowed pacing opens a different sort of Industrial door on this track. If the first suggested machine driven destruction, the later seems to explore the more personal dimensions of human cruelty, oppression, and war. Dark stuff to be sure, but a necessary reminder before history returns to repeat itself.
