Today we dig deep into the underground with ANNIHILVS POWER ELECTRONIX, an experimental label specializing in industrial, power electronics, darkambient, drone, experimental, and doom. Started in the summer of 1997 by Lee Bartow, the imprint initially was a means to distribute the works of his NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES (1997-2009) project started that year with Scott Walker and Elle Gaston, as well as other related efforts. The label has remained active since reflecting Bartow’s continued sonic output and commitment to the underground music community he has helped foster through the years.
Though that’s not to say that the continuation of ANNIHILVS POWER ELECTRONIX has not come without its share of difficulty and loss, especially in the wake of COVID quarantine. In September of 2019, Bartow and his partner Gretchen Heinel opened a brick and mortar record shop called MONOMER AUDIO EMPORIUM in Rockland County, New York. The small shop was the center of a growing art community during its brief existence, with the shop hosting “Audio Salons,” swap meets, and live drawing sessions called “Drink & Draw.” Additionally, ANNIHILVS POWER ELECTRONIX had several events planned for 2020, including the label’s 23rd-anniversary celebration, APEX FEST.
Needless to say, those events were canceled, and MONOMER AUDIO EMPORIUM was eventually shuttered in the wake of the lockdown. Along the way, though, the label created MONOMER TV, a weekly/bi-weekly video program of art videos and pre-recorded performances from various artists that ran in three “seasons” of eight episodes each during 2020. And, as a testament to the continued longevity of ANNIHILVS POWER ELECTRONIX, the label has returned to an aggressive output this year with five new physical releases, as well as three digital, already out in the first five months of 2021!
Of note so far this year are challenging releases from Bartow’s Theologian project, as well as albums by groups like Primitive Knot, Grot, and Lament Cityscape. Also on that list is the self-titled debut release from Thierry Arnal (AMANTRA) and Pascal Bertier’s (NEAR DARK MATTER) project 2W, out this past May. While Bartow reveals that in initial conversations with the pair, they described their efforts as “GODFLESH type of music,” he likens it more closely with Australia’s KOLLAPS, “…where what are now genre tropes of early industrial music have been crushed and deconstructed until barely recognizable, and all the better for it.” Further discussing the album, he explains:
“Undeniably bleak and harrowing, 2W is almost too representative of the 21st century, its driving and distorted rhythms forming the backdrop of our collective march into extinction, with some underlying sensation of hope buried in the relationship between high and low frequencies.”
