Search - Non :: Blood & Flame

"Pure balm for the soul..."

Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 03/20/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"NON, Blood and Flame (Mute, 1986)If you've heard NON's much more readily available best-of compilation, Easy Listening for Iron Youth, a lot of this is going to sound familiar; fully five of Blood and Flame's twenty tracks are included on Easy Listening. The rest of the album runs in a similar vein; this is Boyd in instrumental, industrial-loop mode. Lots of sampled loops overlaid with static, creating a martial feel, but of no army that ever inhabited this planet. Added to that are less doctored samples floating in and out of the mix. (This is also the material whence Sicktour came, if you've ever been lucky enough to get ahold of that exceptionally rare beast.)Boyd at his industrial-noise best. It ain't considered a classic in its genre for nothing. Easy Listening for Iron Youth is probably a better overall into to NON, as it spans the various types of music one is liable to find when picking up a random NON disc; if you find yourself repeating "Cruenta Voluptas," "Rise," or the wonderful "Fire in the Organism" (this disc's opening track) over and over again in your head days later, you will be doing yourself a service if you pick this one up, as well. ****"