reviews

Something Stirs. review from Musictap.net

Martin Bowes has nurtured not only the fluidity of his music found in his experimentally brave group, Attrition, but have also nursed the progression of it from its early '80s beginnings to its present day incarnation.  To be in love with your musical heritage is to guide it like a child and Martin Bowes has certainly loved Attrition.
The current Attrition release is called Something Stirs: The Beginning 1981-1983, a collection of cuts that were produced and distributed via the independently distributed underground networks that used the cassette medium as an easily accessible format.  Given the post vinyl (then a dying format in its last days) portability of cassettes, they were a unique way to create music and have it move through channels that mainstream labels could never touch.
Attrition uses many elements to create stimulating music, elements that include echoes, drum programming, and a highly experimental vocal approach by Julia Waller (who should be noted as an influential fore-runner of this industrial styled, non-structured avant garde "vocals as art" work.)  Combine that with Bowes' darker vocals and the dark mechanized music makes a much stronger impact versus mainstream songs.
On this collection, Martin Bowes revisits his earliest works, having come into contact with a 4-track Portastudio, thereby making it easy to access the 4-track reels that have been kept in storage.  By transferring these old songs to the PC and thereby being able to clean them up using modern tech, Bowes was able to resurrect an important part of Attrition, i.e., its birth and early years of life.
There is an interesting song tucked in to the center of this release called ""Mr Toma (I looked, but it was gone?)"  This is reminiscent of tracks from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in that it uses recorded voice, in this case a diatribe on suicide, over a soundtrack of stirring electronica as in white noise.  The words spoken here are jarring and have a sense of desperation and inevitability.  The tune is eerily effective.

Attrition have always been musically experimental, a fact that is evident by this album.  And there is much to like and appreciate here.  With synthesizers playing a large role in the music and some very creative aspects to their songs, Attrition set themselves as one of the early manipulators of another realm of rock, picking apart and reassembling the components of a song, and infusing them with elements that will be seen as unconventional by all but the most adventurous of listeners.  Be assured, these recordings are dark.  They represent the formation of a band that has evolved to razor sharpness.  And yes, there are drops of blood on those blades.  Martin Bowes' Attrition is not for everyone.
Attrition is not without precedence; there was Hoenig, Tangerine Dream, even Hawkwind, bands that etched a deeper cut into the concept of a song than others before them had.  But Martin Bowes' Attrition cuts deeper, making psychedelia a part of their repertoire.  Their songs are as mechanized, heated, and un-oiled as deviant machines come to life.  Attrition is for the musically brave and adventurous, the period found on this collection especially.  But if you already know of Attrition, then you already know what to expect from Bowes as he continues to push the boundaries of musical art.

Something Stirs. review from Sonic Curiosity

This CD from 2006 features 47 minutes of dark industrial music culled from ancient compilations and old cassette releases by the band. Included are five previously unreleased tracks, three of them live from the General Wolfe in Coventry in 1981. These selections represent the band's early period.
Attrition is: Martin Bowes, Julia Waller, and Ashley Niblock.

The electronics are sparse but haunting, jarring and dire. Angry diodes screech and gurgle, producing an environment of eerie pulsations seasoned with growling noises of unearthly demeanor. Scraping sounds rise and claw for the audience's faces, while basic synthesizer bellows grumble with contention.
Waller's vocals convey a desperation that rings from the cemetery, rich with ghostly timbre. Her lyrics are concerned with taboo subjects and forbidden affection. Death fuses with emotion as she croons with emphatic determination.
Several tracks feature spooky basslines that generate a thumping undercurrent for the angry electronics. Percussion is present in a number of songs too, establishing mechanical rhythms overlaid with more forceful tempos. Sometimes the beats throb with hollow retorts, as if sounding from deep in a well.
The compositions are melodic, but focused to agitate more than enthrall. The mood evoked by this tuneage is surly and dissident. The live tracks are abrasive and reminiscent of an angrier Joy Division.

This music will appeal to fans who miss Throbbing Gristle and the good old days of Coil.

Something Stirs. review from Chaindlk.com

There was a time, soon after the punk period, when bands dared to make their music different. Something that no one already did or thought to do. In late ‘70s and early ‘80s bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Coil and many others created something different. Something that mixed with the "Do It Yourself" culture and created a totally new thing: tape labels. If you lived that period for sure you read about the early Third Mind releases or the early Bain Total tape compilations (it was the time when Philippe Fichot was releasing interesting tape compilations along with the first works of his own project, Die Form). Compilations that gathered many bands that released only a few things in limited editions (they were limited because it was difficult to release something and it was hard to distribute them. Fanzines, ads and word by mouth was really important back then, when there was no internet) as well the early works of bands that later become well known - bands like Attrition , Coil, Portion Control, Test Dept, etc.
SOMETHING STIRS – THE BEGINNING 1981-1983 is a collection of recordings that Attrition released for compilations. Martin Bowes, member of the band since day one, saved from dust the old 4 track tapes and borrowed a Portastudio from a friend and then transferred the recordings on a PC to clean the sound. The CD contains seven tracks coming from vinyl or tape compilations, one from the Alu/ Attrition split tape as well as four previously unreleased tracks: “Tones in black”, recorded in 1982 and three other tracks (“Domus”, “Hologram” and “Alter ego”) recorded live in Coventry in March 1981. On those three you can also hear the one and only drummer the band ever had.
If you know “Shrinkwrap”, the most famous track of the Attrition early period, well, try to forget about it, because songs like “Something stirs”, “Pain”, “Birthrite” or “Onslaught” don't sound anything like that. They are mostly sound experiments with tape noises, bass guitar and a drum machine with the vocals of Julia Waller that spread her impetuosity with a style that remembered me early Siouxsie. Melody was an option and the bands main aim I think was the construction of a new way of channelling their feelings. Attrition succeeded in doing so...

Something Stirs. review from Drop Dead magazine

In their early years, Attrition were totally enrapturing.
Julia Waller's vocals bring to mind Mona Mur or Bettina Koster, while easily holding their own against any teutonic ice queen.
'Pain' is off-kilter and wobbly, with the feel of a sinister cabaret hall in some forgotten and unstable dimension.
Birthrite' slithers under the skin with it's minimal bleeps and ticks, and 'Hungry Ghosts' is full of creaking rusty sounds and barking dogs, like an industrial complex from hell.
The gasping desperation of 'Mr. Toma (I looked but it was gone)' continues the theme of hopelessness, as if this were the soundtrack of a lost soul wandering a blasted, distorted landscape.~
Saxaphones reminiscent of distant foghorns bring us to the barren beach of 'I saw you slowly'.
Now we have a few live tracks, all of excellent clarity and quality. 'Domus' comes out of nowhere with its furious post-punk feel, a perfect dance track. 'Hologram' skitters on the edge of breaking loose, but only just manages to stay restrained, and then Alter Ego' sets the feet bouncing again with tribal drums and slinky synths, reminding me of Scream-era Siouxsie. "G'night", Julia says, and that's the end. It's a lovely, unsettling album, and one that has me hoping for even more unreleased early stuff, - Lakini