Konstruktivits — Psykho Genetika

Psykho Genetika was the third release from British industrial project Konstruktivits- initially appearing in 1983 the dense ‘n’ darkly heady album was a mix of grey-unwell space ambience and early more moody Throbbing Gristle like sound making. Think a more active, unwell, and blacked industrial edged take on Tangerine Dreams Zeit- & you’ll get a rough idea of what to expect. Here on the Austrian label klanggalerie is a much deserved recent CD reissue of the album.

The Konstruktivists project was initially formed in 1982 by Glenn Michael Wallis, with later members taking in  the likes of Lawrence Burton, Joseph Ahmed, R. Alcapone Shiells and Mark Crumby. The project rose from the ashes of Heute, a krautrock-influenced trio using electronics as well as conventional guitars and bass. Unlike many of their peers, Konstruktivists have steadily been released work since the 1980’s- with their last new release appearing last year. We reviewed Last Moments Of 1923( also on klanggalerie)- the project's debut a few months back- so it’s certainly great to check out more of this projects early work.

 
The release originally appeared as a single vinyl release on Third Mind Records in 1983. This new version expands the original nine-track release to a seventy-eight minute/ twenty track affair- making it the ultimate uncut version of this bleakly drifting and darkly throbbing early 80’s album.
 
 
As an album Psykho Genetika takes the woozy unwell-ness of Last Moments Of 1923, shifting that albums Russian Civil War focus  towards intergalactic vibes. As with Last Moments Of 1923 this is very much an instrumental focused release- we do get sort of sub-Genesis P-Orridge mumblings and dronings, but these only appear in a few places. The twenty tracks move from the hazy yet dizzying UFO-like vibes of "Mansonik one" with its blend of simmer and spinning reverb, eerily space-bound synth texturing, and baying electro string textures. Onto the manically space-bound bubbling of Aural Wallpaper- with its mixture of cascading synth tones, waving and tone shifting drones, and choppy electo pluses. Through to sinisterly marching and glowing malevolence of "Andropov 84" that blends together slicing melodics with chopping synthy bass tone, and sour/ baying harmonics. Over to the robotically tolling and rather dizzying vocal loops of "Bizarre". On the whole, the album takes the promise of the projects previously releases- adds in a tad more variety and uneasy mood, then spiraling it off into the stars.
 
 
So once again it’s great to see klanggalerie digging back into industrial/ experimental electronica past with this CD release of Psykho Genetika- and lets hope there are more reissues planed of  Konstruktivits work, as they were certainly one of the more curious projects from the genre, and seemingly they put on nearing eighty releases in all- so there certainly is a lot of scope for more reissues.