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ILLUSION OF SAFETY - Surrender

Format: CD-R Label & Cat.Number: No Part Of It Release Year: 2013 Note: newest release by the strongly returned Chicago-based project, refining the more 'psychedelic' & experimental ambient/drone path known from the great 'Sweet Dreams' 10" - always boundary expanding, often pulsing & with unexpected changes & cuts; 8 carefully assembled and wonderfully complex tracks, using all kinds of field recodings & electronic sounds... almost 60 min. of material; professionally duplicated CD-R wtih full colour cover Price (incl. 19% VAT): €9.00 More Info "I've been releasing things outside of the internet (no part of it), and one of them has been "Surrender", the newest outing by Illusion of Safety. Daniel Burke has made a "remix overview" of this work, and I had to let the cat out of the bag. More information can be found at the video link, including the mail box where money orders/hidden cash is to be sent. Do check it out! The video is exceptional! I've been told some of the processes in making it, and it's nothing short of deftly inspired! $7 postage paid in the US. $12 elsewhere. Available in pro cassette and pro CDR format. I haphazardly spurred Illusion of Safety back into live action in 2008 when I asked him to do a show with me at the Empty Bottle. From there, we were both asked to perform for WTII's monthly showcase at Darkroom, wherein this clown video material first surfaced, so it's a pleasure for me to release the nexus of a soundtrack to this imagery, coming full circle. "Illusion of Safety, just passing its 30th year since inception, is often regarded as the innovator of "ambient industrial". Despite having traversed nearly every arena of the experimental milieu, performed prestigious fests all over the world, and collaborated with some of widest ranging and heaviest hitting of the avante garde, core member/founder Daniel Burke has both shown a return to form and a veritable bouquet of new frontiers in his most recent outing, "Surrender". In just under 60 minutes, the listener is taken on a dizzying carousel ride where everything but the kitchen sink is employed to weave a deeply personal (abstract, wordless) narrative that comes off as minimalistic, condensed, and bombastic. But at the same time, it is a constantly shifting, complex and ornate grid iron amalgam of genuine enthusiasm and horror. Recommended if you like a complete disregard for the myopic trappings and short sighted formulae of contemporary sound art today." [label info] nopartofit.blogspot.de "Somewhere, an old T-shirt from Illusion Of Safety exists (the last we saw was affixed to Sigtryggur from Stillupsteypa some 10 years ago) with a deadpan/ironic catch-phrase "Illusion Of Safety gives you that soaring feeling" next to an image of a man tumbling headfirst out of a skyscraper window. Such a calculated juxtaposition of word and image was emblematic of the '80s art world (e.g. Barbara Kruger), often speaking to the underbelly of callousness, cruelty, violence and general amorality within consumerist society. Outside of this bold piece of iconography, Illusion Of Safety has operated within a more liminal state of mysteriousness through signifier and meaning. Even in their most placid albums of soft-focus ambience, the specter of some unknowable threat lurks in the background. More common in the Illusion Of Safety catalogue is an iron-fisted grasp of that sense of foreboding and dread through psychologically tense sound design. Over three decades in existence, this Chicago based project has been whittled down to its core member Dan Burke - with a few comrades-in-arms joining him occasionally - and is probably the longest running American industrial project, having produced a very impressive body of work. The 2014 album Surrender fits comfortably next to some of the masterpieces of the IOS back catalogue (e.g. Cancer, In Session, Historical, etc.) through the trademarked juxtaposition of noxious frequencies snaking in and out of harmonic phase patterns only to snap out of existence with a razor-cut edit into an electrical burst of tesla coil noise (for example). Disjointed rhythms, mediated collages, decontextualized field recordings, and psychoacoustic phrases map this album with incredible control and precision. Illusion Of Safety proves once again that they are one of the greats of industrial culture. Grab this album before it disappears, the pro-duplicated cd-r is limited to just 100 copies. Same for the cassette." [Aquarius Records] "Among the few artists I have been following what seems now to be a lifetime (Asmus Tietchens, Main, Organum), Illusion Of Safety is probably among them the band I saw play live most. Dan Burke, the main man, is a most loveable chap and he always surprises me with his next move. His music doesn't operate in any particular style, but overlaps various genres. Improvised, industrial, ambient, musique concrete, and even a bit of techno beat thrown in. Here's a new album that proofs it. It's called 'Surrender' (which word always reminds me of the Cheap Trick song) and on a label called No Part Of It, meaning they don't want to be part of the world of Internet. There is a website, but there catalogue is hand scribbled on a sheet of paper and the CDRs - professionally designed - can be bought with a money order. Yes! That's what I like. Swim against the tide. Music wise Illusion Of Safety does something we haven't seen him do in quite some time. The collage styled music in which lengthy chunks of sounds are suddenly cut away by voices from radio and TV, a techno beats slips into view and sounds remarkable like the early 90s works such as 'Historical', 'Inside Agitator' or 'Distraction'. Quiet at times, but also quite bombastic at other times, filmic but without too many words. And if we hear any, it's about nuclear waste leakage. In that sense this album also harks back to the post-industrial sound of yesteryear. The balance between the very quiet and the very loud, between the ambience and the beats, is maintained very well throughout this release. Daddy's all right: surrender!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]