A new release on a new label… then again the first offering of this label is an oldie already, not sounding like time got up with it though. Battery Cage recorded this album in the period upto 1998, when it was scheduled to be released. SINless records had offered to release it, but unfortunately when the mixing of the album finally was done (the creation of the album is a story of it’s own that is explained in the booklet) SINless was no more. Shopping around with the album did not result in another label to release “Product” and thus it ended up not being released.
Skipping some years we end up in 2004, when Battery Cage, which now has a completely different line-up ends up signing to Metropolis Records and releasing the album “World Wide Wasteland”, an album that is received very well by both press and dj’s. An album on which Battery Cage gives the listener a good mix of EBM, guitars and industrial. With the interest in Battery Cage that comes after the release of WWW their is also a renewed interest in “Product” and thus BC-frontman Tyler Newman decided to remix the album and rerelease it.
Now we’re finally at the point what this of course is all about, the music. And first of all I must say this is not at all like WWW. Where the musical styles bear the same names, “Product” is a raw album, an album where dark electro meets EBM, where harsh synths meet distorted vocals and the clean vocals meet pounding rhythms. Everything passes by and though it is completely different from what I expected with WWW in mind, I like it! The variation of the musical styles is immense, and still this sounds like an album, not a compilation.
There is much to be found in here, from very experimental stuff (‘Killfile’) to a raw version of strongly ebm-influended ‘Caged’ (the only track of Product that also found its way to WWW) to breakbeats. Where this album is not by far as danceable and smooth as WWW, this is an album that will certainly attract the attention of those who like their electro dark and raw.
