DIE WARZAU

This duo have been around since 1988 originally under the guise of Die Warzau Synfony. Van Christie and Jim Marcus hail from the windy city, Chicago, and their music is a subtle blend of hardcore electronic, industrial and funk. Originally playing on stage in their home town using anything from metal bars to buzz saws as their equipment they built up a large following of fans. They haven't been around very long but they have recorded two great albums and released several singles. They have also mixed and produced material for other artists such as Industrial Artz, Lil Louis, Revenge, 7 Red 7 and Chris Connelly.

Their first UK single "Land Of The Free" was issued on the Desire label on 12" only. This single like most of their other material was promoted to clubs and dancefloors via a promotional 12" single and I've included these promotional releases in the discography.

Disco Rigido their first album was released on Fiction in the UK and the first single pulled from it was "Welcome To America". The single was remixed in various hip-hop like forms but the album held much more of interest. There's a wide variety of styles including the fast pumping industrial "Jack Hammer", the sampled narrated weirdness of "Sexus" and social comments on "I've Got To Make Sense" (featuring Jesse Jackson oratory samples) and "National Security" (consisting of a photocopying machine!). The album is tough in some places and all of it has a politically orientated social commentary that makes its hard hitting radical stance stand out from the usual crop.

"Strike To The Body", the second single from the album, was vastly remixed to push it more to the dancefloor masses and thus the mixes are not quite as good as the version on the album. However, the US issue of the single benefited by having an extra couple of remixes on it.

As mentioned last issue in 1991 a 12" promo sampler, "Jesus Killer EP", was issued containing new material. Three of the tracks were from the Big Electric Metal Bass Face album whereas the titled track only appears on the sampler. It should also be noted that the "Red All Over" track has much longer intro than that included on the album. The 12" sampler was released at the end of 1991 and within a couple of months a new single appeared "Funkopolis" but there was still no sign of the album. Eventually the album was released in the US around the time of the US "Funkopolis" release but the album did not appear in the UK until July. While the UK and probably the rest of Europe were waiting for the album the US released another single "Never Again". Six different mixes were included on the CD single along with two bonus live tracks from their recent US tour one of which, "Cold", is a track that does not appear on the UK album.

The UK issue of the new album (only on CD?), complete with parental advisory sticker, is much more fluent than the first album and is overall probably more hard hitting. Once again there's lots of variety ranging from funky tracks such as "Funkopolis" and "Brand New Convertible Car" to industrial sounding "Red All Over" and "Dying In Paradise". There's even a track on it ("My Pretty Little Girlfriend") that sounds as if they borrowed Vince Clarke's sample disks for a day.

Both albums are available on compact disc and this is the format you should look out for because they both pack the tracks in (16 and 14 tracks respectively). If you've only heard the singles (which are usually dancefloor orientated) you won't know what Die Warzau can really do. If you simply want out and out fast paced, blood splattering, head exploding hardcore industrial horror then Die Warzau probably aren't for you. If that's not the case then check them out! You might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.