Atrax Morgue’s – Mörder Machine. 2016.
Old Europa Café. www.oldeuropacafe.com/
(Box Set - CD, Cassette, DVD)
Track
Listing
Happy BirthDeath.
Living
Dead
Night
Is Coming. Forever
Lorna
Green
Hell
Is Here
Happy
Birthday
I
+M.
Deathshow.
I’m
So
What’s
A Human
Andei-Ice
(Destructive Element)
I’m
So (reprise)
DEATHSHOW
Territory
Music
for Dead Brains
Reel 1.
Untitled
The Mörder Machine Live.
January
4th 2003
May
29th 1998
March
20th 1998
December
9th 1995
Reel II
Untitled
Untitled
Mörder Machine was one of several Marco
Corbelli side projects during the duration of his Atrax Morgue project. The Mörder
Machine name was used twice in 1998 for two albums that were originally released
on Corbelli’s own Slaughter Productions label. The first album was DeathShow
and the sequel was Happy BirthDeath and they are the basis of this Old Europa
Cafe box set, along with two unreleased recordings on cd and cassette. The box
also comes with two postcards and a DVD containing four live Atrax Morgue performances
that span a period of 8 years.
Happy
BirthDeath opens in a Purgatory of Dark Ambient fog which is cut into by rude
electronics as Corbelli chants in the background like a threatening presence.
Is Corbelli suggesting he is The Living Dead?
The album hastily intensifies and descends into Deathly Power
Electronics by ‘Night is Coming. Forever’ as Corbelli’s vocals are doubled and
dragged across the beats and harsh frequencies; imagine the soundtrack to the
ritual scenes in Eyes Wide Shut, but made for a wilful execution.
Corbelli simultaneously
embraces repetition and improvisation on ‘Hell is Here’ and ‘Lorna Green’ which
I believe is about the pornographic actress of the same name who appeared in
several movies in the early 80s. It’s
worth noting that the original release had a calendar with his birthday circled
next to a death symbol along with an image of Corbelli as an infant. Lorna
Green’s time as an actress spanned 81-83, what personal significance does she
hold? The back ground samples her films as a synthesiser sound oscillates
ominously. With each track, the sounds pulsate to create a slow death with all
its horror amplified; Death Industrial personified. Another
addition to the original release was an illustration suggesting the best way in
which to hang yourself; this release really isn’t for the faint hearted.
The suffocating
sequel DeathShow pulsates a fractured digital beat on ‘I’m So’, it descends
into a dark ambient nightmare as Corbelli’s infected vocals radiate fear and
anxiety. The layering progresses on ‘What’s A Human?’ as vocals combine with
echoing chants, beats build to intensity. Sharp, Infected synthesizers then punctuate
the vocal abstractions.
Deathshow disintegrates
as it progresses, rhythms distort, vocals gain more prominence, whilst the
electrics sharpen into Power Electronics and get uglier. This is impressively brought to fruition in
‘I’m So – Reprise’ and ‘Deathshow’ the electronics are deathly and threatening.
The sounds flit between wall like rumble and Death-hum to eventually combine as
Corbelli’s vocal retch violently across everything to express his disgust and
desire to become one with his music killing sounds.
Deathshow
builds up to splattering pulsations that assert themselves massively. Sounds form
rhythms that dominate and step back to allow other sounds in to take the lead –
Corbelli is in control, this is no release of anxiety or depression, just an
intense journey through the mind of Corbelli at a specific point in time. ‘Terrortory’
winds things down for the entrance of lengthy nauseous repetition of ‘Music for
Dead Brains’ to kill the album off.
Each Mörder
Machine release is a sick soundtrack to Birth and Death in which Corbelli could
be seen as the murderer narrating his actions and the eventual arrival of Death,
someone fantasizing their own end or life murdering life? It’s difficult to say if the two releases
combine to form the duration of a life-span or its slow death.
The live DVD
contains footage of four entire shows over 8 years, the first from 1995 is just
Corbelli behind keyboards and effects making noise as cut – up, graphic videos
of death, surgery, serial killers and all manner of sickness are projected
behind him. Fast Forward 3 years, Corbelli is beginning to become an imposing
stage presence donning a long black leather trench coat and sunglasses. Vocals
are now more prominent in his work as he begins to evolve away from behind the keyboards
into an imposing frontman. The flickering video quality with its sudden jumps and
rolls gives the performance a ghostly quality. The following 1998 performance
recorded only a few months later shows Corbelli as a more confident frontman
switching with ease from his keyboard set-up to prowling the stage. His
identity is now really starting to become his own, visual influences are being
shed. By 2003, the act is at full maturity, he’s using a wider range of vocal
sounds, he looks odd and is totally in command - perfect. The DVD is as
excellent due to the amount of shows on there and how they chart the
development of Atrax Morgue as a live entity.
The unreleased
reals were discovered by Corbelli’s friend Davide Tozzoli after his passing. They
are rightly described as; ‘his last recordings, a cold and uncompromising
analogue testament’. The recordings return to primitive noise of Maurizio
Bianchi (with whom Corbelli collaborated) totally pure and futuristic in a
retro way. A cold aggression that is refreshing and impressive through its
simplicity, relentlessness and purity. The Tape (Reel II) is of the same
analogue simplicity yet more aggressive. Both raise interesting questions, was
Corbelli planning to regress the Atrax Morgue sound as a platform to further
remove himself from the Death Industrial/Power Electronics sound he’d perfected;
a regression before progression strategy?
Anything Corbelli
did has become insanely collectable, each release a fetish object with some
reissued and repackaged in lavish box sets like this. As his legend grows, I
ask myself who was he really? Urban legend suggests plenty of things. Images
show him cross dressing, posing with knives- constantly toying with Death. I
find myself impressed with his cross-dressing bravado, his prolific output and
hard-work. When listening to his work it is hard to avoid being infected by him
and getting stuck in cycles of obsessive thought. How do you avoid these things
in the present day when listening to anything by Atrax Morgue? But do I want to
avoid these things? Nope.
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