Vukovar, a genre-bending experimental music project named after the war-torn city in Eastern Croatia is issuing its seventh LP, Cremation. This is industrial music for your pleasure, awash with unabashed romanticism steeped in a whirling cathedral of noise, with contemporary elements reminiscent of the most daring experimentations of Bowie and Thom Yorke—or post-punk through the lens of the unlived parallel life that Ian Curtis might have pursued if he had spent more time on his friendship with Genesis P-Orridge, and then absconded with Sleazy on his sonic adventures with Coil, with later dalliances with David Tibet of Current 93. This makes sense given the band’s core ensemble has been joined in ranks by luminaries such as Michael Cashmore of Current 93, and Rose McDowall, who has collaborated with just every artist that once upon a time orbited around Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth. The album opens with post-punk panache with the sonic trappings illustrated above, with “Roma Invicta”, which slows into a sombre spiral with “Love Meetings”. This atmosphere is shattered by the jarring funhouse nightmare that is “Internment by Mirrors”.
