Flux Information Sciences – Private / Public (2001)

August 13, 2016

Flux Information Sciences are one of those bands that have got me wondering – “where the hell have you been all of my life!”. It genuinely annoys me when such gems go undetected on my musical radar for so long, especially since they can attribute a sizeable portion of their success to one Michael Gira (who? Never heard of him) after being signed to Young God in the early 2000s. Hell, even Chris Pravdica, the guy providing the gut-wrenching bass in the most recent incarnation of Swans, played with these guys.

So let me approach this retrospective review with language that isn’t going to land me a writing slot with Vice anytime soon. I might not be an east-side art guru, so it is probably easiest for me to describe Flux Information Sciences as a noisy mixture of self-titled-era Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle and Boards Of Canada. Heavy industrial and no wave stylings dominate the majority of the record, and I guess parts of this resemble early Godflesh, or Swans themselves, especially tracks like “Liposuction”.

All in all, a fantastic record with a lot of surprises up its sleeve. I simply love discovering stuff like this out of the blue, and I look forward to listening to the rest of their discography soon.