The men in black aprons are back – well, two of them are, anyway, producer and bassist Hunter Barr having been replaced by live bassist Andie Brown, who seems to have come to the sensible conclusion that the bare-chested PVC apron look is not advisable raiment for a lady. I can’t help wondering if this got discussed at the audition. ‘OK, I’ll be in the band, but if you want me to wear that apron, forget it!’

Music/Concrete is the third studio album from KnifeLadder, following their 2006 album The Spectacle, and their first for the prestigious Swedish label Cold Meat Industry. Since the last album, KnifeLadder have gone through some serious changes. Not only has Hunter Barr left the band, but KnifeLadder’s founder, the veteran industrial musician John Murphy, has been refused permission to reside in the UK, due to visa issues. He’s currently living in Germany, which can’t have made recording Music/Concrete any easier. The majority of Music/Concrete’s 11 tracks were created by John Murphy and Andrew Trail working as a duo, although Hunter Barr appears on closing track ‘None Of You’. Andie Brown doesn’t appear on the album. Instrumentation used on the album includes electronics, bass, zurna, Kaoss pad and, naturally, loads of percussion of various kinds.

‘All For The Culling’ is a big departure from KnifeLadder’s usual work, in that it features a strummed acoustic guitar, courtesy of guest musician Lloyd James of Naevus (who also contributed backing vocals to The Spectacle). This is the first time I’ve ever heard guitar on a KnifeLadder song, but it works well, with the background ambient atmospherics, guitar and Andrew Trail’s vocals combining to produce a sound that’s not a million miles away from Death In June – a resemblance that’s heightened by the fact that Andrew’s clearly phrased and dramatically enunciated singing style is quite similar to that of Patrick Leagas, one of the original members of Death In June who later went on to form 6Comm and Mother Destruction. Opening track ‘White Walls’ also sounds quite 6Comm-ish.

Certain other songs stand out. The third track, ‘Cut And Run’, has the heavy rolling beat and imposing layers of industrial noise of classic KnifeLadder, as well as a fat Hammond organ-sounding keyboard line and vicious little lashes of radio interference. The penultimate track ‘Come’ has a definite hint of NYC duo Suicide with its febrile, incantatory vocals and hypnotically repetitive synth melody. ‘Fearsome Engine’ rattles along on rails of Neubauten-style metal percussion. But ‘Torn From Memory’ and ‘Blind Spot’ both stagnate in a soupy morass of loops and electronica, and ‘None Of You’, the only song to feature Hunter Barr, is pretty undistinguished. Compared to The Spectacle and the brute force of tracks like ‘Born Under Fire’, ‘Just Deserts’, ‘Suffer In Silence’ and ‘Harms Way’, a lot of Music/Concrete seems quite restrained and underpowered. To put it technically, it just doesn’t rock as hard.

I'm on good personal terms with the KnifeLadder boys, so it pains me to say it, but on the evidence of Music/Concrete, KnifeLadder as a two-piece simply do not possess the thunderous energy and impact of KnifeLadder as a three-piece. Given the trials and tribulations KnifeLadder have been through recently, in particular John Murphy’s state of exile, maybe it’s remarkable that the album ever got made at all, but it does sound very much like the work of a band wondering what to do next.

Hunter Barr leaving KnifeLadder has undoubtedly had a big effect, particularly in terms of production, since he produced both of KnifeLadder’s previous studio albums, as well as Andrew King’s The Amfortas Wound, another album I admire a lot, but there are problems with Music/Concrete which would seem to have nothing to do with Hunter Barr’s absence. For instance, Andrew Trail’s wild, wailing zurna was indispensable to The Spectacle, yet the zurna only appears on one track here, ‘Eden Falls’, where it sounds like bagpipes played over a marching drum and a dense, crunchy layer of cut-up vinyl scratching. Why so little zurna, though? In general terms, Music/Concrete is much less structured around ‘songs’ than previous KnifeLadder work – vocals and lyrics are less important, and the songs aren’t so fast and rigidly structured. As albums by reinvented bands go, this album is nowhere near as disastrous as say, Spinal Tap’s jazz improv set following the departure of Nigel Tufnel, but neither is this really the KnifeLadder I know and love.

Music/Concrete comes housed in a blue-grey digipack sleeve, and here I should declare an interest, as the tray photos were taken by me at the Madrid Le Blanc festival last year.

Finally, a word of warning – if you’re visiting the KnifeLadder website, make sure you use the address given below, as knifeladder.com, the domain formerly occupied by the band, is now a porn site of more than usual disgustingness.

www.knifeladder.eu

www.myspace.com/knifeladdermusic

www.myspace.com/coldmeatindustry