Church of Industrial Music: Haujobb - Freeze Frame Reality

As I continue to write these articles, I find myself wanting to use terms like "mind-blowing" or "fantastic" an awful lot. I gotta say though, this really is a fantastic album that blew my mind when I first heard it. This is an album that pretty much ticks all of my boxes: great sound design, great synth lines, great effected vocals, great drum programming, and even some really cool guitar (although this last one isn't really a main feature of the album). I know that what I'm about to say is something you could say about many great albums... but there's so much going on here that it takes a bunch of listens to really appreciate all of it, and even after that, sometimes on a listen with fresh ears, you'll find something new to appreciate after not hearing it for a while.

Haujobb is another band that has changed quite a bit over the course of their existence, and as time goes on, they seem to absorb more techno & EBM influences (not that I think that's a bad thing). While I like most of the later stuff a lot, some at least close to as much as I like this album, I think this one may be their most unique. This is not intended to be an insult to any of the rest, it's just that much of the rest of their work has more identifiable influences, I guess (as does their previous album, in a different way). As an example, I would comfortably label, say, Vertical Theory as EBM, while this album would be harder for me to put such a clear name to.

This album, and the rest of Haujobb's catalog is available on bandcamp: https://haujobb.bandcamp.com/

It's harder than usual to pick out highlights here, as the whole thing really is a masterpiece, and almost all of the tracks on this album stand out in some way for me... but I'll try. Starting out is easy: "Solid State Logic" opens the album, and sets the mood quite nicely. A processed sample from Single White Female layered with rhythmic breathing and indistinct background sounds gets your nerves on edge before a simple but highly effective synth sequence comes in with some sparse but well-done rhythms and lush pads, eventually joined by a similarly simple but well-placed guitar lead. As mentioned above, guitar isn't a huge feature on this album (though more here than in most of Haujobb's work), but where it shows up, it does the job well. The next track, "Dream Aid", brings rhythm more to the forefront, and further prepares you for the ride ahead with some head-spinning sequences and otherworldly vocals. Up next is "Conciousness", which is really a fantastic piece of work all around, but the thing that especially tickles my brain here is the awesome cut-up, rhythmic vocal samples. The next two tracks are similarly great, but for the sake of not going through every song, I'll skip ahead to "Trivial", which is notable for being instrumental and mostly ambient, until a little over halfway through, when this really cool rhythmic bit kicks in. It's relatively simple, but works incredibly well. "World Window" was a single for the album if I'm not mistaken, and had several versions that appeared on compilations & stuff at the time. It's also one of the best uses of an orchestra-hit type sample, in my opinion. I remember "Cold Comfort" getting some crap from certain circles at the time for being so guitar-heavy, but I love it, and think that's a great guitar riff. The rest of the album goes back to being more purely synth and sample-based, and the two remaining original tracks are as good as the rest. The remix of "Yearning", while good, is not as truly great as the rest of the album in my opinion.

I honestly can't say enough good things about this album, in case that isn't ovvious. If you haven't heard it, go do so now. You should also hear the rest of their stuff, but this one especially. This is definitely another one that would be at the top of the list if I had to pick favorites.