The Spectrum Spools imprint, a new offshoot of the well-regarded Viennese label Editions Mego, represents a much-needed signpost in the overcrowded field of boutique labels, with its focus on releasing work from artists who have honed their craft in the tape-and-basement-show underground. Curated and maintained by John Elliott, whose own adventures as one third of Cleveland’s breakout trio Emeralds have been routinely co-opted and repurposed by the newest wave of electronic charlatans, Spectrum Spools is responsible for some of this year’s most future-minded expressions in the form of LPs by Brooklyn’s Driphouse and Forma, Philadelphia’s Bee Mask, Nashville’s Container, Elliott’s own project Mist (with fellow Ohioan Sam Goldberg) and, newest of them all, Los Angeles synth-torturer Hive Mind.

Describing Elemental Disgrace, Hive Mind’s label debut, Elliott hints at the profound influence that Greh Holger (who is Hive Mind) has had, even going so far as to say that “Spectrum Spools as a label would not exist without Hive Mind.” Not only has Holger been emitting snarled blasts of darkened electronic fury as Hive Mind since 2002, he runs one of the most revered underground record labels, Chondritic Sound—itself responsible for releases by just about everybody who has made a noise worth hearing in this past decade.

By far the most opaque Spectrum Spools release to date, Elemental Disgrace will pull listeners from the relative safety of modern electronica’s escapist climate and immerse them into a disorienting, nerve-ticking murk. This aptly titled long-player consists of two side-long pieces. Its earthen drones -- slowly shifting, stratified and charged with post-industrial electronics -- draws riveting parallels to man’s continued assault and pillaging of the natural world. Focused and brutal, Elemental Disgrace nevertheless maintains a unique sort of beauty—a celebration of decay as natural force, perhaps— and represents a dark respite from the zoned-out banalities of so much current experimental electronic music.

- Jeff Conklin (Just Music)

Preview Elemental Disgrace below, then head to Holger's website, Soldier's Disease, to pre-order the LP.