Konstruktivists - Konstruktive Kontinuum (2020)

That Konstruktivists are now in their fourth decade should probably seem stranger than it is, but even more significant is how they've improved with age. The last couple of albums have been decent, and this may even be the best one yet - probably ironic given that there were only a hundred of the physical version, but never mind. Having actually bashed the triangle for Konstruktivists at one point, my impartiality might be called into question when it comes to a review such as this; but I'd argue that, having been in the group - which was after all a long, long time ago - I at least have some understanding of what Glenn was trying to do, the sort of effect towards which he's been working all these years. It was never particularly industrial, as the cliché would have it, because his influences have always been wider than a couple of post-punk albums which sounded like someone rogering a printing press. Even when it hasn't been communicated well, Konstruktivists have always had a strongly theatrical element - painting pictures and telling stories with music, if you will, but dark, slightly peculiar, and occasionally fetishistic stories as you might reasonably expect of a bloke who used to hang around with Clock DVA.

This is another album recorded with Mark Crumby - formerly of Cathedra, Binary, Codex Empire and a host of others - a name associated with the very best of Konstruktivists, which probably isn't a coincidence. Whatever it is, he clearly gets it, and to the point that listening to this I finally understand what Glenn was getting at all those years ago. This is like Lovecraftian cabaret, moody and disturbing but without pulling silly faces or taping a handmade no parents allowed sign to your bedroom door. There's something joyful here, weirdly stylised and arty without apologies; and not quite like anyone else I can think of, off the top of my head, so jolly good show!

Buy! Buy! Buy!