In 1998, Slave Cylinder released its first sound of many in the form of "shard 13 [prenatal]," a harsh noise track in which distorted Merzbow-esque walls of feedback battle with thunderous metallic rhythmic bursts for dominance. Featured on the BEMC compilation of local Bloomington artists, the track had been rejected earlier that year by Indiana University, where it was deemed too harsh for inclusion on their local music compilation of artists mainly operating in songwriter & rock-oriented formats. This experience would mold the rest of the band's career.
In 1999, the SC track "danse mecanique" appeared on the Infinity Paradox compilation alongside C/A/T, Sleeping with the Earth, Cazzodio, Big City Orchestra, and others. Franck H-Bomb of Das Bunker would later express his appreciation of the track during the SC / Exclipsect show at that very same venue in 2002. Between 1999 and 2000, Slave Cylinder's punishing noise piece "kalchbhlcenter" appeared on no less than three compilations, including the first Slave Indvstries label sampler and the second installment of the BEMC series.
The year 2001 arrived, and with it, the Slave Cylinder debut album "Mild Abrasives". Evolving from formless abstraction into mechanical, distorted percussion and raw textures, the group issued both a regular version of the CD and a limited edition in sleeves mounted to real circular saw blades. One year later, several unreleased SC mixes of bands such as Wumpscut, ATR and Assemblage 23 were made available as part of a Slave Indvstries remix compilation.
In 2003, SC issued an ambitious 3" disc of 13 new tracks seamlessly mixed into one another, titled "ADHD Schematics." ADHD featured sketches and finished tracks in both beat-driven and looser, more experimental veins, and several of the songs were expanded into longer versions for inclusion on other releases. Slave Cylinder's anti-corporate and anti-capitalist themes also found a greater focus on ADHD, and the band's brutal reworking of Shard's politically-charged "fall of the two towers" was issued as part of a remix single of the same name later that year.
2005 saw the arrival of a brand new Slave Cylinder track, "manifold ape-death." The slowly building, atmospheric, menacing song found its home alongside such artists as Tarmvred, Exclipsect, Dissecting Table, Not Breathing, Skincage, and many more on the Mile 329 compilation "This is What We Do!!!" The band is currently on the verge of completing two new collections of work: the rhythmic noise-oritented "Ruzumubokkusu [rhythmbox]," and the more experimental and abstract "The Unbearable Commerce of Being."
Reviews:
"SLAVE CYLINDER's track takes the industrial harshness factor to greater heights, and though it's one of the least melodic of the tracks, it stands out for its intensity, the brutal beat firing away a stacatto machine-gun blitz." Aural Innovations
"As if unleashing the full assaultive firepower of a galactic battlecruiser, the rhythmic salvos from Slave Cylinder's 'kalchblcenter' leave the eardrums burnt, shattered crisps." AmbiEntrance
"Industrial maxiumus. Blocks of sound chunks of metal slamming in time then space. Woe! Stand clear-- retro rockets firing up in front of you. Quite extreme skydiving with Tobor the magnificent. Gravity boots and parachute needed!" Tentacles of Erpland
". . .a white-noise freakout that might remind listeners of a space shuttle launch or a looped jet engine." Jonathan Cohen, Nude As The News
"The rhythmic industrial sledgehammer sound and dental drill noise of Slave Cylinder. . .re-introduced me to those alien abductions Id repressed so long ago." Bloomington Voice
"In the wake of EBMs cold steel beats and warm synthetic melodies comes something far more sinister. From a remote college town in the U.S. comes a Germanic combination of Power Noise pulses, cybersplatter synth lines and fierce Electro rhythms. In opposition to mindless entertainment, consumerism and corporate interests, Slave Cylinders dystopic aggression echoes the inhuman sounds of industry and the distressed sounds of technology pushed to the brink of collapse. Their mechanized rhythms are rectilinear and form defined slots for the sonic chaos of abrasive sounds." Listen.com
