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16 Volt
The Best of Sixteen Volt: 1993 – 2003

Cleopatra Records

Posted: Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Ilker Yucel
Editor

The ‘90s were an interesting decade, perhaps one of the most schizophrenic in music history. Trends came and went with such speed as to make the average music listener dizzy, while festering beneath the surface in the underground was a scene that seemed tailor made for the disillusioned and the disenfranchised. Coldwave and industrial rock were nothing new as groups like Ministry and KMFDM had existed in the ‘80s, but it wasn’t until the ‘90s that it became something of a phenomenon, with groups like Sister Machine Gun, Die Warzau, Chemlab, Haloblack, Cubanate, Gravity Kills, and a plethora of others beginning to emerge, making a name for themselves as a new breed of music that took the innovative spirit of industrial music and infused it with the raw energy of punk rock, and even taking chances by incorporating techno, funk, jazz, and anything else under the sun. One of the most revered of these groups was 16 Volt, the brainchild of Eric Powell. For 12 tumultuous years, he fronted the ever-shifting lineup of 16 Volt, releasing four albums over the course of a decade, and working with such industrial luminaries as Keith Auerbach, David Ogilvie, and Chris Vrenna. While the band embarked on a successful tour with KMFDM in 2003, the ever present and almost requisite record label complications arose, ending 16 Volt indefinitely. To commemorate the band’s legacy, Cleopatra Records has released this, a 2-disc set featuring some tracks from 16 Volt’s four albums as chosen by the fans through the band’s web site, as well as their 2003 live performance from the Cabaret Metro in Chicago. Such tracks as “Head of Stone,” “Uplift,” and “Swarm” showcase 16 Volt’s distinctive style of machine rock, while also indicating a heavy Ministry influence, circa The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste. “Motorskill,” “Perfectly Fake,” and “Two Wires Thin” are prime examples of the band’s development over time, honing the combination of skillful programming with organic guitars and drums. The live CD is the real treat, providing a small but memorable document of 16 Volt’s energy and precision as a live act on what was to become their final tour; live renditions of “Skin,” “American Porn Song,” and “Suffering You” sound incredibly similar to their studio versions, but with enough nuances to distinguish them as live performances. As far as best of collections go, The Best of Sixteen Volt: 1993 – 2003 gets it right, giving listeners just enough of a taste of the band’s music to satiate their need for hard-hitting industrial rock, while still leaving enough room for them to demand more. Whether or not this is the final offering from 16 Volt is anybody’s guess, though with Eric Powell’s focus having now shifted to Ringer and an as yet unnamed project, The Best of Sixteen Volt: 1993 – 2003 may very well be the last and best release to bid farewell to the 16 Volt moniker.