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CONTRA's "Enter The Winter" album has got some cool reviews
lately, and here they all are in one place. Click here
to return to the main news page on the CD's track details, where to
purchase the CD.
The Wire (www.thewire.co.uk)
Kerrang Magazine (www.kerrang.com)
Terrorizer
Magazine (www.terrorizer.com)
Virus Magazine (www.virus-mag.com)
"Ian Reddy, who also is known by the E. Coli moniker,
as well as releasing music under several other aliases, is the brain
behind Contra. Combining different electronic music genres, the
results are intriguing, bringing about a sense of futuristic decadence
and contemporary chaos, with a touch of humor.
It is interesting to note some of Reddy’s influences: Alec Empire,
William S. Burroughs, Public Enemy, Noam Chomsky, Jello Biafra, and
Negativland. Certainly, one could argue that these influences have led
to Contra’s collage-like approach, electronic hardcore aesthetics, and
a penchant for making poignant social commentary. Creative and
intelligent, Contra’s compositional presence can best be described as
controlled chaos that never fails to entertain. This is also a nice
intro to the world of electronic noise, for those who might be so
inclined to check it out. 8/10" -Michael Casano
WetWorks E-Zine (www.wetworksezine)
"Enter The Winter" is the newest full length release
from Contra on Digital Hardcore label D-Trash Records. This is a
professionally pressed cd which was nice, as i'm used to having tons of
unlabeled cd-rs of my D-Trash releases scattered about. I would describe
the sound on this disc as Cadoo meets Alec Empire and they wrestle in a
gravel pit. Chopped up samples and beats, with over-lapping strings and
noises. "Enter The Winter" is a symphony for the
post-apocalypse. It's beauty and chaos side-by-side. My personal
favorite track is "Faith's In Decline" which isn't the
hardest, or fastest track on the album, nor the most complex. But it's
incredibly smooth flowing and catchy. It's constantly stuck in my head,
which I wouldn't say is a bad thing. If you're a fan of chopped up,
chewed on, ripped apart, and re-structured tracks this is a release to
not miss. If you're not perhaps you soon would be if you gave it a
chance." -Mike Zab
Metal Rules
Magazine (www.metal-rules.com)
"Somewhat of a special occasion for the cult D-Trash
label, Canadian Experimental Digital Hardcore troup Contra find all
stops pulled out on packaging, and all systems go, production-wise, on
this, the band (and label)'s finest hour yet this year. Sandwiched
between a pair of ambient pieces, Contra meld circuit-breaking
post-Industrial with remarkably restrained Digital Hardcore and clever
atmospheric passages into what will surely be a favorite with the
pierced and tweaking Industrial Nation anti-scene. "Young
Nation" sounds like something KMFDM alum FM Einheit might pull out
on a solo platter. Hell, "Faiths In Decline" isn't all that
dissimilar in spirit from what KMFDM itself has been increasingly
notorious for including as album filler of late. Only here, it isn't
filler; in this dark Radio Shack of the soul, such sub-poetic ambience
is center stage. More disturbingly (and deceptively)
"tranquil" and ambient than previous releases, ENTER THE
WINTER is a harsh, unforgiving record that doesn't desire human
ears--and, in fact, only berates them as hopelessly inadequate
"meat pleasures" to be phased out with the next available
comet. "In The Bloodstream" sounds almost racially loaded, in
an abstact sort of way. It's like an angry Zulu, spear and all, was
hopelessly uploaded into some chirping, rhythmic harddrive of Zeta-Reticulan
design. Combined with the slow build of "A Minimal Future," it
gives the album's mid-section the hollow, spacy feel of a long-lost SETI
transmission into distant voids unfathomed. "Strain is positively
jarring. Imagine the drifting, scattered signals wafting into the
blackness of cold space. Now hit the record button, and you have the new
disc by Contra. Mainman E. Coli takes sound loops, tape splices, and
"found sound," and makes these "scattered signals"
into art. It's not new, and you can't dance to it (well, you could
almost bob along to "Slime"...), but it's way ahead of what
you presuppose it might could sound like. This is not an
"easy" listen; it does not reward the casual listen. It is
likely reserved for genre aficianados, who collect the off-kilter
esoterica of the World Serpent, Eibon Records, and Cold Meat Industry
labels, as well as the Industrial and Trance-Rock of the Metropolis
roster, with an eye and ear toward merging these oft-separated scenes.
Ultimately, it's Experimental Digital Crossover that could be on any of
the "major" genre labels, yet doesn't care the least...an
echoing furnace of spite that hates its own listeners. Love it or hate
it, you won't find anything quite like it in the cold dead space of
Commercial Counterculture and big-label Harsh Noise. If aliens
discovered this in space, they'd grip their hypercephalic earholes with
their bulbous digits, spin their ship around, and flee. And if it scares
off Grays, it's a must-purchase, correct? If nothing else, it's great
for making coworkers despise you. Do you really need another reason to
look this up? No...I didn't think so. I never called it
"music." But I also never called it junk. It's noise. Go use
it against someone tonight." -Gabriel Zolman
ReGen Magazine (www.regenmag.com)
Upon
receiving this disc, I was sure to have an album full of old video-game
bleeps and bloops. The name “Contra” brings back fond memories of
feverishly punching in that special cheat code that would give you tons
of extra lives and unlimited ammo, with lots dead enemies exploding at
the touch of a Contra bullet.
As it turns out, I couldn’t have strayed any further from the truth,
because Contra’s Enter the Winter contains nothing that could
even be closely associated with video games. Rather, Contra offers up a
noisy release that is sure to please fans of droning noise and harsh
industrial alike.
Created from the mind of E. Coli (whose other projects include Strider,
The Druids, and Nervous), Contra’s Enter the Winter begins with
the track “Biotapestry X,” which starts off with chunky angry
electronics that flow together with an almost industrial sense. “Young
Nation” follows this track with more of the same, as do a few of the
other tracks. This is the biggest problem with this release, which is
that you can’t really tell when one song ends and another begins unless
you keep a close eye on your CD player. Fans of noise will most likely
not have a problem with this, for noise-heads are used to this effect
that many noise records utilize. Other fans of electronic music will
probably have a hard time enjoying this disc, though.
Tracks like “Faiths in Decline,” “A Minimal Future,” and “Obsessionism”
provoke inquiries on politics and Western civilization’s downfall, but
there are no lyrics to help those thoughts along. Enter the Winter
is an instrumental album for the most part, only to be interrupted by a
sample here or there. Since there are no lyrics to define the idealism
of the record, the listener is left to his or her own devices. In
essence, that’s what makes this a good noise album.
All in all, Contra has created an album of harsh noises and whirling
sounds that can be enjoyed if you need some random tunes playing in the
background while you try to cheat at your favorite video game. If you’re
not into artists that don’t follow standard rock structures though, then
you should steer clear of Contra. Otherwise pop it in, tune out, and
enjoy the noise.
Side-Line
Magazine (www.side-line.com)
E. Coli aka Contra is a Canadian composer who has already
released numerous releases under the moniker of Contra and other names.
“Enter The Winter” seems to have been composed as a soundtrack to the
bleakest sci-fi cyberpunk movie that has been never made. The idea of
cyberpunk sounds quite surprising to me as this project dives into pure
noise fields. This is a sonic collage of 11 tracks leading the listeners
into a tsunami of harsh rhythms and sonic manipulations. I like the
definition of rhythm’n’noise that has been invented for this project as
it clearly says what the content is all about. This is an album full of
distorted power and experimental sonic aggression. It’s definitely an
album for the adepts of this kind of style! -DP
Grave Concerns
E-Zine (www.graveconcernsezine.com)
"Prolific Canadian producer E. Coli releases music under a slew of different names, including Strider, Ice Breathing, Nervous, and The Druids, but his main sonic outlet is Contra. On his first professionally released CD, Contra takes hard breakbeats and drum ’n’ bass rhythms and drenches them in chaos, distortion and samples. Despite the clinical precision with which he chops and splices beats and samples, E. Coli’s compositions are anything but clinical; "Biotapestry X" opens this album with a swampy morass of gurgling, static, and unintelligible bits of conversation, and "In the Bloodstream" uses flattened, almost wooden-sounding percussion loops for an almost tribal vibe, at least until the orchestral synths and piano loops make their appearance. While Contra’s music is heavily dependent on the manipulation of rhythm, it’s rarely club-friendly; apart from "Slime," which could probably slip unnoticed into a power noise DJ’s set list, these rhythms are too frantic for dancing in the conventional sense. Even when simpler rhythms appear, as on the ominous stomp of "Faiths in Decline," they rarely stick around long enough to establish a solid groove, instead leaping for cover in the face of grating feedback squeals or wildly pulsating analog tones. For all its intensity, Contra’s music has a certain cerebral quality, rewarding a careful listen with occasionally recognizable bits of classical pieces or comedic samples. Fans of such acts as Venetian Snares or Hecate will especially appreciate Contra’s abrasive approach to rhythmic complexity.
Check out Contra and E. Coli’s other projects at http://contra.dtrashrecords.com/.
" -Matthew J.
Sick Among The Pure E-Zine (www.sickamongthepure.com)
"Futuristic. Nihilistic. Anarchistic. Contra is all
about the attack: raw, unguarded and intense. This isn’t ritualistic
warfare, but the sounds of guerrillas whose friend-or-foe status isn’t
known until it’s too late. Contra is the one-man brainchild (or
boot-kick) of e.coil out of Canada. The fact Contra is signed to Dtrash
Records, strongly implies the band’s sound. Dtrash is known for their
digital hardcore artists who sound like mix of early ‘90s Industrial
acts like Chemlab and Skinny Puppy, combined with D.C. Harcore’s
political Punk ethos. There are certain similarities between Contra and
modern day Powernoise projects like SMP; but where the latter relies on
layers of samples; the former prefers pure unrelenting computerized
machine-gun sounds. Individual tracks are all darkly apocalyptic and
deceptively simplistic, and at times they become repetitive and
unfinished as if certain pieces were not fully realised. Still, what
gave me the most pause was E. Coli’s quote on the Dtrash website: “a
message of personal revolution against systems of thought that are
keeping people spineless and boring”. As if snapped out of my
systematic writing style, I realize that Contra has achieved his
mission: Enter the Winter made me forget the rules of reviewing and
think about digital hardcore as perhaps the most utilitarian tool in
musical warfare."
Exclaim Magazine (www.exclaim.ca)
"Under the wing of Kitchener’s DIY label, Dtrash Records, Contra
serves up an assault on the senses. This is not an album that will be
turning heads, but sole-member E. Coli’s efforts deserve an honourable
mention as originally savage bits of non-music. Enter the Winter does
not just mix up elements of drum & bass, hardcore techno and
rhythmic noise, but rather chews them up and vomits them back out. This
is aggressive noise music with a futuristic feel, with the catchy
melodies and barrage of migraine driven synth in “Faiths in Decline,”
the best track. ... E. Coli has brought forth an experiment meant only
for lovers of highly toxic mechanical savagery and the labour behind
this release deserves some appreciation." -Mike Adair
Twilight Zone (www.twilight-zone.it)
"Nuova uscita per la più prolifica delle tante incarnazioni del
canadese Ian Reddy che in quest’occasione si firma con lo pseudonimo
E. Coli. Enter the Winter rappresenta la seconda stampa su CD per
Contra, che finora aveva pubblicato quasi esclusivamente su CDr se si
esclude un rarissimo 7”. Peccato per l’assenza del booklet,
sostituito da un misero foglietto più che avaro di informazioni. L’elettronica
di Reddy –così come, più in generale, quella prodotta dall’etichetta
canadese D-Trash- si distacca molto dagli standard cui siamo abituati in
Europa e riconduce alle diramazioni più estreme della Jungle music, ma
anche, a tratti, ad alcune delle sperimentazioni di Aphex Twin e DJ
Spooky; il risultato è quello di una mescolanza di rumori di varia
provenienza letteralmente violentati da più basi spezzate e intrecciate
tra loro. Nel particolare il CD è composto da 11 tracce, la prima delle
quali è praticamente un intro composto da rumori e versi deformi; dopo
di che si spalancano le porte alle percussioni frastagliate di Young
Nation, cui segue l’ottima Faiths in Decline costruita con una base
sincopata su cui emergono voci distorte ed un buon motivo di tastiera,
arricchito da samples che rimandano a vecchi videogames. Le sessioni
ritmiche si susseguono e si sovrappongono quasi a creare l’effetto
inquietante di una sparatoria impazzita, con basi più potenti in
sovrimpressione e colpi ossessivi in sottofondo, come in In the
Bloodstream, dove troviamo anche qualche momento di tranquillità tra i
frenetici assalti di adrenalina, che riprendono più incisivi che mai
nella successiva Slime. Samples, e brusii inaugurano l’entrata di
Black Nirvana, brano dall’andamento più rallentato sebbene poderoso.
Menziono infine la breve e conclusiva Biotapestry Z sempre organizzata
su basi brokenbeat ma realizzata con sonorità più industriali. Contra
propone in questo dischetto un modernismo musicale che supera l’eccesso
e a volte rischia di cadere nel puro manierismo specchiandosi troppo nei
suoi ritmi irregolari e accavallati. Le soluzioni rimangono comunque
molto interessanti e trovano il loro massimo risultato in un ascolto ad
altissimo volume, tant’è che indico questo lavoro soprattutto ai
deejay con propensioni breakcore. Tuttavia la buona qualità del
prodotto dovrebbe soddisfare –come è successo al sottoscritto- anche
chi frequenta solo saltuariamente queste sonorità aggressive." -
Michele Viali
Gothtronic.com (www.gothtronic.com)
"Canadian Contra frontman E. Coli, defined as a mad-crap electronic
artist, on the newspage of his own web site, really likes to kick tha
butts and kiss your ears with this 'Enter the winter'. I hate to compare
but for those who are into break-core with a sense of disto and crossing
new-age ambient/illbient sounds, this is your cup of tea, especially for
H.P.P. and early Somatic Responses addicted fans. Digital Hardcore the
way it supposed to "crunch". When was the last time you'd hear
so many different efx and sounds on one album? These instrumental tracks
make me wanna move. So many beats make you more break than dance 'cuz
doing both at the same time will definitely break a leg. Innovative
rhythms, distorted beats, subtle sounds and never annoying breaks and
bridges makes it worth every time you listen. The variety of the songs
never get bored - you'll always hear something new every time you play
it. Fortunately no song that really stands above the rest. Every piece
is a highlight except the intro Biotapestry X. It's just an intro...
Small note: Some sounds are quite loud mastered, 'Strain' is a good
example. Work on that please. Overall, nice! This is a cd I will play
more than once! Thanx for clearing up the sky in cyberspace.
8.3/10" -6ix
Space Junkies (www.spacejunkies.net)
""Enter The Winter" is the soon-to-be released and well
awaited fourth DTECH [DTRASH-Technologies] album from the infamous
digital hardcore/industrial label DTRASH Records. Previous DTECH
releases include Schizoid's "All Things Are Connected", Unitus'
"Cross Contamination" and the "Rising Tide"
compilation album. CONTRA's "Enter The Winter" follows the
DTECH suite with a magnificent display of moody electronic soundscapes
and powerful minimalist compositions. Combining all the elements from an
array of styles contained within the walls of the "digital
hardcore" genre, such as loops, break beats, drones, samples,
minimalism, harsh electronic noise combined with softer sounds and his
ever-notorious classical influences, CONTRA, unleashes one of his best
works yet." -Wednesday Elektra
Industrial.org (www.industrial.org)
"D-trash releases have a tendency to be either really good, or not
so good. Lucky for me then that this new cd from canadian based act
Contra falls into the good side of the trash heap where there are plenty
of cool old dolls and gadgets to be found, and not on the other side of
the fence where it's just stinky and icky. Weighing in at slightly over
42 minutes and spread over 11 tracks,"Enter the winter" is
long enough to make you happy, but short enough to never get boring. Not
that I think this disc is boring at all, bit if it were double the
length like a lot of dudes are doing now, I think some of my enthusiasm
would dwindle a bit. The audio here is definitely not what I had been
expecting from my previous encounters with Contra, which was more
straight forward digital hardcore. This stuff is a lot better, in that
it goes a million places and really experiments with the DHC template.
There is still the rebellious attitude that is at once very serious and
silly, and the fast beats are here, but the DHC has blended in a really
nice way with digital noise, glitch, powernoise and generally fractured
and experimental sounding stuff. A large chunk of the tracks have really
cool synth melodies in the background that act as glue tying together
the chaos with a bit of structure. So it's still fast, and there is
still a middle finger sticking in the air, but Contra has gone to a
really unique place and breathed some new life into the genre. It's
really hard to single out any track here, as I enjoy them all a lot, but
I'll try to point out some specific stuff that wets my noodle. The
contrast of synth melodies and noisy stuff is especially effective on
tracks 2,3,6 and 9, and tracks 4,5 and 8 have some seriously dark
overtones. As far as sample usage goes, track 10 ("Spoken
Word") has one of the coolest samples ever. Throughout the track is
this scary christian guy talking about how Apple computers are an evil
communist darwinist cult set out to take over the world. it seems like
it was taken from a radio show and the guy sounds rather serious. But
taken out of context, it's extremely amusing. I really can't do this
album justice verbally, so the end conclusion is this: "Enter the
winter" kicks fucking ass. Go get your hands on this digital
hardcore masterpiece now!" -Royce Icon
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