As someone wiser than myself so eloquently pointed out “John Fryer has practically soundtracked your entire life,” and it is particularly true if you have wandered a musical path littered with alternative sounds and underground bands, off-beat noise and cross-genre experimentation. Everyone from Nine Inch Nails and Cocteau Twins to HIM and Depeche Mode owe him a debt of gratitude for helping shape their sound and it was he who along with Ivo Watts-Russell masterminded the fabulous This Mortal Coil.
So when he rings you up and asks if you want to be involved in the latest Black Needle Noise recording, a position that Raymond Watts found himself in, it is only possible to answer in the affirmative. Watts, himself no slouch when it comes to helping to define the industrial music scene not least as founder and frontman of KMFDM, adds just the right touch of malice and menace to this slice of industrial-pop.
And if the words industrial and pop seem to be musical oxymorons, Seed of Evil proves otherwise. It is both built on hooky melody and buoyant rhythms but they are swathed in shards of raw and resonant electronica, intense and brooding industrial soundscapes and otherworldly darkness. But you still can’t help dancing to it whilst trying not to spill your trusty pint of cider and black, or whatever it is the creatures of the night are drinking these days.
