Godflesh – Slavestate [1991; Earache, Relativity]

Originally released as a four-song EP, subsequent issuings expanded Slavestate to nine tracks, running nearly an hour long all together. The music shows Godflesh introducing some dance and techno stylings to their industrial metal base, while the crunchy guitar and hammering percussion remain firm. The EP is at its best when the songs are given over to the rhythms, letting the back-and-forth pounding ride along on the loop phasing and intersection shifting, which helps the songs shed some of their manufactured weight and feel more natural.

Through the grinding metallics and bass string rattling, there’s an odd grooviness that, though often obscured, imbues the proceedings with a skewed sort of hipness, though it’s one couched in unabashed aggression. Things do drag a bit, with three remixes filling out the space after the original tracks, but it provides a fuller illustration of the band’s experimentation and ideas at the time, and some of the reworked material hits firmer than the original cuts.

Bonny Cepeda – Dance Party [1991; Combo Records, Rico Records]

Vivacious merengue concentrated in eight tracks, this album’s songs tend toward laying out the instrumental riffs before cycling back around to run them with vocal emphasis and counter-point. Jumpy breaks and staccato accenting are joined with casual asides in the singing, giving the music an almost conversational intimacy at times, heightened by the languid tones of the female co-singer’s occasional contributions. The horn, bass, and percussion are all sharp and nuanced in their playing, and the rhythms offer something both simple enough to slide right into and detailed enough to hold up for their protracted runs in the songs. Unassuming but stylish, and just lengthy enough to satisfy without overdoing things.

Various Artists – Komotion International, Vol. 2 [1991; Spirit Music Industries]

Pulling together just over a dozen solo and group acts signed to various record labels (plus a couple of bands which appeared only on releases in this compilation series), this album seems to have been put together without much shaping of its intent beyond offering up some edge-of-counter-culture music of its time. Touching on early-’90s alt rock, rockabilly, conscious rap, heavy electro, spoken word, industrial, and more, the collection drifts through assorted moods of anxiety and detachment, strident and calm presentations, political and personal perspectives, and so on. Aside from the flavoring of its point in time and the general alternative shading, the main thing linking the songs is that they’re all performed with quite a bit of style and a strong sense of character. Outside of that, it’s an unpredictable grab-bag, but there’s still fun to be had with it.