For the critic, it is perhaps the toughest assignment to offer up a fair and balanced review of a piece that is, well, a stinking piece. And, of course, this is all so subjective, yet I can’t help but feel that there has to be some kind of baseline to aesthetics and taste as to validate claiming that something is ‘junk.’ It is painful to out and out thrash somebody else’s artistic endeavors, which is why I always strive to include some positive thoughts.

However, with tKatKa’s (apparently pronounced “ta-kat-ker”) TerrorKnowledgeAction, I struggled mightily as though I were trying to force mortal will upon Apollo himself.

All immediate impressions of PJ Norman (IamPrimate) and friends’ work was to connect old neural pathways to music of old, mostly gothic-industrial sounds. The album’s opener, “Global Fascist State,” brought to mind flashes of Front 242; the teeth grinding terror of teen angst and misdirection, of floundering in vandalism and politically-charged apathy. The apocalyptic atom bomb bass drums of “Grief Hijackers” are like the derivative younger sibling to a KMDFM anthem. Imitative analogies didn’t stop there. The vocals, thankfully mercifully sparse, all echo an unpolished Depeche Mode cover band playing out of their parents’ garage, and the rhythmic and ambient looping tastes like fish sticks compared to the Copper River salmon of Johnny Greenwood’s electro-mastery for Radiohead.

It may be just the ideology of Norman and friends to make music so edgy and disquieting as to be maddening and mind scattering. This begs the question, though, if there is any place to stand or rest within this music? I forced myself, no exaggeration here, to listen to this album numerous times, trying to find what I might be missing, never figuring my assumptions and pre-conceived notions to be correct from the get-go, but to no reprive, no relief. “Kamikaze” drove the knife further in the ear with train wreck images of overly-drunk teens toiling to commit the waning minutes of the evening to dancing before last call. All the background noises wash in downward, off-center spirals, inducing the spins. It is a scary end product.

Speaking of scary, Bearded Magazine compels you to, “Expect it to soundtrack a spooky art flick, but it won’t because it’s better than the film would be.” My unfortunate response to that sentiment is that, while I am a big fan of CSI, I can’t help but listen to TerrorKnowledgeAction without hearing it as the forensic lab montage scene theme music. Rarely do the producers of that show pick the very finest in electronic music.

In my commitment to providing some sort of positive critique, I will say that the over-arching teen angst feel is inspiring in its own V For Vendetta way.

-Gabriel Bogart