Wreath of Barbs by Wumpscut

“Wreath of Barbs” is the title track of a new CD by Wumpscut, an electro-industrial project from Germany, founded in 1991 by Bavarian disc jockey Rudy Ratzinger. Electro-industrial is a musical outgrowth of the EBM and Post-industrial scene that developed in the late 1980s to the 1990s. Whereas EBM is straightforward in structure and clean production, electro-industrial is generally a deep, layered and complex sound and uses harsher beats and raspy, distorted, or digitized vocals. Electro-industrial music has increasingly attained popularity in the international club scene and in contrast to industrial rock, electro-industrial groups use comparatively little guitar music (if any). Lyrical content is often strongly influenced by dystopian subject matter; of which Wumpscut is consummate (see lyrics below, but listen to the podcast first):

Dark Matter—A Matter of Faith?

Does ‘Dark Matter’ to Philip Pullman?...

Dark Matter… “Dust” … call it what you want… It makes up 90 percent of our universe, according to astronomers. This makes the kind of matter that you and I see rather exotic; while we must accept the existence of the most common element, dark matter, on ... well ... faith. You see (oh, another bad pun!), dark matter doesn’t emit or reflect light and doesn’t interact with what we think of as ordinary matter. Yet, this invisible particle is faithfully being credited with playing a crucial role in shaping the visible cosmos. Dark matter is some form of matter theorized to exist that cannot be observed by radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, x-ray or gamma-ray telescopes and is theorized to be MACHOS, WIMPS, or GAS (see this site for more info on this incredible particle).