On Psycho-Bod Saves The World, you can see the clear influence Portion Control had on industrial purists Front Line Assembly – with its reams of multi-layered film samples and moody soundscapes. The album embraces live drumming and more fluid songwriting ethics, the basslines powering the songs forward, moving further away from the static, motoric robotisism of previous works. Fistful Of Creds, with its tribal rhythms and wailing siren synth sounds is a brooding standout.
Code003, meanwhile, features the 1986 EP Purge and the 1983 compilation album Simulate Sensual. Purge saw Portion Control refining their sound further, everything is tighter here – I believe this EP represented the band’s first real stab at entering the alternative commercial mainstream at least – with Piavani’s vocal toned down somewhat, and high pitched melodic motifs increasingly apparent on tracks such as Raise The Pulse and The Great Divide.
Finally, we come to the fourth disc in the collective, which features the EP Surface And Be Seen (1982) the singles Raise The Pulse (1982), Rough Justice and Go Talk (1984), and The Great Divide (1985). This harks back to the band’s most experimental and fragmented cuts; critically acclaimed, but leagues away from what your everyday synth pundit was clamouring for at the time – and sometimes hard to swallow.
Portion Control is highly active now, and some might think better than ever, however, not only is this box set a completists dream, but it also goes some way to help map out the history of the industrial genre and other associated styles of electronic music. For that alone it’s a key body of work – well packaged and put together, despite some of the material being admittedly difficult to assimilate
In 1987 Portion Control signed to London Records and promptly vanished. They reformed a few years later as Solar Enemy which existed from 1990 to 1993. Portion Control weren't seen again until 2002 when fansite 319 Online announced a resumption of activities by the band resulting not long after in a free downloadable software demo, code 11, featuring graphics, a rare remix of an old track – suck and blow, and samples of new material. Nothing else was released by them, however, until early 2004 with the release of the critically acclaimed double album Wellcome (the title inspired by the work of Sir Henry Wellcome) The more recent output stays true to portion controls refusal to compromise, and can be tracked via this website
Code003, meanwhile, features the 1986 EP Purge and the 1983 compilation album Simulate Sensual. Purge saw Portion Control refining their sound further, everything is tighter here – I believe this EP represented the band’s first real stab at entering the alternative commercial mainstream at least – with Piavani’s vocal toned down somewhat, and high pitched melodic motifs increasingly apparent on tracks such as Raise The Pulse and The Great Divide.
Finally, we come to the fourth disc in the collective, which features the EP Surface And Be Seen (1982) the singles Raise The Pulse (1982), Rough Justice and Go Talk (1984), and The Great Divide (1985). This harks back to the band’s most experimental and fragmented cuts; critically acclaimed, but leagues away from what your everyday synth pundit was clamouring for at the time – and sometimes hard to swallow.
Portion Control is highly active now, and some might think better than ever, however, not only is this box set a completists dream, but it also goes some way to help map out the history of the industrial genre and other associated styles of electronic music. For that alone it’s a key body of work – well packaged and put together, despite some of the material being admittedly difficult to assimilate
In 1987 Portion Control signed to London Records and promptly vanished. They reformed a few years later as Solar Enemy which existed from 1990 to 1993. Portion Control weren't seen again until 2002 when fansite 319 Online announced a resumption of activities by the band resulting not long after in a free downloadable software demo, code 11, featuring graphics, a rare remix of an old track – suck and blow, and samples of new material. Nothing else was released by them, however, until early 2004 with the release of the critically acclaimed double album Wellcome (the title inspired by the work of Sir Henry Wellcome) The more recent output stays true to portion controls refusal to compromise, and can be tracked via this website
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