Consolidated play industrial music for those who want more than a night of dancing in blissed-out ecstasy, in a hip-hop style that can appeal to rockers who don't normally like rap/hip-hop. This group presents a serious challenge to those who look the other way hoping that social ills will just disappear on their own. They are, therefore, important. You won't agree with everything you hear on Play More Music, but you will be provoked to think about why.
The legacy of Consolidated seems one that is largely lost to time. If you ask who invented industrial hip hop, someone might tell you Dälek or one of his many contemporaries. Someone more informed might go deep in the vault and look into groups such as The Beatnigs or one of the many early experiments by some industrial or rap group they can date. Consolidated, while not the inventor themselves, were by my books the first prominent group to define it. The group formed in 1988, right as The Beatnigs released their innovative debut. They would outlast the group, and even later employ one of the members on their later works. I'd say they are the most important group to employ industrial and rap together in unity.
They were also radicals, or at least the press thought so at the time.
But the journalist who deferred them as mushy liberals couldn't have been further from the truth. In today's world, Consolidated would be considered "far left" progressives who aggressively and loudly preach to their audience about their strong opinions for gun control, abortion, veganism, animal rights, and so forth. Samples in their earliest samples would indicate their opinion of neo-conservatives as fascists. Their message has seemed to be more and more applicable almost thirty-one years later after the fact. These opinions were not just held within the lyrics and imagery of their music, but their concerts in general. Adam Sherburne, the leader of the collective, would pass the microphone around the concert, forming a sort of working class debate and exchange of ideas about their message. Some of these thoughts would be later sampled on records they'd produce. Within Play More Music you see this very quickly with retorts like "I didn't pay fifteen bucks to listen to CNN" and "If you don't like it here, don't live here" echoing on the record.
For their third album, I think this is the fully realized Consolidated. Their experimentation within where industrial music was at, the incorporation of guitars, the aggressive politics that sprawl through every song they made, and the deep involvement of their audience in their music... Consolidated was something I really wish I knew of years ago.
