Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, a number of underground electro-industrial artists were building on the previous decade’s worth of sonic experimentation charted out by foundational industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Einsturzende Neubauten. Throughout the 80’s, groups such as Sleep Chamber, Controlled Bleeding, Clock DVA, Lustmord, SPK, etc, built on earlier electronic predilections and obsessions, mottled with liberal doses of noise, no wave, 80’s goth, punk DIY, and of course Metal Machine Music, and began releasing a range of harder, darker electro-industrial records steeped in alternating tangents of ideology, hedonism, dread, and mysticism. Their sounds and directions both mirrored and refracted the wasteland of mainstream 80’s culture, forming trends that would eventually bleed over into more mainstream acceptance with bands like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and Front 242. So why dig up ancient history? Because a quick history lesson is what the uninitiated ear is gonna need to process exactly what’s bubbling to the surface of Distortion Of Events’ newest record Congeners (2011, Zodarion Records). Congeners is the first full-length release from Patton, PA’s Michael Lubert (aka Distortion Of Events). As a whole, Congeners is so steeped in earlier-period electro-industrial that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t delivered on cassette as part of a ‘zine mailer. If some crypto-ethnomusicologist was to dig up this record 100 years from now