About Navicon Torture Technologies

Navicon Torture Technologies saw its first official release in August of 1997, in the form of "Amalgam: A Collection of War Poems", a split CD featuring lo-fi ambient noise and power electronics from NTT along with Negative Eight, a genre-bending electronic side project of the grind/industrial band Negativehate, whose members happened to live just around the corner from NTT frontman Lee Bartow (who would come to be known as "Leech"). As an outlet for this release, and with the idea of more to come, Leech founded the Annihilvs label. Not long after, a series of very limited cassettes followed. In 2000, NTT slowly began to gain more exposure as the "Insanity" cassette on flighty label LSD Organisation was released, shortly before the "Analog Artifacts" CD-R on Annihilvs, until a deal with Malignant Records finally introduced NTT to the world at large with the "Scenes From the Next Millennium" CD. Since its inception, Navicon Torture Technologies has birthed more than 11 cassettes, 7 full-length CDs, over 45 CD-R releases, and more than a dozen remixes and compilation appearances. NTT has released CDs on Blade Records (Italy), Cranial Fracture Recordings (Australia), Eibon Records (Italy), Immanence Records (UK), Malignant Records (US) and NCC Records (US). Limited CD-Rs by NTT have been released by Stridulum Recordings (Italy) and PACRec/Troniks (US), and NTT has appeared on compilations and remix albums released by Ant-Zen, BFI Unit, Chondritic Sound, DTA Records, Hive Records, Horch!, Invasion Wreck Chords, L'Ame Electrique, Megahertz, Objective/Subjective, Pre Feed, Spectre, Word Made Flesh, and many more. NTT has collaborated with, remixed, or been remixed by several respected names in the underground scene, including The Biped Project, Cenotype, Converter, Coph Nia, Herbst9, I Burn, IRM, klangstabil, lefthandeddecision, Negativehate, Pneumatic Detach, SKM-ETR, synapscape, Wilt, Salt, Still Life Decay and Terrorfakt. Over a 12 year period, the name Navicon Torture Technologies has come to be known in the industrial music scene for combination of searingly vicious vocals, hypnotic loops and dark atmospheres, infused with an emotionally honest lyrical content not found within traditional power electronics. Often collaborating with numerous like-minded artists to incorporate a variety of styles, illustrating his ability to take different forms of industrial music and apply his signature twist, Leech came to coin the term Power Romance to describe NTT, a phrase abstract enough to encapsulate the various concepts, styles, and sounds that encompass the project, yet descriptive enough to differentiate himself from his influences. After ten years of baring his psychic wounds to the world at large, Leech announced plans for the death of the project in 2007, and performed under the NTT name for the final time in November of that year. The final releases are finally seeing the light of day in 2009, opening the way to new projects and a broader scope for his artistic endeavours. The final and definitive double CD release from NTT, "The Gospels of the Gash" chronicles one man's journey into a world devoid of light or hope. This is a place where the air is alive with the stink of pain and the beating of great black wings. The two discs compile material from a slew of limited releases from 2005-2007, as well as newer tracks recorded specifically for this release. As a result, Gospels of the Gash is unquestionably the most complete NTT recording to date and nothing short of a monumental achievement... A culmination of the best aspects of past releases combined into an epic odyssey of apocalyptic atmospheres, brutish frequencies, harrowing darkness, and razor sharp vocals. "The Gospels of the Gash" includes collaborations with various stalwart members of the NTT priesthood such as Cenotype, Fragment King, and M Slagle and more recent converts Autoclav1.1 and CoVet. Isomer and Steel Hook Prostheses have also made valuable contributions. Mastered by Neuroscan.org (STROM.ec / Cloama), and packaged in a two-tray DVDigipak with layout and artwork by Leech and Jorden Haley (www.karbine.com), this release is a fitting funerary rite for NTT. A limited boxed edition will follow, featuring a two disc collection of remixes and collaboration tracks.