Post Industrial Boys is actually the work of one guy, George Dzodzuashvili, who tends to go by the quite-shortened name of “Gogi”.  What this Gogi fellow was trying to accomplish with Trauma, the second album from his Post Industrial Boys project, isn’t entirely clear—the most obvious thing about the album is just how emotionless it all is, from its mellow-but-skittery electronics to the all-but-monotone vocals that insist on marring every single track.  The style is perfect for creepy little ditties like the noir-esque “Encounter” and the quick, dark undercurrents of “Paradise”, but a couple of tracks are bound to stick when you throw 20 against the wall.  This is the music of a brave new world, where emotion is eliminated and only structure remains.  Most egregious is an utterly banal take on Lou Reed’s seminal “Walk on the Wild Side” (here mis-named “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”) that saps the song of its sleaze, its attitude, its entire raison d’être, leaving only the words, the doodoots, and a silly little synth line to pick up the slack.  Needless to say, it utterly fails.  As does Trauma, as anything other than the soundtrack to a sterile office building where hope is lost and only the vague stench of a once noble concept like progress remains.

• Full album (low quality) ZIP