When this CD begins, you'll think you've tuned into an air compressor in one of the hospital's physical plants. Strange white noise wheezes, thermostatic blips, eerie distant rumbles - and somehow it all vibrates together to form a cohesive, fuzzy image, like iron filings on a plate over a magnet. Such is the case throughout the edgy and innovative "Prole" (a CD that's been out for some months and this wheezy ol' newspaper is finally getting to). Jason Shepherd, the one-man band that is Slugwrench, messes with the sound in ways no artist has quite managed to before. The chirpy synth melody in "Plan 20" is clipped with a noise gate so that it sounds broken, distant and alluring. The rhythms in "Meek" are just that - timid, skittering patterns hiding in the shadows of the song's Pluto-transmission vocals. The fact that a melody emerges from the grooving sonic mess of "Dorkscrew" is amazing - and thrilling. Industrial dancers will want to flock to this.