Today is the day that Android Lust's The Dividing is available in stores nationwide. Please go out and purchase a copy. If it's not available at your favorite store, ask them to order it. You should hear this release!

I have thought, over the last few months, quite a bit about why I chose Android Lust for Projekt. What's so special about this album? This band? I'm going to answer that by telling you about what it means to me......

Android Lust is the creation of Shikhee. She's a Bangladeshi-born musician who's been performing here in the New York scene for a few years, pulling herself up from the electronic underground. The Dividing is her second album; musically it goes so far beyond that simple classification. She wrote the words and music as well as played almost every sound you hear on the album. It is HER creation.

This is something I've wanted on Projekt for many years: a female artist. Not a band fronted by a woman, but a band that -- from the first conceptualization to the last touches on the album cover design -- is completely the creation of one woman. In this regard, Android Lust has a similarity with my music. Except for a gender switch, Android Lust is like black tape for a blue girl: it's one person's vision in every sense.

Everything you hear on The Dividing has been torn from Shikhee's soul.

Ok. Admittedly, I am an artist with a specific theme that I examine in my work. My art is a blending of desperation, faith, loss and hope; I have a need for purity and truth, to justify the hardship life throws at me. That's sort of black tape for a blue girl in a nutshell.

And maybe this is why I am so drawn to Shikhee's work. I can honestly say that there are very few artists who I feel tread the same (existential) ground as black tape for a blue girl. Few artists are so brutally willing to expose their souls to the light, with almost painful disregard for what they might reveal. It's a very small family indeed (a few other musicians in this category are soul whirling somewhere and 1980's David Sylvian). Shikhee works in this self-revelatory world.... her art is a collection of seething rage, resentment and self-annihilation.

You can feel it in these two examples from The Dividing....

FALL TO FRAGMENTS
Is it the light I see
Is it the water that bathes me
Or is it your kingdom that makes me
So abusive I can't breathe
Guilt brings paralysis
My hands are left to rot
My eyes pried open
Cleanse this body I give
From its impurities
Accumulated for years
From ignorance and blind fears
So reflective you can see
The layers of this shedding skin
Conscience or self deceit
I await the vision

Is it the light I see
Is it the water that bathes me
Surrender to my whim
Regurgitate old beliefs
Dedicated to my deeds
I fall to fragments on my knees
So reflective you can see
The layers of this shedding skin
Conscience or self deceit
I await the vision

BURN
Slowly peel this crust that is forming
Over my skin to protect me
From my disapproving mind
Which carries on exploiting my weakness
Ashes falling surrounding me
I don't care, mask this burning
And my ever searching eye
Shuns its finds
And I burn

I think that when people first listen to Android Lust, they get the impression that the singer is angry and out to kick some ass! It does seem that way on the surface; on further examination, you can sense that the destruction is aimed within. Shikhee is decomposing herself, tearing herself down with searing personal self-analysis. I don't think there's anything left at the end. You can picture her sitting alone, razoring off every layer of shit and facade, in search of something once pure still lurking beneath. In the end, it feels like there is nothing left. A thousand dreams, souls, lies left in bloody heaps around the room and a seared ember in the center, shouting and screaming and whispering the truth.

Is there anything left?

I have never asked Shikhee what the album title The Dividing means. To me it means the breaking down and tearing apart of her soul. Being left divided, broken, destroyed: the sense of dividing and prying herself apart. What is revealed? What is it that will emerge?

I go back to my own second album, 1987's mesmerized by the sirens, and reflect upon the anger and pain that filled the grooves of that vinyl release. There was a beauty in the destruction, a phoenix yet to rise from the flames. I see that in Android Lust. Shikhee and I are both Scorpios and you know what they say about Scorpios! Intense, passionate, lustful. We've already butted heads a number of times in the process of getting this album re-released on Projekt; we both have intense ideas about the way things should be.... it's an intensity and integrity that I seldom see these days, and of course it is highly respectable. In fact, I have had to take time to re-think some of my own motives and creative constructs, in this process. Lisa and I discuss this often: about being challenged to work on art by those around us: our peer group. I think artists need a support group of like-minded creators, to drive them forward. Before I met Lisa, I often felt like I was hanging out in the wind - alone. In Lisa's dance work, I find a similar creative spirit to my own (well of course! That's one of the reasons we got married!). Lisa work is more about hope, than about desperation, I think. You can see it is reaching beyond the point of self-destruction, as if she has worked through that and is now transcendentally reaching for what she needs. My work - back in '87 - was much more about the anger, and to be honest there are elements of that I miss these days. But this email's not suppose to be about me, is it?
: )

In Android Lust, I see the anger and I hypothesize at what it has masked. Maybe I'm reading too much into it? I don't know. Good art is there for your interpretation. For you to feel and digest. If it is successful, it creates meaning from within you. Android Lust does this for me......

I haven't even begun to mention the excellent music on this release (I'll leave that for the press, see below). For me, first and foremost it's the passion of Android Lust that makes it a natural fit for the Projekt label. I hope you purchase The Dividing and I hope you see in Shikhee's work what I see in it.... The fire burning within.

Sam

A review from The Sentimentalist
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. This newest release from Android Lust is a collection of lust-worthy tracks indeed, all written by the inimitable Shikhee. From a velvet-rich whisper to a flesh-ripping scream, each track is alive with a full range of emotion and meaning. "Division" opens the disc with a liturgical sounding organ which works to soothe you before the impending burn. Throughout, angst-ridden, carnal cries mesh with intricate programming as well as the occasional viola and flute, all adding to a masterwork of method, madness, and enigmatic sound. Shikhee stands out not only for being a one-woman powerhouse (as singer, writer, producer of Android Lust), but also for her keen, uncompromising ear for fresh electronic sound, allying her with talents such as Trent Reznor. Just listen to The Dividing and you'll become pleasantly whipped. Highly recommended. - Celine

A review from 1340mag.com
With spectacular releases from Neurotic Fish, Frogpad, Mortal, and Celldweller in the last few months, it's getting increasingly hard to make an above par electronic album. Electronic music is blossoming more than any other style of music in my opinion. Despite the myriad of great releases recently, Shikhee's Android Lust has created perhaps the best electronic album to date in the short history of the genre! The Dividing is a dark ride into the world of Android Lust. Aggressive, dark imagery swirls around moderately fast paced electronics and Shikee's banshee like vocals. One minute she is singing in a very feminine and beautiful tone, the next is an almost demonic whisper, and then a couple of tracks later she sounds like she is going to explode in pain. The result is an all out attack on the listener's senses that is both unnerving and intriguing. This is a tremendously creative album that fans of dark things and electronica will find equally enjoyable. It's absolutely brilliant. - Mark Fisher

a comment from DJ Imperium of Pittsburgh
The material from the new Android Lust CD (or re-release of it) elicited an EXTREMELY positive response. Probably the easiest and most well-received release party I have ever done. A patron asked about "Burn," which is a decidedly more ethereal song from the album that I played early in the night. I announced all of the tracks I played throughout the rest of the night, and all four of them packed the floor with highly animated dancers. "Kingdom Of One" had the best response of the four and will be the track I will continue to push from here onward. There are definitely several tracks that are suitable for club play though. Projekt has their first potential heavily club oriented smash with this release -- and it isn't merely a case of 'goth label tries to jump on electro band wagon.' Android Lust definitely stands out when compared to other big name acts out there. The use of more jagged, retro rhthyms and synth voices is very noticeble and in so doing, places the band more in league with Skinny Puppy, FLA, NIN and the like. And of course, there is Shikhee's distinctive voice -- which can be raw and unrelenting, but also very sedated and sultry. This CD will appeal to hardcore rivet kids as well as fans of Collide, Battery, Curve and similar bands.