After two decades of silence, CUT.RATE.BOX broke the static in June 2025 with the striking comeback single and video clip “Reel Life” - a manifesto for the digitally disillusioned and an instant future-pop/EBM club hit. Now, the visionary electronic project founded by G. Wygonik in 1989 delivers its full conceptual statement with “Luxury Anxiety”, a four-part operetta for the modern age. “Luxury Anxiety” channels collapse, resignation, anger, ambivalence, and sorrow into a tense and emotional journey where techno-pop hooks clash with searing electronic punk, and synthpop sensibilities refract through a cold, modern lens. Drawing on influences like CABARET VOLTAIRE, WIRE, TONES ON TAIL and BRIAN ENO, Wygonik sculpts a dense, synthetic soundtrack for a world fraying at the seams. Across its four interconnected tracks, the EP flows from the restless urge to burn everything down, to the hypnotic spell of alt-fact language, through the curated addiction and unraveling explored on “Reel Life”, and finally into a mournful yet faintly hopeful elegy for lost civility. Accompanied by a hyper-cut generative video for “Isticism”, the EP expands the thematic and sonic universe hinted at in “Reel Life”. Where past CUT.RATE.BOX classics like “New Religion” and “Dataseed” warned of a coming storm, “Luxury Anxiety” stares directly into the wreckage of the now, finding both rage and beauty there. Highly recommended for fans of cutting-edge melodic electronics with an edge, in the vein of HAUJOBB, COVENANT, ASSEMBLAGE 23 and VNV NATION. This is not a nostalgic comeback. It’s a reawakening. CUT.RATE.BOX is broadcasting again.
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