There is a particular kind of youthful ambition that treats a synthesizer’s limitations as somebody else’s problem. If the arrangement feels crowded, another drum track might settle the argument; if the equipment begins to struggle, perhaps it needs to be programmed harder. Baltimore’s Pygmy Children remember their earliest recordings with the affectionate candor of two people who have since learned exactly what they were putting their machines through. More than thirty years later, those experiments are getting a fresh listen.
Out now through Re:Mission Entertainment, Malignant: Redux revisits the electro-industrial duo’s 1994 debut album, Malignant, and the preceding 1993 EP, Facedown. Released October 2, the collection brings brothers Pete and Brian Roper back to the recordings that introduced them to the American industrial underground, with the digital edition collecting both releases in full.
Originally recorded at Hit and Run Studios in Rockville, Maryland, with engineer Steve Carr, the material has received its first official remaster from Jeff Mortimer at JM Mastering. Brian Roper supplies the Redux artwork, completing a return to a period when the duo’s appetite for dense arrangements regularly outpaced the resources at their disposal.
The brothers describe those sessions with refreshing frankness:
“Admittedly, the record sounds pretty raw. We were novices trying to create something multi-layered and frenetic, working with what we had and probably not fully knowing what the hell we were doing, just going for it. Some of the synths were being pushed to the point of voice exhaustion, while multiple drum tracks pounded away simultaneously. Looking back, some editing was probably in order, but the intention was always there. We may not have hit the target exactly, but the aim was definitely there.”
That willingness to admit the excess is part of the appeal. Their account describes two musicians learning through accumulation, pursuing an idea until the equipment itself began to object. The early titles suggest a similarly restless approach: Core moves between Resistance and Meltdown, while Facedown appears in Reflex, Manic, Bootstamp, and Dead versions across the digital collection. Even the track listing seems reluctant to leave an experiment alone.
For Re:Mission founder Wes Turner, the release also carries a personal connection. Pygmy Children helped shape his taste in dark electronic music during the 1990s; three decades on, his label is releasing both their new work and these formative recordings. Turner now gets to put the records that helped educate him back into other listeners’ hands.
Listen to Malignant : Redux below:
Pygmy Children first surfaced with Facedown on Noname/Noslogan Productions, following it with Malignant before moving on to Deconstruct, released by Cleopatra in 1995, and Low Life Dream, issued through Sub/Mission Records and Out Of Line in 1998. After years away, the brothers returned in 2025 through Re:Mission with Coincidental Strategies, accompanied by singles including I Have No Name and Signal Unknown.
Their recent single Proof in Lies, which we covered in August, leads their forthcoming fifth studio album, Into The Silence. With new material underway, Malignant : Redux offers a timely return to the duo’s beginnings. The brothers can now afford to smile at their early excesses, though the synthesizers they used back then may still be entitled to an apology.
Malignant : Redux is available digitally and on CD via Re:Mission Entertainment. Order here or find additional listening options here.
- Digital edition: Both Malignant and Facedown in full, comprising 16 tracks.
- Limited digipak CD: An edition of 100 copies, containing Malignant plus Fear, the B-side from the Facedown EP, with the digital edition included.
- Three-CD autographed bundle: Malignant : Redux alongside autographed original pressings of Malignant and Facedown, plus the digital edition. Limited to 25 bundles, with US shipping only.
Malignant : Redux digital track listing:
- Shock v3.1
- Xero (Absolute)
- Eye
- Core (Resistance)
- Mantra (Subliminal)
- Origin
- Propaganda
- Facedown (Reflex)
- Red
- E/E/G
- File Regarding…
- Facedown (Manic)
- Facedown (Bootstamp)
- Facedown (Dead)
- Fear
- Core (Meltdown)
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