IKKo’s “Cheerleader” EP Mines Industrial Lineage Without Nostalgia

Nicolas Ladoux has spent enough time inside electronic music’s harder corners to know that force works best when it’s controlled. His latest release as IKKo, the five-track Cheerleader EP for Roulette Rekordz, arrives with that understanding already locked in. These are neo-industrial compositions built from EBM’s rhythmic chassis, yet they never settle for cosplay or revivalism.

Ladoux treats his voice less as a lead instrument than as another source of texture and intent. Cadence and tone carry as much weight as the words themselves, a decision that recalls the stark phrasing of John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd. while remaining firmly within Ladoux’s own industrial syntax. The influence is visible without tipping into imitation.

The production stays taut across the EP’s runtime. Low-end bass rolls forward, white noise rises in controlled bursts, and drums land with the discipline associated with Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. Brief acid figures surface and retreat, adding motion without softening the record’s metallic center. Velvet Underwear closes the sequence with a remix that pushes the original material toward something more monolithic and severe, amplifying the architecture rather than dismantling it.

What emerges is a record comfortable with tension as its primary mode. Ladoux doesn’t chase aggression for its own sake. He’s more interested in the space between impact and atmosphere, the friction between mechanical precision and a quieter kind of unease. That makes Cheerleader feel less like a throwback and more like an artist applying an old vocabulary to a present-day frame.