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The Seven Year Itch Live
[Wonderland / Sanctuary]
It's been seven long years until the Banshees finally decided to embark on a new tour for a few months and make us forget their silent split. This live album, supported by a DVD, was recorded in London and follows a "best of" released earlier this year; but whereas the compilation featured the band's singles and hits, "Seven Year Itch Tour Live", on the other hand, emphasizes on the darker side of the Banshees' work. Mainly turned towards the first albums "The Scream", "Join Hands", "Kaleidoscope" and "Juju", this live album highlights gems like Jigsaw Feeling, Metal Postcard, Red Light, Icon, Night Shift, Voodoo Dolly or Monitor who, over 20 years later, haven't lost their subtle stormy punk appeal. More languid, more serious and less strung than in the past, the diva's vocal is the main asset of this album supported by Budgie's tribal drums Steve Severin's icy bass guitar. Nevertheless, it's difficult not to make unpleasant comparisons with the mythical 1984 live album "Nocturne". For instance, the ex-Psychedelic Furs Knox Chandler doesn't really manage to make us forget Robert Smith's guitar. One may also regret the wild and gutty dimension of that time, as well as the absence of hits such as Israel or Cascade that would heave been much preferable to Trust in Me or to the Beatles' Blue Jay Way. Despite all that, we'll be comforted by the presence of some B-sides (Lullaby), of a masterly Lands End and an amazing concluding Peek-a-Boo. Anyway, this is a beautiful gift to all the diva's hard-core fans and the others, something to listen to while waiting for a new Banshees album.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Chigliak
[Merck]
The first archaeologic excavations revealing the dub-like fossils of Adam Johnson date back to 2001. Back then, under the moniker of AJ Hunter or Cisko, he signed some club alternatives to the mutant zouk of his fellow-countryman Mr Projectile, on the label Parotic Music. Was it a postcard of "Minneapolis" and its cultural life we didn't know much about? Probably, but above all, it was the industrial breath of Berlin and the nonchalence of Cologne which then seemed to impress the artists of this American town. The magnificent Jernt, the gem of a compilation, "Expertise" on Prospect, definitely stole the show. Another track on On Records, followed by two tries on "Mas Confusion", let us think Adam was condemned to dispersion. Was he going to finally create a complete album, worthy of the hints he scattered in different compilations? The answer is called "Chigliak" and its sixteen panoramas. It's a human being's soundtrack which places his first electronic emotions when as a kid he licked a 9 Volt battery's poles to get an agreable electrocution. So that's "Chigliak", some nice ambient, almost "new-age" bands, cut with electric shocks under the name of "murderous side drums" and the likes, just to destroy the illusion of well-being that could have emanated from this high tech assemblage. Though Adam sometimes reminds us of Autechre, he's still less opaque and more appealing than the emblematic electronica geeks.
Anthony Augendre |
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Angles
[DSA]
"Angles" is the second album of Sylvain Chauveau and Joan Cambon's project. They both gathered some guests to create a superb following to "Cinématique". The question is: do we necessarily expect a band who baffled us with their first album to surprise us with the second? Because here, the result is certainly brilliant, but insists too much on a post-rock genre that any Godspeed or Mogwai's fan has known for years (especially in the structures of Le Puits face au ciel, Endormir les hommes or Errance, or in the use of (over)present voices' samples). Perspective of Nude, Face and Nyodene D, the magnificent final apnoea, remind on some points of "Wu Wei", Hint's last master piece in 1998, and that could well please the inconsolable ones. On the other hand, Portrait of an Unsatisfied Figure and Attractions, which would be the counterpart of the dark track Orly from their first album, show a more experimental and electronic side, despite a still melodic and therefore more personal orientation. Too bad it's not displayed on the full length of the album, though "Angles" remains a highly recommended piece.
Catherine Fagnot |
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The Evening of Illuvatar's Children
[Prikosnovenie]
Two years after a first part dedicated to the Elves of the JRR Tolkien's universe, the Russian band Caprice releases the second part of the trilogy called "The Evening of Iluvatar's Children". Always in the neo-classical heavenly register, this new album refers, once again, to Tolkien, by putting poems mainly taken from "The Lord of the Rings" and "Bilbo the Hobbit" into music. With richer and more varied tracks than on "Elven Music" (from light ambiences on Bath Song to more solemn moments on The Last Ship, and three nice songs about Galadriel), totally worthy acoustic instrumentals, and above all, the simple vocal of Inna Brejestovskaya, Caprice avoids, with this album, most of the traps and cliches of the genre. Sincere and inspired, this is a nice record of medieval heavenly which let expect a rather successful trilogy which will really only interest the fans of this genre and the fantasy and role games fans.
Renaud Martin |
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Chemical Elements 1.0
[M-Tronic]
This record shouldn't have been released on M-Tronic but on its almost homonym, Toytronic! Indeed, it is the name that immediately comes to mind while listening to "Chemical Elements 1.0". Or, to be more precise, while listening to Ch District, one of the two project that opens this first release of a series of split albums.
The Miroslaw Matyasik compositions, as melodic and smart as Abfahrt Hinwil's, cleverly combine different layers of complex elements, all the while remaining light and dynamic. Overflowing of a yet mastered restlessness, they also remind of some Gimmik's tracks (another feather in Toytronic's cap), of Somatic Responses (Toytronic's big fans) and inevitably of Autechre (Toytronic's big inspirators). A last common reference to Duuster, the Dutch project of Ton Driessens, who, nevertheless, remains in the background of Ch District, despite an obvious ability to handle textures (one thinks of Arovane, Solar X, Richard Devine...). In the end, even if these two musicians reveal easily identifiable influences, they manage to give their music a personal touch which, thanks to the dark universe they both share, is as much part of the industrial family than the IDM one. Let's also mention that each presents five personal tracks, remixes a track of the other and that the thirteenth is a collaboration of them both. A good start for a record we will listen to again with pleasure.
Carole Jay |
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Compilation
[Ant-Zen]
Believe it or not, Ant-Zen is already ten years old. In 1998, "Ant-hology" celebrated, in the form of a double compilation, five years of "anti-censure" ("anti-zensur" was originally the meaning of the name Ant-Zen). Now comes the time for the little sister, "Daruma". At the time of "Ant-hology", this forerunning label had few detractors. Today, more of them think that Stefan Alt, its omnipotent creator, struggles to renew himself... yet, one shouldn't confuse styles and tastes evolution, even if some of the label's latest releases weren't really too exciting, and if little by little, numerous very inspired new structures appeared. But let's also not forget that Ant-Zen was the genre's pioneer and that definitely calls for respect. "Daruma" perfectly plays the part of the compilation with its share of sure values, including names already featured on "Ant-hology": P.A.L, Synapscape (and its shrills reminding of the dentist's drill), Contagious Orgasm, Morgenstern, Hypnoskull, Ars Moriendi, Ah Cama-Sotz, Vromb, Imminent (with a novelty). But there are also the new recruits (This Morn' Omina, Iszoloscope...) and some slightly "aside" but pleasant tracks such as Veruschka's (David Thrussel's "Delirium"). Last common point of the two compilations: the first CD is rhythmed and powerful like the label, while the second is more varied but also more atmospheric, more zen... like the faces of Daruma (the initiator of Zen Buddhism) that illustrate the album's cover. Happy anniversary Ant-Zen.
Carole Jay |
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Shock Therapy
[Out Of Line]
Though Hocico's Mexicans managed to delude us at one point, thanks to some hits and energic concerts, we quickly found out the fraud while listening to their last albums, almost all identical, using and misusing the same kind of cheap and dancefloor tracks. That's exactly what's happening here with Dulce Liquido's second album, supposed to be the "rough" industrial project of Hocico's keyboards' player, Racso Agroyam. Just like in "Disolution" (2000), the album's tracks can be filed in two categories, the indus instrumentals on one side, all real inspiredless copies of noise sounds like Ant-Zen's, and the EBM dark-electro dancing songs on the other side. Three of these songs, all perfectly stupid and cliché, could have been part of any Hocico's album and don't bring anything new to this already dying genre. An incoherent album, with no interest whatsoever and too similar to the first one, a totally lame and uninteresting record for these Mexicans whose credibility is almost down to nothing.
Renaud Martin |
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The Electroclash Mix
[Moonshine]
The Electroclash Festival, the first event organised by Larry Tee, happened in New-York in October 2001, featuring Peaches, Fischerspooner, Chicks on Speed, Ladytron and Adult. Since then, the name has become a reference gathering all the electronic bands brought up on the 80s' sounds, looking towards the pop glamour and all the while keeping a punk attitude. On the whole, a cocktail designed to shake up the underground nights, from Williamsburg to Berlin, London and Paris. The only snag is that both very good bands (who don't even claim to be part of it) and much less interesting projects enrolled in this new groove that has become very hype. Larry Tee's mix therefore digs in well-established names (Ladytron, Felix da Housecat, Slam (with Dot Allison) and the French Scratch Massive), allows us to discover W.I.T. (his proteges) or Mount Sims (from Gigolo's), makes us smile with the cover song of Joe le Taxi by the Japanese geisha Hanayo, but also displays a handful of second-class and probably ephemeral bands.
Nevertheless, among the numerous compilations of the genre ("ElectroKlash", "Electroclash", or "This is Electroclash"), this one has the "historic" advantage of being presented by Larry Tee himself, the electroclash's Malcom McLaren, who claims the genre's paternity and irresistibly turns your living-room into a dancefloor!
Laure Cornaire |
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Alabaster
[Prikosnovénie]
If Louisa John-Krol's fourth album is decidedly turned towards fairy-like ambiences and folklore sounds, which is the fair-haired Australian trademark, it takes this time some surprising short cuts. To the pop incursions found on the previous album "Ariel" (2001) and also on this one, Louisa adds here and there, some synthetic touches which far from adulterating the usual onirism of her compositions, give them a really interesting dimension (Dancing over Acheron). And if there are no chances the references to Loreena McKennitt will fade on this new album (Paint the Wind), the participation of various collaborators such as Olaf Parusel (Stoa), Harry Williamson (Faraway), Francesco Banchini (GoR/Atarxia) and the Greek Daemonia Nymphes bring a redeeming diversity of colours and styles to the evocative power of this album. The main elements of "Alabaster", the vocal and the acoustic guitar are helped by percussions, flutes, clarinette and lyre which carry us to regions well further than the Belle's native Australia. A really nice lyrical journey just as influenced by Homer and Oscar Wilde's writings than Emily Dickinson's and Dante's.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Les Environnements principaux
[Unique records]
This is a particularly appropriate title for this second album, like if throughout these eleven tracks Mélatonine had integrated the essence of the post-rock and threw back to our faces a palette of universal emotions. Do you think we get carried away? Yes, we do! Just like this young trio from Metz does, they accurately pour a flabbergasting power in instrumental compositions devoided of trivial details but rich in meanings and emergency. The guitar is incisive and delicate in turn, the bass is heavy and groovy, the drum is jumpy but also discreet and the advisedly use of voices' samples and electronic textures (on La Couverture chimique or Les Environnements principaux) are the apriori simple elements of this rough jewel. If the noise-core influences are present (see Seitseman or La Veille), there are also some moments of respite, and the alternation of both reminds without blushing, of Slint's best instrumentals, or more recently Explosions in the Sky. One of Melatonine's tour de force is to succeed in creating, in a relatively short time (less than five minutes, in average), an intensity comparable to the one it would take other already settled post-rock bands fifteen minutes to set. Except for the duration of Elle est lentement which develops an almost rejoicing tension that goes on non-stop to the next track Here Novus (to be enjoyed to the last second...) and which guitar solo very close to Robert Smith's on the live version of The Kiss. Even if it's not an ufo, Mélatonine offers us with "Environnements Principaux" a little master piece. The only danger is dependence.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Cocktails, Carnage, Crucifixion and Pornography
[Cold Meat Industry]
It's not easy to isolate Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio from the scene to which he's associated to, tagged dark ambient, atmospheric neo-folk, industrial (depending on the mood), or from his label, Cold Meat Industry, with which the duo shares a passion for strong images. Yet, it's when they're away from these links that the band and their compositions take all their dimension. "Cocktails Carnage Crucifixion and Pornography" is the Swedish formation's fifth album and they go on in the bewitching route they've been following for ten years now. A clean, even precious orchestration accompanies an acoustic guitar and a mesmerizing voice. This album is just as much a delight for the ears than a pleasure for the synapses... Sword's noises, the wind blowing, a harp, little bells, moanings, incredible tracks' titles; we're right in the middle of a debauchery, depraved and perverse at the same time, with sweetness, where the imagination immediately takes over any thought. Even if you decide not to linger over the lyrics, and if you don't get affected by the inside book's photos, you'll easily get carried away in Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio's universe and you'll be seduced by this remarkable compositions. There aren't so many musics which manage to excite our ears and tickle our imagination so strangely.
Christophe Labussière |
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Hail to the Thief
[Parlophone]
Strong of their integrity and of a musical bias with no concession, Radiohead drew with their five albums, a route rubbing the commercial acumen the wrong way. Maturing throughout time, from their hit Creep and the examplary "Ok Computer" to the daring experimentations of "Amnesiac" and "Kid A", Radiohead paved their way of always subtle and personal records. With a come back to guitars and real instruments, all the while keeping electronic textures, "Hail to the Thief" is a good synthesis of this evolution. Always produced by Nigel Godrich, this album (which title comes from a slogan seen in an anti-Bush demonstration) is an abysmal dive which won't leave you unscathed if you accept to be carried away in its whirl. The sounds' swamps from which comes the etheral wail of Thom Yorke become related to the wreckages of the very black world of the lyrics. The sad ballads I Will, Scatterbrain or the melodic single There There are possibly more accessible and more direct than the tracks of the conceptual "Kid A", although the tracks of this album never yield to the ease. The strange Myxomatosis, the icy electronica of The Gloaming or the funeral We Suck Young Bloods, with its almost gospel-like hand clappings, complete this harshly beautiful record. Radiohead is undeniably part of what the current English rock has the more successful to offer.
Laure Cornaire |
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Electric Opium
[Hymen]
Those of you who, two years ago, liked the very good "Tripped Experience" of Substanz-t can now rejoice, indeed, the Frankfurt's duo made of Arne Stevens and Alex Lange has just released their fourth album with an evocative title "Electric Opium", once again one of the most accessible production of the Hymen label. On the novelties' side, there's the participation of the MCs Ronin and Cisco (who already collaborated to Megashira and Panacea), as well as F.M Einheit's, Einstürzende Neubauten's percussionist (on Peyote Sol of Halls, Steer the Stars, Tripped Reality and Ubique). More serene and brighter than the previous album, "Electric Opium" remains all the same in the same state of mind because we can find the same melancholic and urban electronic sceneries, pell-mell made of electro, ambient, dub and trip-hop. If the rap phrased of Place Cells and Burning Consciounsess could leave some of you sceptical (the nastiers will think of the unfortunate rap-electro mix of Stromkern), "Electric Opium" stays in its whole, a good soft and high-flying electro album to be filed between Funkstörung and Boards Of Canada's records.
Renaud Martin |
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Nouvel Air
[DSA]
After "Ego:Echo", Ulan Bator's excellent fourth album, produced by Michael Gira three years ago, it's difficult not to be surprised by "Nouvel Air", and "surprised" is an euphemism. Yet, everything is said in the title of the album. The new direction taken by Amaury Cambuzat, all by himself since Olivier Manchion's departure, isn't to be blamed, but the result leaves us hungry. Indeed, there's no more noise or sounds' experimentations but instead there's an etheral pop. Not really surprising when one knows that Robin Guthrie (ex-Cocteau Twins and recent author of the very paded and successful "Imperial") deals with the mixing and the samples. To begin with, Airlines sets the tone and invades the space with much flanger, delay and chorus, some effects also excessively present on tracks like Nouvel Air and Prédications. The less aerial and connoted side of the album leans towards a quite classic pop-rock (on Atmosphère, Sympathie or Réalité, between Miossec and a typically new-wave (sic) introduction) and even towards a honeyed "new" French Song (on Terrorisme Érotique and Geisha Paname, some apriori puffy ballads which evolve in tensed rises towards some too rare and a bit more exciting parts). Ulan Bator's lastest album is very melodic but without much relief, nor originality, save in its title.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Not a Word
[Ad Noiseam]
If we already were surprised to learn that Wajid Yaseen, the man behind 2nd Gen, was the former bassist of Fun'Da'Mental, we're even more surprised to know that Uniform is his new project, and that it doesn't sound like the previous ones... No catchy rhythmics here, and like the title warns us, almost no voices (5 tracks out of 16), just a man hidden behind his machines. Those of you who loved "Irony Is", 2nd Gen's album, shouldn't expect an ersatz here, because Uniform bathes in ambient experimentation. The result is certainly not uninteresting, but it's a bit disappointing coming from a musician with such a creative potential. The impression to have already heard the sounds used in this album grows throughout the listening, especially since Wajid Yaseen overuses of simplist effects (lots of delay), and so doesn't bring much to the electronic music world. It's a shame, even if some tracks manage all the same to stand out, like Say It as You See It or The Trees Will Kneel... Finally, it's impossible to ignore the huge red cross on this record's cover sleeve which is Franko B.'s work, an amazing artist who's generally not afraid to take risks, just like Wajid Yaseen with this record. A record that, at least, will have the merit to make us wait for 2nd Gen's second album which should be released next Autumn on Quatermass.
Carole Jay |
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Progénitures suite et fin
[Manic Depression]
One year after the very convincing "Décompositions et reliques", the Violet Stigmata quartet goes on, with the very deserving Manic Depression label, dusting off their old demos, a real venture of restoration of a patrimony that was only known of the fans until then. So, "Progénitures suite et fin" follows exactly the same production's schema than the previous album, mixing old compositions, new versions and novelties, the whole in a cleverly updated neo-batcave vein. Indeed, far from faithfully copying the clichés of the genre, Violet Stigmata only brushes against Christian Death or Sex Gang Children's ghosts, prefering accompanying their death-rock guitars with discreet electronics and baroque synthecisers. The result is a perfectly homogeneous rather well tied up album (despite being a compilation) from which emerges numerous gothic anthems that have a macabre energy: Ghost, The Meaning of Dogs, Legacy, Valium Days. In the way of Cinema Strange and other Scary Bitches, Violet Stigmata should, with this second album, impose themselves as one of the main actor of the batcave revival, which is finally appearing.
Stéphane Leguay |
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We could have feared it would be difficult for Bryan Erickson of Velvet Acid Christ to give a honorable following to the excellent album "Twisted Thought Generator" released in 2000, so much it reached perfection. Yet, against all odds, this new single is a real good surprise. Although Erickson came back to the German label Dependent, a new era seems to open to him, so much the sound appears to have evolved once again. The rhythm got slower, it's almost throbbing, the general ambience got steady, still darker than in the past. The title Pretty Toy even has some amazing likeness to the Cure! We're really eagerly waiting for the album "Hex Angel (Utopia-Dystopia)" which should be released on mid-August. Regarding Suicide Commando, Johan Von Roy invariably goes on using the same tried precepts attempting to always reach the same efficacy. So, if you're not tired of his methods, you'll follow him on his two singles "Face of Death" (seven versions of the track with three other tracks), otherwise you'll move on, for there isn't something new to find there. As for VNV Nation the duo should also think about establishing a dogma to define the best way to do "their" music. The two Englishmen offer, as a preamble to the DVD expected at the end of this Summer, two live tracks (Fearless and Legion), a 2003 stamped remix of Honour, a flabby novelty, Secondskin, and a CD Rom track including a trailer of the already mentioned DVD. Synthetic polo-neck sweaters and arms raised in "V" shape compulsory. In the series "we always do the same think and why not (!)", Psyche goes its own way with the EP "The Quickening" which contains no less than eight versions of the eponymous title and three of Anonymous Skin. So, nothing new there either. To end with the "classics", one will have to look towards Mexico City from where Hocico send us its new single "Disidencia Inquebrantable". There again, we know the recipe, the dish still has the same taste, but we ask for it again and again!
Brudershaft could try to renew the genre by associating the German "boom-boom" electro scene (with members of Icon of Coil, Covenant, VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk), but it's a trivial VNV Nation-like hit (Ronan Harris is on vocal) that they offer us with Forever, declined in an infinity of versions that will be remixed by the creme de la creme on a double album... We know that too much cream make the dessert stodgy, and the operation, if it has the advantage of gathering big names, doesn't make things evolve to say least.
Christophe Labussière
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