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Satan's Circus
[Drone]
Much simpler than Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes got us used to until now, "Satan's Circus" is in fact their most homogeneous album. There's an obvious break from the variety and the excess peculiar to Death In Vegas' music which characterized their two first productions ("Dead Elvis" in 1997 and "Scorpio Rising" in 2002). Indeed, here we're in a bitter-sweet and minimalistic electronica, a kind of old-school electronic (with a reference to Kraftwerk and an unexpected imitation of Trans Europ Express on the track Zugaga), but it's done with an amazing vitality and it's perfectly of its time. The fans of the group might be disconcerted because this album will probably be far from the lights their usual prestigious guests brought them under until now (Iggy Pop, Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller, Hope Sandoval or Bobby Gillepsie) and it's also very far from the excessive arrangements of the previous albums. The duo didn't get us used to this intimacy and this quasi-darkness, and this album is a real success.
The record is also available in a limited edition offering a second CD on which you'll find twelve live tracks.
Christophe Labussière |
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Establishing Alpha
[A Different Drum]
After working for twelve years for other groups, six years of which for The Nine, Geoff Pinckney decided to express his own emotions and to create a solo project. And contrarily to what you might have expected, it's not electro-pop because it's neither electro nor pop, but a kind of very varied and convivial techno where the groove is king. Unusual rhythms, new sounds, smart and varied melodies, such is the fresh cocktail of Alien#Six13. We especially appreciated Highway to the Sun as a starter. It will obviously remind you of Moby, the Chemical Brothers, and Orbital, but no serious comparisons can be made as the content of the tracks is so diversified. You can even hear some electro-jazz! Altogether, the eleven tracks benefit from a perfect production. You'll be able to dance on it, because it swings like mad on Holding onto Something, Away, Above the Stars as well as on the very disco sounding You've Got the City. A bit like with System 22 and even more with Wideband Network, A Different Drum appears like a very talented label, still able to find new electronic gems.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Storm
[Accession Records]
Did we expect the Assemblage 23's new album with an infinite impatience or what? Almost two years of silence after "Defiance", the perfect record, the American Tom Shear, who has become an inevitable character of the future electro-pop scene, offers us his fourth opus in less than five years. "Storm", this title says it all, this album is strong like a storm, faster than the previous one, violent and beautiful at the same time. We always appreciate the conquering and so personal voice of Tom as well as his catchy and dancing melodies. We only regret a kind of uniformity of the rhythms, but we're quickly comforted by the always magnificent and obsessing verses/choruses. If the slowest and most innovating tracks can't be found on this album (except for the grandiose Complacent and the worrisome 30KFT) but on the EP "Let the Wind Erase Me" which preceeded it, with the tracks Darker and Tragic Figure, several tracks are not only potential hits, but they'll also be considered as the best electro tracks of the year (Human, Skin, You Haven't Earned it and the magnificent Regret). With such an efficient recipe, we wonder why Assemblage 23 would renew its style. Don't change anything to your music Tom, we like it as it is! And as it's better when it lasts, let's mention than "Storm" will be immediately followed by a new EP "Ground", which will contain two novelties. Only one word: thanks!
Stéphane Colombet |
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Seishinbyouin
[Cold Meat Industry]
We already knew Atrium Carceri's claustrophobic universe with "Cellblock" which was oppressing but fascinating because of the quality of its ambiences. This time, Simon Heath reveals himself a bit more through personal lyrics which confirm the author's obsessive paranoid crusade. Nevertheless, like a stalked animal, Heath tries to be a bit more "humane" on "Seishinbyouin" ("lunatic asylum" in Japanese) with numerous distorted voices' samples, probably coming from some Japanese drama that evoke torture or redemption when they're possible. But except for Hidden Crimes, Dark Water and Librarian where a piano plays some clear notes in the background, the unhealthy compositions, less rich in organic textures than on the previous album, are like echoes of the author's sufferings. Even if each track is quite easy to take in, all the clichés of the genre are present. Like on In Chaos Eternal with its dull noises, the blows, the wind and its stifled female screams, also on Illusion Breaks and its samples of dripping water, the pantings, the voices heard backward, the ethereal choirs etc. Far from "only" being a tormented sonic environment that could touch our affects, "Seishinbyouin" then becomes a soporific dark ambient exercise, a series of half-medieval, half-japanese sleazy sketches, without any real identity, nor any real lead.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Dante's Kitchen
[Big Blue]
Since the beginning of the 80s, Attrition has always been present on the electronic and gothic scene. Industrial, experimental, dark, classical, Martin Bowes' music has tried all the genres. Throughout the years, the union between electronic and classical music has been more and more present in the group's compositions. "Dante's Kitchen", Attrition's latest opus, is in the same line with its violins and the lyrical voices of Julia Waller and her colleagues. The tracks follow one another like on a musical fresco and play on the differences between females chants and Martin's dark voice and the contrasts between the electronic and the acoustic sounds. The violins weave the background web and the aerial voices draw volutes that carry us out of time. Although we find again the same bewitching mystical atmosphere with pleasure, we have to admit that we don't find the album very innovating. We regret that all the tracks are made in the same musical register and that Martin Bowes doesn't take more risks. Nevertheless, "Dante's Kitchen" still is an excellent album which has the special beauty we always liked in Attrition.
Delphine Payrot |
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Violet
[RepoRecords]
Appearances can be deceitful. We could be tempted to grin while hearing the beginning of The Birthday Massacre's album, the first one to reach Europe's coast. With their appearance somewhere between Marilyn Manson's and The Rasmus', their beautiful singer put forward, their purposeful freaky-goth look (once again, we're reminded of Tim Burton) and we might think we're dealing here with a new clone of the insufferable Evanescence. But this would be a mistake because, of the latter, The Birthday Massacre only borrowed the sound power and the guitar's intensity to sustain the thirteen refreshing and modern gothic-rock tracks of this CD. Far from hiding behind a massive, and let's say it, sometimes too clean production, the young formation has got an undeniable sense of melody, and Violet is a pretty efficient juvenile effort. This album, made for the old Continent, is the combination of their first EP "Nothing and Nowhere" (2002) with its great anthem Happy Birthday and four novelties. Combining a virulence which reminds of Sunshine Blind and a synthetic touch à la Suspiria/Rosetta Stone, The Birthday Massacre develops a phantasmagorical universe, perverse and poetical at the same time. In the shoes of Alice descending in Wonderland with a knife in her hand, the beautiful Chibi and her mates seem quite determined to fight childhood's bad dreams and other tall tales. And we surprise ourselves wanting to follow them in their nocturnal walk and in this worrying and dreamlike dolls' universe. If the term "master move" wasn't so misused and deprived of any meaning, then it would probably summarize perfectly this passionate and finely cut "Violet".
Stéphane Leguay |
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| Black Tape For A Blue Girl | |
Halo Star
[Projekt]
Always lead by their mentor, Sam Rosenthal, Black Tape For A Blue Girl is almost twenty years old and is now releasing their ninth album, "Halo Star". Following a retrospective compilation as well as the great "The Scavenger Bride" (2002), these twelve tracks split on two sides (!) makes the Black Tape's romantic and evanescent concept slowly evolve; under the influence of Michael Laird of Unto Ashes, who has become one of the member of the always vague line-up, the ethnic percussions make an entrance in the nebulous world of the Black Tape. Less ecstatic than its famous predecessor, "Halo Star" still heads for dreamlike and ethereal horizons, sailing with the serene winds of the acoustic guitars, of the strings, of the transverse flutes and of captain Rosenthal's ageless synths. His poetical lyrics with their bitter-sweet tinges, partly taken from the book that will be published in a few months, take a moving vocal form in the deep breath of Bret Helm (Audra) or in the aerial voice of Elyzabeth Grant. The result gives some pretty crystal pieces like Your Love Is Sweeter Than Wine or Indefinable, Yet, giving to "Halo Star" the diffuse colours which characterize all the work of the group. Despite incessant changes in the line-up, the definitive formula certified by "Remnants of a Deeper Purity" in 1996 still works well, and we're still marvel at their mastery of the sounds and the emotions which allow Black Tape For A Blue Girl to materialize Beauty and Melancholy in each new album.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975-Present
[Mute]
Boyd Rice has been around the corners of the most underground scenes for 30 years, so, it was about time this compilation was released, as it testifies of the richness and the variety of his work. We only explore with this CD, the ambient side of his music, the one based on noise tracks, the version "I was a good friend of Throbbing Gristle at their beginning". The idea of "I play acoustic guitar with my mate Douglas Pearce" (for Death In June, still recently with "Alarm Agents") isn't mentioned here, but we won't regret it as it preserves the conceptual aspect of this album. Actually, album or compilation, it doesn't matter. Boyd Rice's music still "sounds the same" at first, but we quickly realise that's not the case. When he started, in the 70s, the inventor of the "roto-guitar" (a fan plugged on a guitar) was bothering people, and his music was as much perceived as an unbearable sonic agression, as a perfect relaxing device... Time has gone by, our 21st century children's ears have tamed noise, and the only thing left now is the appeased side of it. So, the album is gluttonously swallowed in one go. You'll dive, wide awake, in the unconscious' haze and the result is quite amazing, our brain is the only thing able to explain why this music is so bewitching. Brilliant.
Frédéric Thébault |
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The Best Of
[Pandaimonium]
Four years after the jubilant exercise of the live album (it was a double CD), Clan Of Xymox tries now the harder task of the "Best of". And hard it is because the Dutch group doesn't lack good tracks! We can even say that, even if they don't have the same might as The Cure, or Depeche Mode, Ronny Moorings managed to create throughout their twenty years long career, many consequent hits. As we might have expected, the man completely ignores the Xymox period (88/95) and the albums "Twist of Shadows", "Phoenix", "Metamorphosis" and "Headclouds". That's quite a wise choice if you consider the blandness of these three productions, but, unfortunately, it deprives us of some magnificent hits such as Obsession and Imagination, from the honourable "Twist of Shadows". Too bad.
This compilation, an ideal way to be introduced to the Clan's universe, is also an essential object for the fans to get, as the group took advantage of it to re-record five tracks of the 4AD era. They shall be praised for it because they don't fall into the "all commercial" trap, but still, it's a bit frustrating. Indeed, it's difficult to retouch gems such as Louise, Stranger or Muscoviet Mosquito without removing the minute elements that made their beauty. Only the 2004 version of A Day, which is identical to the original (so, what was the use?!) gets away without too many damages. And even if they didn't put the essential hits, Michelle and Going Round, we still highly recommend the "Best Of" of the most modern of the Eighties' groups!
Stéphane Leguay |
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The Way of Curve
[Anxious Records/BMG]
History hasn't always been able to make the difference between exceptional phenomenon and ordinary bands. "The Way of Curve", Curve's ultimate compilation which covers this very well surrounded (Flood, Alan Moulder, Steve Osborne) and extraordinary filth-pop band's career, should at last acknowledge Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia as they deserve it. They kept working out that characteristic wall of sound that lots of bands envy them, and the thirty one tracks on this double CD will set the time right at the duo's: one generation ahead, at least. The first CD gathers irreproachable singles as well as classics that the pair recorded since 1990. Nothing's missing, and in chronological running order: from Clipped to Perish through Horror Head, Missing Link and a lot more, the track-list (established by fans) could easily be longer. As for the second CD, it's designed for the frustrated ones that weren't lucky enough to get all the band's EPs at their respective release date. It gathers unavoidable b-sides and rarities such as Low and Behold, the duet What a Waste with Ian Dury, and the powerful Triumph, Mission from God, as well as the exclusive track In Disguise especially recorded for this compilation. This record shows that, like their almost homonymous Cure, the pair never botched any exclusive track, which are treasures for the fans. Then everyone will try to figure out what went wrong with this band's career, and its unlikely fame, its extraordinary sound and its sensual singing. What if it was just a matter of way too much talent and integrity?
Bertrand Hamonou |
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The Best of
[Nettwerk]
Entitled "The Best of" because the group, despite a rich discography of eleven albums and numerous singles, had never released one before, this fourteen tracks' compilation enables us to immerse again in the peculiar universe of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber's side-project, who are usually naughtier in Front Line Assembly. Nevertheless, the choice of the tracks and the versions is quite debatable; between the trite technoid remixes and the Enigma-like Gregorian/ethnical chants, "The Best of" has a relative interest for the fans if we except two novelties, one of which is Paris, sung in French by Aude. We don't even advise it to the neophytes, who'll be better off listening to the recent "Chimera", which contains the best the two bodymen can offer, and which audition will enable them to have a more homogeneous overview of Delerium's work.
Christophe Labussière |
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The Dresden Dolls
[8FT Records/Roadunner]
The Dresden Dolls aren't the drum and piano equivalent of the drum and guitar duo of the White Stripes. Their only common point may be their amazing ability to occupy the sonic space with so few instruments, but the comparison stops here. The Boston duo develops their own universe which exceeds the simple music setting. Making their own Bertold Brecht's and Kurt Weill's Realist Theatre of Illusion and cleverly recycling some cabaret, rock, jazzy and even punk/batcave influences, The Dresden Dolls offer us here a really attractive record. Like some characters taken from a Tim Burton's movie, Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione build and un-build a new form of piano-rock, sometimes burlesque (Coin-Operated Boy), or full of adrenalin (Girl Anachronism), sometimes perverse (Missed Me) or melancholic (Truce). With willingly floating tempos and a very organic way of playing, the compositions of the virtuosa Amanda defy, entice and endure the powerful drumming of Brian, giving to all the twelve tracks an exciting impression of live playing. Even if The Dolls take a real theatrical dimension in concert, this album still is a nice introduction, as much in its contents as in its form. The CD's booklet, an artwork as much influenced by punk than the "Belle Époque" with some photos of the duo and some moving and honest texts, carries you in the fascinating world of these colourful dolls. The listener should expect to be carried away in a strange chaos of sounds coming from another time, to stroke old sepia photos, to meet the ghosts of Tori Amos, Nico, Nick Cave, Nina Simone and Violent Femmes and to be surprised, again and again, by this music for spooky kids wearing striped tights and bowlers... Startling!
Stéphane Leguay |
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Compilation
[Cold Meat Industry]
Contrarily to labels like Projekt or Cleopatra, Cold Meat Industry has always been quite stingy in compilations' releases. We can only but congratulate them for that, because this form which consists in repetitively compiling twenty or so artists on one CD, often hides a more mercantile than artistic purpose. Released more than six years after the excellent "Absolut Supper" (if we expect the double vinyl "Nihil" released in a limited edition), "Flowers Made of Snow" follows numerous rare and precious compilations, of which we'll remember the famous "…And Even Wolves Hid Their Teeth" and "Karmanik Collection". What amazed us from the start, was the "variety" of the sounds. Indeed, if the other collections of the label put long tracks of dark ambient, of ritual indus or swampy noise one after the other, this time, the first CD let the gothic, the folk, the heavenly, the melancholic or contemplative ambitions of its new signatures roam free: The Last Hour, Hesperos (both ex-Gothica), All My Faith Lost…, Sibelian, Apatheia or Olen'K (the first French group signed by CMI). A remarkable first volume, which enables us to discover the label's newcomers and to hear some excellent tracks (some of them are novelties) of groups we already knew like, Ataraxia, Coph Nia, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio or In Slaughter Natives. As for the second CD, it contains Cold Meat Industry's most typical sounds, namely darkness, depth and uneasiness. And for these, Deutsch Nepal, Brighter Death Now, Raison D'Être, MZ 412 and Skin Area are the best! However, let's give a special mention to Desiderii Marginis, Atrium Carcere and Sephiroth, who carry us, each in its own peculiar way, to worrisome territories swept by an icy wind and haunted by the whisperings of millions of souls. Like a sumptuous monument to the night's glory, "Flowers Made of Snow" turns up to be a mirror so opaque than light doesn't dare reflecting in it. In any case, this is a perfect introduction for the neophyte, who would want to enter the dark and sticky matter of the most misanthropic label.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Imago
[Memento Materia/Dependent]
Two years after "Innuendo", a first album noticed and appreciated by the fans of Skinny Puppy and Clock DVA, the Swedish trio Interlace, not only confirms its first influences, it reinforces and customizes them. "Imago" is even more savage than "Innuendo", and its rich melodies suffer of the indus sounds and the sometimes strange rhythmics. Even if the first part of the album is made of four nervous tracks (one of which is Master, that was released as an EP a few months ago), particularly efficient for nightclubs (we think of the hypnotical force of simple percussions dear to group like Klinik), the rest of "Imago" is slower, almost meditative, but also very personal and stunning, like if poetry could be born out of chaos (listen to Crystalline Hush and especially the hallucinating Pandora). We also regret that the singer's voice is so often excessively tortured, because when he sometimes drops this indus cliché, he reveals a superb voice that only Trent Reznor managed before on this kind of music. "Imago" offers us fourteen tracks of an excellent electronic music, dark and complex, utterly fascinating, at the Skinny Puppy border of pop and indus. This is a great success you should listen to as soon as possible.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Panopticon
[Ipecac]
Eagerly expected after two excellent albums ("Celestial" and "Oceanic") and a fistful of EPs, we wondered if the American quintet would take up the gauntlet and exceed their previous productions. To confirm and to innovate, to go on without plagiarizing oneself, such is the tough task of any formation considered as first a "promising group", then an "unavoidable group", even a "cult band". Isis didn't fall in this trap and the power and the fluidity of these seven new compositions seem to come from the same clear and creative source. What's stunning at first, is this enormous and crushing guitar sound, which destroys everything on its way. Some tortured but precise riffs are shattered against the walls of some modern jails, a screamed vocal makes you guess the gut rage, Isis is a violent and visceral beast. But don't be deceived, "Panopticon" isn't a mass destruction weapon, far from it. Like their Swedish cousins Cult of Luna or like their spiritual fathers Neurosis, Isis dilutes its metal-noise in long progressive and clear tracks, transforming its corrosive saturations in fragile and tottering arpegios throughout the quasi-kinetics atmospheres. Godspeed! You Black Emperor or Mogwaï seem to have influenced Altered Course and Syndic Calls. So, this is an album of contrasts, a rough ocean followed by a flat sea, an electric storm follows a life breath, claustrophobia follows big spaces... "Panopticon" is simply fantastic.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Touch Not the Cat
[Dumb-Unit/Kompakt]
Jack Fairley is a bit of an eccentric character looking like a 19th century dandy, who also works in the group The Uncut (whose first EPs are very promising), and who's probably an emerging asset of the Toronto electro-techno scene. His amphetamine charged techno, full of sickly vocals and tough rhythmics, beautifully stretches all along this slightly decadent second album. You can feel rock'n'roll oozing under the electro coldness, invoking a post-punk spirit coming from the man's influences such as Joy Division or Television. The only thing is that, here, machines command and they have the implacable ability to make you dance.
Indeed, the metallic hammerings of "Touch Not the Cat" will give you the huge desire to wear away the sole of your shoes on dancefloors. Unfortunately, in the long run, they become a bit repetitive and the roborative rhythmics gradually become tiring... But in small doses, we like very much the foul air coming from Fairley's sounds, which give the dancefloors an end of the world's ambience.
Laure Cornaire |
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Inside Out
[SPR]
Public notice to the fans of Depeche Mode, Mesh and other De/Vision, the competition is about to become tougher with the newcomer Lavantgarde. Indeed, after their first album "Musicment", the German duo proposes us a much neater techno-pop endowed with a pretty voice, which sometimes reminds of the Pet Shop Boys' and that incites you to sing along. Clear sounds, almost new synthetic melodies and a general freshness give you the desire to linger on this record; simplicity in music doesn't necessarily means silliness. The whole is very dancing, with discreet, but efficient little hits like Recall of Night or Take Me S.I.M.. Of course, the influences mentioned above are present (De/Vision is clearly the reference, as well as the old Camouflage and the young Iris and Michigan), this isn't genius' work, but there's a talent of assimilation and the will to deliver a neat and harmonious production. So, "Inside Out" is eleven tracks of pure synthpop that will make the time go by nicely until the release of Mesh's new album that should be out at the beginning of 2005. Let's also mention that you should ignore the cover sleeve of this record, which is totally hideous and disappointing in comparison to the efforts the band make on their music.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Pigs of the Roman Empire
[Ipecac/Southern]
On one side, there are the metal-experimental Melvins, and on the other side, there's one of the master of the ambient experimental: Brian Williams (SPK, Throbbing Gristle), aka Lustmord, just as keen on collaborations and diverse projects as the Melvins are. In the role of the referee, let's add Adam Jones, ex-guitarist of Tool, and then, you'll get the hallucinating "Pigs of the Roman Empire", a split album which will satisfy the fans of both genres. Even if, from the beginning, the advantage seems to on Lustmord side, with III, a dark ambient instrumental that opens the album with a disturbing rumble, a remote gong and a grinding guitar that can be heard on a threatening electro track. The same can be said of the last track, Idolatrous Apostate, as well as the hidden track that follows it. Nevertheless, you can hear the influence of the Melvins from the second track with heavy riffs and the so peculiar voice of King Buzzo, you can also hear on Pink Bat which intro is worthy of Merzbow, it's followed by the Melvins' oily rock, and again on Safety Third, a remote cousin of Ministry's So What. As for the 22 minutes of the track that gives its name to the album, they carry the listener toward an ambient experimental music, which gradually becomes a hypnotic heavy rock, fed of indus flashes and finally coming back to the obscure majesty of the dark ambient. The mix of these genres was very unlikely, but the talent of these daring artists manage to transform, what could have been a hermetical extravagance, in a mutant kaleidoscope.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Year Zero
[Soma/Labels]
The two founders of the label Soma (with Dave Clarke), Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle have been present on the Glasgow techno/house scene for more than ten years, as much as DJs than producers and members of the group Slam. They mix in their music techno, house, funk, dub and even rap influences. Those of you who liked their previous opus, "Alien Radio", will also welcome this new album which seems to be a return to the origins, when electronic music was still young. Even if the tracks have more and more a "song" format, the titles of "Year Zero" keep one foot on the dancefloor, like with the very catchy This World, composed in collaboration with Dave Clarke, which opens the album. On vocal, the female voices of the different guests follow one another: the ethereal Dot Alison, Tyrone Palmer (who also appeared on Felix da Housecat's last album), Ann Saunderson (of Inner City) and the sensual Billie Ray Martin, who brings softness to the sometimes clubbing, sometimes atmospherical electro-punk. Behind their seemingly relaxed music, Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle consider themselves as messengers, and don't hesitate to say that Soma is a left-wing label. A resolutely positivist spirit!
Laure Cornaire |
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Wide Open
[Discordian Records]
We had had a chance to see Marc Hurtado (Étant Donnés) and Saba Komossa together on stage during Étant Donnés' tour in 2000, and here they are back together on a black/white/grey monochrome record. Don't trust the rainbow colour letters on the sleeve, as the two protagonists are locked in a wide dark flat, with only a bed as furniture. The bare sound on "Wide Open" reminds of Suicide, but it's a rather "select" version of current electro-clash (with condom on) we're faced to. Saba warm voice gives hand to hand what Peaches and the likes of Chicks On Speed vulgarly throw away at your face. A beat box and a heavy synthetic bass line are the orchestra that plays with Saba's very sexy voice. She is a female singer already known for her similar works with DAF's Gabi Delgado on Delkom's album released in 1989, and re-released by Discodian Records label, fan of the minimal and sensual productions of the multilingual singer. "Wide Open" is in fact a wide open door to a minimalist world, quite like a demonstration flat waiting to be painted, where all languages (French, English, German, Spanish) are allowed. The record is sixteen homogeneous tracks long, and it's at first pretty hard to highlight one track from the others, even though Massive Hot Flesh, the first single released with three remixes that don't fail the original version, is highly recommended.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Digital Tenderness
[Recall]
We could reproach Terranova to have chosen simplicity (not to mention vulgarity) because the sounds used on "Digital Tenderness" shamefully remind of the simplist sounds heard in the 80s, and above all, because the combo got us used to a higher quality. We hardly recognize the group who offered us, last year, the magnificent "Hitchhiking Nonstop With No Particular Destination". But, even if their musicians' talent doesn't appear here, the one of melodist does, and the album manages to keep some efficiency and proposes a series of obsessing and charming tracks. We knew Terranova was capable of much finesse when they were with!K7, and maybe that their departure from this exemplar label to join Recall offered them more freedom, at least the one to choose facility. The presence of the same track at the beginning and at the end of the album, in two different versions, enables, those who still doubt, to compare the indigestible methods (Grounded) used today by the group, who used to have much more exciting ones (Ground of Original Nature).
Christophe Labussière |
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Happy Mystery Child
[Le Maquis]
What strikes you when the listening of "Happy Mystery Child" ends, is that you realise how much the album is impregnated of Trisomie 21 own sounds, with all their specificities, but not prisonner of their extraordinary rich past. So, "Happy Mystery Child" isn't a remake or an ersatz of the past master pieces of the band, although we bounce from one reference to the other, remembering happily with each song, the mightiness of "Chapter IV" or the depth of "Million Lights". Seven years after their last production, "Happy Mystery Child" now uses the bass/guitar combination which is extremely charming and even obsessing (yet, we don't manage to link it to New Order or The Cure), as well as Philippe Lomprez's voice which never was so distinct. "Happy Mystery Child" is a real moment of bliss that will touch the fans and will surprise those who still didn't know the dark and melancholic melodies of these prodigies.
The record is also available in a version containing two bonus CDs, on which you'll find a long, and uneven in quality, series of remixes of the album's tracks.
Christophe Labussière |
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On the indus-electro shelf, there's the second compilation of the American label WTII Resurrection 2: the programmation is EBM and electro-pop, the whole is rather heavy and grave, but it's sometimes melodious. We especially liked HMB and their cover of The Metro of Berlin as well as La Floa Maldita, an energic mix of heavenly voices and future pop sounds. Talking of future pop, we noticed the presence of the artful State of the Union. But the rest is quite boring (with Monstrum Sepsis, Regenerator, PTI and even Beborn Beton) and we still wonder what's the use of some very average remixes (the one of Cut.Rate.Box and Stromkern). Dispensable.
One year after "Power", a very honourable album, the Canadian duo of Voice Industrie comes back with a double CD compilation of their three first albums ("Psychotica", "The Anatomie" and "Transmission"), most of them are now impossible to find. So, it's with much pleasure that we (re)-discover the greatest tracks of this discreet, but gifted band, who has digested its Front 242's influences (they use some of their very good samples) and adding Depeche Mode sounding vocals. It smells good the beginning of the 90s. Once again, this is a very good initiative of the American label A Different Drum.
This is unfortunately not the case of "Visualize" the first album of Provision (A Different Drum), a US band heavily influenced by the 80's new-wave, but who didn't manage to get rid of the clichés of the Alphaville and Visage-like synthpop. The singer's voice is just as sexy as an ice cube in still water; the melodies aren't deprived of any interest, but the sounds have been heard so many times before. They'll need some maturing...
Disconcerting, that's how we could qualify "Anapter Ma", the second album of the Greek duo Blue Birds Refuse To Fly (Decadance Rec.), who still hesitate between a bad darkwave (like a bad clone of Deine Lakaïen, with a rather insufferable pompous vocal...) and a rather fresh future pop, naive but efficient, with a clear sound, sometimes close to Pulcher Femina (on the same label), but much more interesting and dancing on the instrumental tracks (Lacima di Balena, Quasi Stellar) than on the sung ones.
Let's be more serious with the first album of System Syn, "Premeditated", the new signature of Out of Line, who's a trio supposed to renew the electro genre... Except one or two really exciting tracks, going from a tough and agressive rhythmics to clear and emotional vocals on pretty choruses, most of the tracks lose themselves in their references, which make a rather mitigated, unclassifiable but rather agreable first work (if we except the very ugly cover-sleeve).
We go on with the new album of Human Decay, "Disbelieve", at Accession, which is a kind of new generation, pugnacious, courageous, but not always convincing EBM (we're reminded of Negative Format, God Module and Parallel Project). The voice has been heard a hundred times before, but the good melodic structures make the album interesting. Indeed, it's not revolutionary, but there are some good surprises with the crafty use of rhythms' ruptures. So, "Disbelieve" is an album to be heard.
Let's pursue with sttrong stuff, Mindless Faith and their new opus "Momentum" released at Dependent. On the menu, muscled rhythmics, heavy synth sounds, sometimes at the limit of trance, hybrid voices and futuristic ambiances. It's been four years since their last album and the trio of Mindless Faith comes back forgetting its first coldwave influences, offering a very rich and varied production, which is not always very dancing, but it'll impose itself like a mature album. Another masterpiece for the label Dependent.
After the master piece, the mace blow... with the new EP of Neuroticfish, "The Bomb", this really explosive title is the perfect addition of all the best future pop tracks of these last five years. This will be a blast in every electro clubs and parties... declined in four complementary versions. Let's add two very nice novelties and a symphonic version of Care and there you have it: an essential EP that'll make you wait their forthcoming new album, "Gelb".
Less dancing, but just as talented, the Swedish trio Michigan, already noticed with their first very good album, are now releasing "Ultimate Sky", a less synthpop and more rock album, which will remind you of the best of De/Vision, Iris and above all Mesh, replaced so at Memento Materia. We also think of Depeche Mode, in their "Ultra" period. The whole is very well produced and imposes respect. Decidedly, even if they're a bit formatted, Michigan is a band to be followed closely... as they're a confirmed reference for all the fans of electro-pop.
Let's sweeten things up a bit with the volume 2 of the Electropop Heroes compilation of Memento Materia, which offers us here the worth and the best. The worth is all the clones, all the old 80s' stuff a la Kim Wilde and that the electroclash mode cannot redeem (we still appreciate the very good cover of Tears for Fears' Shout by Sophie Rimheden and Hakan Lidbo). The best is the few 100% Swedish gems like Hype, the new project of the Elegant Machinery's singer, or the very good tracks of Michigan, Monofader, Backlash and Z Prochek, often in a new version.
Let's end with a poisoned dessert: "City", the second album of the female duo Client, Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode protégées, at Toast Hawai/Labels. The dessert part is that it's a kind of Kraftwerk sounding electro reminding the eighties, like a Soft Cell with breasts, a simple, pop, engaging electro. The poisoned bit is that it's more tragic, darker, sadder (with some moving loops of an aerial piano) than the first album, as well as more experimental, with the discreet, but efficient participations of guests such as Martin Gore on the fabulous Overdrive. Talented and fashionable just like the electronic underground likes it. We ask for more.
Stéphane Colombet
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Be reassured, Vittorio Vandelli isn't a distant cousin of the Frenchman Bruno Vandelli, the creator of the musical quadrichromy. The former is an accomplished musician, a virtuoso, one of the founders of the prolific Italian trio, Ataraxia. With this first solo record, "A Day of Warm Rain in Heaven" (Equilibrium Music), which was inspired by "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" of S.T. Coleridge, Vittorio offers us a superb odyssey through seas and oceans. A Homeric travel where the northern storms stir some peaceful gulfs and where the proud ships of yesteryear encounter some flimsy skiffs in distress. Sublimated by the spectral voice of Francesca Nicoli (of Ataraxia…), this relaxing and bewitching album carries in its wake some delicious sprays' smell.
More glamour, but clearly less magical, the German sextet Der Eremit proposes us their second opus "Das" on the Swiss label Thunderdome. Sharp Rammstein-like guitars (without the sound), a very cheap sounding electronic and a dizzyingly boring compositions, don't look further, there's nothing much else to find in this album. The few folk-ish tracks, in the line of Letzte Instanz / Tanzwut (Lichtbringer) are the only things the group seems to know how to play. The fans of these heavy German sound will rejoice, the others will ignore it. Another production of this label is the compilation Tanz der Nacht, which is the CD evidence of the eponymous parties. The apprehension is legitimate when you hear Der Eremit and see the improbable tracklisting (Diorama, Cascades, Darc Entries…), yet you'll soon be humming along this collection of catchy gothic and synthetical euro-pop tracks. A nice dancefloor festival, where the children of VNV Nation (Namnambulu, Blutzukker), of Apoptygma Berzerk (Eurocide, FAQ), of And One (Diorama) and of Anne Clark (Sara Noxx) can be found along more famous formations such as Diary Of Dreams or The Last Dance in a happy synthpop, darkwave, gothic and EBM "farandole". In the end, there are few tracks that aren't worth anything in a compilation which you might think is a bit embarrassing on your CD shelf, but you'll play it again and again! Another sampler, this time coming from Kalinkaland, Lightwaves is a bit the opposite of its Swiss counterpart because it emphasizes on the heavenly voices, romantic and folkloric melodies of sixteen groups coming from all around the world (the USA, Australia, Bulgaria, Slovenia…). Homogeneous and appeasing, this collection of classical, aerial and organic sounds introduce us, beside the Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Unto Ashes, Rajna, Stoa and Ophelia's Dream some new promising groups: Irfan, All My Faith Lost, Elane, Teradèlie (and its amazing children's tale) or 1972. There's nothing else to say about this compilation which reach its main goal: to captivate the genre's fan while opening the door to new musical promises. Taking advantage of the draft created by "Lightwaves", the young quartet Elane made its first album, "The Fire of Glenvore". Heavenly inspired and in the neo-classical line of Stoa or of XVIII° Vie, Elane's music presents a universe full of elves, of fairies and other shadowy forest paths; yet it avoids the trap of the heroïc fantasy, the spotty nerds' world. And even if the influence of Tolkien is obvious in the songs' theme, the German band manages to deviate from it and to go towards less clichéd horizons, like on the nice cover of Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow. This first try lacks a bit of personality and struggles to maintain the suspens all along the 17 tracks, still it is appeasing and it'll wake you up.
Stéphane Leguay
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