George Klagos  

                                                                                                                                                                George Klagos  

NOVABEATS SOUND SYSTEM - Volume 1
(Nova Beats / www.novabeats.com)
And what do we have here? Novabeats Sound System / Volume 1 is a release from some of Los Angeles' most experienced electronic artists and producers, who have formed an artists' collective to produce their own CDs, live shows and DJ gigs. This is one of the most interesting releases I've heard the past year and complete different from anything in the market so far. With some instrumental tracks and some others with vocals or vocal samples you will find music influences from Latin rythms, synth electronic works, cyber beats and IDM this CD is not categorized under any music genre. In simple words this is a gathering of the most experienced and capable musicians of the scene and they are doing their best to keep your interest in high levels.

Vassago

                                                                                                                                                               George Klagos

OBJEKT4 - Her Face Among the Shadows
(Ravenheart / www.ravenheart.mysteria.cz / www.objekt4.com)
Between the Swedish origins of the project, the foggy mountain landscape on the back cover, and the title album itself, you'd expect Her Face Among the Shadows to be a solid if predictable dark ambient selection in the vein of fellow Swedish acts like Raison d'Etre and Desiderii Marginis. There is some of that on here, but there's also a whole lot more. Opening piece "Seclusion" brings a muted trip-hop sensibility to industrial ambience, with a bass-heavy throb of a breakbeat holding down the soft pads and occasional metallic scrapes, while "Her Face" is a more experimental take on down-tempo electro, blurring the rhythms together like a slow-motion train crash. "Void of Wounds" takes things in a more minimalist direction with subtle pulsing interrupted by occasional funky interludes of kick, snare, and hi-hat. For fans of more traditionally spooky Swedish ambient, "Among the Shadows" is suitably eerie with its ominous clanks and distant drum sounds, while "Nowhere Everywhere" creates a rich atmosphere by drenching church bells in reverb and sustain. A promising newcomer to the dark experimental scene, Objekt4 ought to appeal to fans of avant-garde electronic music as well as the northern European dark ambient styles pioneered by the Cold Meat Industry label.

Matthew Johnson

                                                                                                                                                               George Klagos

OBSERVE AND CONTROL - Utopia  
Tom Cohen in Tel-Aviv, Israel formed EBM band, Observe and Control in 2002. The music is composed and produced by Tom who also sings in the album, but Iris Idelson writes most of the lyrics. The debut album, Utopia, released in 2005, explores utopianism and utopian thought and perhaps inspired by French Philosopher, Michel Foucault and his school of thought. After all, the name of the band, Observe and Control was inspired by Foucault's work, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.   In this work, Panopticism, relates to a prison created by philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. Bentham's new style of prison, does not constrain the body with chains. Its purpose is rather to rehabilitate. Inmates occupy individual cells that are located in a circle surrounding a central observation tower. The inmates are unable to communicate with each other, but are all observed from the tower and their behavior monitored and tabulated. It was designed in a manner that would enable the prison guards to observe the inmates without being observed themselves. Bentham believed that through time, the prisoners would begin to change their behavior. The paradigm that Foucault asserts, is that a form of knowledge will be produced that is simultaneously a means to their control: isolating man as an object of study, it is the model for the human sciences. Most of the tracks contain inventive lyrics, hard pulsating beats, with real guitar such as "War," "Defeat Me," "Scissors Dolls" some personal favorites. Some of the songs, like "Creatures" contain movie sample, from the Twilight Zone. Utopia is dedicated to the memory of Tom's brother, his greatest inspiration, Haim Kyiem Cohen who was also a musician and the sample from the beginning of "Black Flies" is from the original version, recorded by Haim.

Nocturna

                                                                                                                                                                George Klagos      

PLASTIC NOISE EXPERIENCE - Dead or Alive
(Van Richter Records / http://www.vanrichter.net/)
This is a long awaited release from electronic purest German pioneers Plastic Noise Experience . This is a revamped remastered CD that is chalked full of what used to pull many leather wearing club goers out of there offices and parents basements to be bathed in thick aggressive synth music. Several juicey live tracks and remixes are included in this sound bath. It is also worth noting that this CD was released in large part because of the bands army of devoted fans and their insistence on more of there favorite P.N.E. Think old school minimalistic electro with modern production; a super industrial certified CD, with a bootleg mood.

Phee Stringer

PLUMERAI   Res Cogitans
(Silber Records / www.plumerai.com / www.silbermedia.com)
This short but sweet four-song EP takes the breezy but moody pop of Plumerai's first album and livens it up with some unconventional instrument choices. "Illuminata" in particular creates a sort of jazzy groove with vibraphones and string pads following along with the effects-drenched guitar chords, and "En Vole" lives up to its French title with an accordeon bridge that brings the Paris street into the dingy rock club. While most songs on this EP are also featured on Plumerai's second full-length album, Res Cogitans serves as a nice bridge between the band's early efforts and their current, more eclectic take on melancholy rock and pop. Hardcore fans will also be intrigued by exclusive track "Linear," which combines lead singer Elizabeth Ezell's raw, brooding vocals with an almost jouncy guitar line.

Matthew Johnson

PLUMERAI   Without Number
(Silber Records / www.plumerai.com / www.silbermedia.com)
Plumerai's second full-length takes the melancholy drifting of dark, dreamy rock and brings it an unexpected immediacy through unconventional choices in vocals and arrangements. While the guitars on "Home Again" and "Iris" are drenched in plenty of effects, the quartet also employs plenty of unexpected additional instruments. Vibraphones give "Illuminata" a cool lounge vibe, for example, and "Blue and Greens" goes from mellow pianos to strangely continental waltz-pop, driven by accordeons. "Lavinia" is less rock than trip-hop, all fuzzy organs and languid breakbeats, and instrumental "Sin El Lagarta" is pop music at its most experimental, frantic and driving, with more accordeon thrown in for good measure. A large part of Plumerai's appeal also comes from lead vocalist Elizabeth Ezell, whose singing style owes less to the dreamy sexless drifting of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval or Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Frasier than the unsteady but emotionally raw vocals of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. Her breathy wavering on melancholy break-up song "En Vole" in particular gives things a real immediacy that's all too often lacking in art rock. While Plumerai's music will doubtlessly appeal to fans of such acts as My Bloody Valentine and Lush, this band has a unique take on things that's unmistakably their own.

Matthew Johnson

PSYCHO WARD: Psychobilly Therapy for the Criminally Insane
(Split 7 Records/ www.split7media.com)
When you have a compilation that features Mad Sin, The Henchmen, Barnyard Ballers and Los Creepers, you would expect it to be good. The album opens with "The Devil VS. the Mooks" by Los Creepers. Being from Los Angeles, I am a bit biased towards them, but who's complaining!? It's an all-out rock n' roll song that's energetic and fun. Now I'm not a super fan of the Barnyard Ballers, but they put out some interesting songs and throwing them on this comp was a pretty good idea. I'm not sure why G-String decided to put "Down With the Cops" on this album because it sounds way too much like a pop-punk song. I didn't like that choice. The songs I have no quarrel with are Mad Sin's "Psycho Sideshow" (I'm a huge MS fan!), the Henchmen's "Dead or Alive", Sick City Daggers' "Straight Outta Hell" and "Throwin' A Fit" by the Slanderin' (I own the cd it comes on). The only thing I kind of liked about the Phenomenauts' "Mission" were the alien sounds they put in there. Other than that, I didn't really care for it. Speedcrazy sounds pretty cool because they have a female singer. The song may not be all that great, but it's refreshing to hear a girl keeping it psycho. The same can be said for Thee Merry Widows. Blazing Haley's "Train to Nowhere" is pretty cool. It has more of a rockabilly flavor to it, but I enjoyed it a lot. Some other stand-out songs are Concombre Zombi's "No Need", Mad Masato's "The Vein" and Scary Boom's "The 1 st in Space" which I think would appeal to fans of the Klingonz.   Though the album boasts some of the coolest psycho bands, they didn't pick the best songs from them. I think they could have taken way more time in thinking this one out. Not to mention taking the time to re-check the sound quality. It was horrendous! There are better psycho compilations out there.

Y.C. Locus

RAJNA - Black Tears
Rajna has, after many years of underground gorgeousness, issued a retrospective. On the sleeve to "Black Tears," they call Dead Can Dance "Ethno-Heavenly," yet the term would apply better to Rajna themselves. Perhaps when DCD imploded in a rush of egos and better opportunities back in the late 1990s, Rajna rose as their reincarnation somewhere east of Lisa Gerrard. And east it stays, never veering into the medievalism or pop dirges of their all-too-evident heroes. The band has been with us since 1999, and though their output has been steadily focused, it has remained solid and inspired. "Pearl of Ashes" evokes stunning Buddhist monks on distant mountaintops, summoning each other with nearly girlish siren songs. What's the last time a band did that? Even when they do finally sink into a delightful sort of culture-meets-phat beats (ugh, yes, phat is the only word) mode, it is massive and sincere. If unfamiliar with Rajna, "Black Tears" is a perfect introduction. If intrigued, check their dreamy early albums.

Paul Thomas

Red Wedding – 1981-1985
So much can happen in four years. In 81-85, Reagan took the hardest right-turn the US has ever had.   AIDS became a household term.   And Los Angeles art-punks Red Wedding emerged from their hardcore cocoon (formerly known as Hey Taxi!) to blaze brightly and briefly before evaporating. Red Wedding 1981-1985 chronicles their short and brilliant history, and provides a glimpse of a band whose live presence was gaudy and angry, terrified and exuberant.   These songs were recorded—never to the band's satisfaction—in stolen midnight studio hours, and though they can't match Red Wedding's reputed live sound, we should be grateful to have this echo.   Frequently labeled a “gay band” because the founding members were—and are—a couple, Red Wedding wore their hearts on their sleeves but were never preachy. There is certainly a theatricality to Michael Ely's vocals that is reminiscent of Marc Almond's early solo years, and throwaway references to Judy Garland and such do crop up. (Okay, so there's a song called “Looking for Rockets” that's not particularly subtle, but it's oodles of fun.) But most importantly, this is post-punk glamour at its finest, deserving a place beside Wall of Voodoo and other wonders of the age.   These raving chants about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n' roll display all the zest of the era.

Paul Thomas

Refrigerator Mothers – Ghosts of a Primitive World
Refrigerator Mothers are “world music” in the way Eraserhead is a “movie”—they tear the moniker apart and leave behind a befuddling, entrancing whirlwind.   The band calls what they do “Midi-eastern post-asiatic psychedelic dron-e raga punk,” and they earn it. Solidly.   The opening track, the modestly titled “Bedding Down the Revolution with a Mouth Full of Shit,” wanders from synthetic confections into gypsy percussions by way of carnival sounds and a droning vocal—at 21 min 42 sec, it's perhaps undisciplined, but the punchiness of the remaining tracks makes up for it.   “Tied in Sacks” brings the mix to near danceability.   “Pascilla Mangoes” reaches for atmosphere, and ends up sounding rather alien.   “Spiritscar” draws itself perhaps most closely to a regular music listening experience, through the sitar playing (I may have that wrong, there are a LOT of instruments on this album) never relents into what the mainstream would call a tune.   It all ends with “Christifan's Collapse,” a Christmaslike confection on an old piano that might just be played by the memory of a ghost.   An aptly named album!

Paul Thomas

Refrigerator Mothers – Arab National Anthem/Black Moth Scrap Serum (single)
Talk about style—the head-tripping world-punk-psychedelia outfit Refrigerator Mothers have issued “Arab National Anthem” from their Ghosts of a Primitive World album as a limited edition vinyl single, and have done it up right. The song in itself is an unassuming stroll of eastern strings and hand-thumping rhythms, a rare cocktail that Goths or NPR listeners might both enjoy. The band takes full advantage of vinyl as the medium, ending both sides of the single with an inner groove containing an eternal, hypnotic loop—it took me three minutes before I realized the record was done, and that sound was about to go on forever. The B-side is reminiscent of the Legendary Pink Dots, if they ever went on a far-east kick.   The packaging displays an astounding amount of class: transparent red vinyl; a hand-numbered sleeve that unfolds to display some violent karma sutra action; a page-long manifesto; hand-drawn sketches of the band; and best of all, an unexplained photograph. The photo in my copy of the single shows a couple at graduation circa 1930. The whole thing suggests an artifact dug out of grandpa's attic, musty and mysterious and making you wonder just what he did when he was out in Tehran…

Paul Thomas

REIN[FORCED] - Futile Longings of a Condescending Man
(DSBP / www.dsbp.cx / www.rein-forced.com)
Born from the ashes of Philadelphia industrial band Forced, Jim Semonik's new project injects the classic EBM sound with hardcore punk aggression without leaving diehard electronic fans high and dry on the dance floor. The beats are easy to dance to, but manage to move beyond the usual four-on-the-floor simplicity common to the genre; "Displacement" and "Poseur" in particular do an excellent job blending pure aggression with complex, frantic drum 'n' bass rhythms. The approach to arrangements and vocals adds just enough of a rock feel to broaden the band's appeal to metal fans without alienating electronic purists, with the raw-throated vocals and looped guitar chords of "The Weakening" exemplifying this album's crossover appeal, while the more atmospheric "Commitment Suicide" and "Boiling Point" are solid EBM club tracks with just enough ominous synthesizer to invite Skinny Puppy comparisons. "Crisis" ends things with an unexpectedly melodic arrangement of fuzzy analog bleats and soft female vocals from guest singer Dagny Neel; pretty enough to appeal to darkwave fans as well as the boots and camouflage crowd, it's proof that there's a lot more to this band than wicked club stomps.

Matthew Johnson

SHUNNED HOUSE - Santiago Avenue Bridge
To say that "Santiago Avenue Bridge" sounds like a '70s horror flick may be backhanded, but it is still a compliment.   After all, what score has the staying power of Goblin's lurching waltzes for Suspiria , or the prolonged creepiness of John Carpenter's primitive synths for Halloween ?   Shunned House launches into this EP with a circular, relentless spine-tingling track called "The West" that captures the freshness of early industrial (post-Gary Numan, pre-Skinny Puppy).   This is picked up again with some scary-tortured vocals on "What Is Bothering You?" and lost-in-the-dark beats on "Past Mars." The EP finishes on a narrative note with "Towards Saturn," a lengthy maze of throbbing bass guitar and electric-echo vocals.   Sadly, what has been built early on tumbles into ridiculousness on the final track.   Sound bytes calmly recount an alien abduction, attempting detached cool but only achieving camp.   Things like "You gaze, transfixed / Your pupils are dialated / Your body is almost weightless" had me digging out the lava lamp and patchuli out from the depths of my closet.   When I couldn't find them, I realized it was because I hate that shit.   And I wondered where the intriguing creepiness of the first four tracks had gone.

Paul Thomas

SILENT LOVE OF DEATH - The Poet's Senses
(Palace of Worms Records / www.palaceofworms.com / www.silentloveofdeath.com)
Inspired by the writing of some of the Romantic movement's most famously brooding poets, Silent Love of Death's debut album is understandably gloomy. Incorporating elements of martial ambient, apocalyptic folk, and dark ethereal music, brothers Juan Carlos and Miguel Angel Toledo create grim but romantic visions of war and decay sure to appeal to fans of Sol Invictus and Death in June. Musically, the brothers' compositions range from the gentle pianos of "Pain" to the bombastic strings and snapping snare drums of "My Pleasure Is Your Cause," and the deliberately paced percussion and mournfully wailing electric guitars of "The Sacred Altar" and "The Garden of Love" recall the work of such ethereal composers as Lycia's Mike VanPortfleet. The thick baritone vocals tend toward funereal melodrama, but when you're taking such famously melodramatic pieces as Blake's "The Sick Rose" and Poe's "The Valley of Unrest," morbid theatrics are par for the course. Baudelaire would be impressed.  

Matthew Johnson

THE SLANDERIN' - Rhumba of Rattlesnakes, Murder of Crows
(Split 7 Records)
I love the intro song to this album. It's called "Serf Creep". Though it might be spelled differently, it does sound like a fun, creepy surf rock song. It's an instrumental, but it's awesome. This album is pretty damn fast and I love it. I saw there was a review open for this album and since I already owned, what a good way to talk about them. Christian Slander's voice is like a more smooth version of Demented Are Go!'s Sparky. There are a lot of similarities though. That raspy and dirty sound is there. My favorite off the album is "My Girlfriend is a Monster". At the end it has a few stops then kicks into a pretty cool guitar solo and finished with some small hype. "Cobwebs and Flies" is my second favorite because I'm into the Demented Are Go influence it has only it's a lot faster. "Dead Man's Waltz" is pretty damn cool! It has the, of course, waltz tempo and couple that up with some coarse vocals and it's something interesting to hear. "Throwin' A Fit" is fast-paced like most of the songs on this album. It's solid. "Lost Internal Night" has a lot of country flavor to it. I really enjoyed that song. I think the only one that didn't work quite right for me was "Demolition Derby Doll" only because it has the cliché screeching wheels and hotrod motor. I think that's overplayed. "Black Angel", "Sweet Sixteen" and "Cemetery Gates" round out this aggressive piece 'o work, save for that one song. Fans of fast, pounding psychobilly will enjoy this album, especially fans of Demented Are Go! and Godless Wicked Creeps.

Y.C. Locus

                                                                                                                                                               George Klagos  

The Spiritual Bat – Through the Shadows
At their best, Italian duo The Spiritual Bat bring to mind 45 Grave's “Surf Bat,” rolling guitars and catchy good fun.   At their worst, they sound like Mannheim Steamroller (that crappy new age band your mom likes to put on at Christmas because she thinks you'll like it.)   The production quality is solid, especially for an independent artist, and instrumental albums are always a gutsy way to go—but the synths and drum machines take their sound to places we've been before.

Paul Thomas

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Swarm a Cold Spring Records Sampler
(Cold Spring Records)
Samplers are always nice to get. This allows us to overview the artists and the different musical genres that a label is promoting. It also means a wide variety of styles and sounds which is very pleasant as far as I'm concerned. Cold Spring Records do have more than one musical direction but they all basically fall into the category of modern/artistic with an underground /alternative approach, much to my pleasure. On Swarm, you'll hear quite a few experimental/ electronics/industrial& more abstract material such as : Andrew Lilies “Seaman of Giordano Giosus the Unsuspecting Landlord”, Band of Pain   “Swelled and Spent” and the sexually explicit   Schloss Tegal “Coital Affirmation (A.C.E. Remix). The ambient aspect of the art is well represented by Fredrik Klingwall “Come Inside”, Tenhornedbeast “Archangel” and the dark number mixing spaced out keys and Gregorian chant named “The Serpent Spiral” . Being an acoustic guitar player, I could only fall for the neo-folk compositions just like the excellent and sadly somber “Herdfeuer” by Bleiburg, the avant-gardist “Adoration to Europa” from Von Thronstahl and the patriotic hymn by H.E.R.R. called “Stalingrad”. I must say that those neo folk are my overall favorites. Swarm contains lots of surprises and hearing pleasures recorded by adventurous European artists.

THE RESIDENTS - Tweedles!
Any review of the Residents inevitably includes the words, "for adventurous listeners."   For more than 30 years, the San Francisco-based experimental rockers have pushed the idea of what can be called rock, and how rock can be packaged, to places record companies don't want to go.   Two years back, they actually offered an album by subscription--buy the CD, and get a secret password to additional tracks every two weeks.   Not to mention that these trickling tracks were true-crime accounts of bizarre acts (crocodile murder, for example). Now they have created (yet another) concept album, recorded in Transylvania, inspired by the excited offer of a long-time Romanian fan who offered the Residents the privilege of deflowering his new studio.   It was perhaps inevitable that a U.S. band would be drawn to writing a vampire album in Transylvania, but their vampire (like all other things touched by this eccentric outfit) is more symbol than reality.   "Tweedles the Vampire" was a monster who "devoured the romantic emotions of others...who took the stance that anyone who would stoop so low as to love him was not worthy of loving in return."   While many would prefer their vampires straight up, fangs and capes and bats, and such Dracula-inspired imagery is nary in sight here.   But the equasion of vampirism with sexual predation is hardly new--any study of Bram Stoker's classic will deal with the Count as sexual father figure, and frankly, why else would we line up to see a leatherclad Kate Beckinsale spout inane dialogue in Underworld ?   (I leave Bowie and Deneuve out of it.)   The Residents let the metaphor run its course, even equating the feeling of waking up after sex to the feeling of trying to remember why you ate that bloody steak tonight. The music deftly weaves a wide variety of samples (street singers, airport announcements, church bells, and so forth) into rhythmic basslines and exotic drum beats, and occasional prog-rock guitars.   Some of this is done masterfully, such as the folk songs that bubble to the surface of "Stop Signs."   What pushes this concept album into the realm of "adventurous" is the Residents' characteristic, histrionic Southern Gothic narration.   At times, it is as creepy as the late-night AM radio horror stories you can still catch on 3 am drives home.   At times, its campiness overwhelms, and it becomes difficult to know how much the Residents themselves are taking seriously.

Paul Thomas

The Three Cold Men   – The Three Cold Men
Three Cold Men, despite their Hot Topic “am I Goth enough?” wardrobes and the frankly awful cover art, have a sound that hearkens back to the dark pop of the 80s, and brought a smile to my face.   Their synth-heavy, upbeat sound recalls the Cure's Mixed Up , while the vocals echo late-80s Depeche Mode so much it hurts.   3CM keep the spirit of those times alive—when techno had not yet slept with EBM, death rock was a bit too much for the casual high school tumbleweed-head.

Paul Thomas

TOR LUNDVALL - Empty City
Calling an album dark ambient is sometimes a euphemism for an arty version of those $5 haunted house cassettes on sale in October at the drug store.   In the case of "Empty City," dark ambient means exactly what it says - or nearly. The ambient noise here speaks volumes of urban isolation, making sparse seem a better adjective than dark . "Empty City" is an album that takes its time. It moves too slowly for us to know what direction it's taking, but the sheer mass of it has the solidity, if not the chaos, of a glacier. When Lundvall's album does speed up (not until its third track) to where a discernable melody emerges, to where the iceflow becomes a song too slow for a less delicate outfit to lumber through, the track list tells us ironically that this is the sound of "Running Late." For a lark, I decided to test this one out and see how it matched up to my own empty city, Pomona, in the drab outskirts of Los Angeles. A neighborhood walk under clean gray overpasses and past long-shuttered shops, armed with Lundvall's album on my headphones, put the two in immediate contrast. Pomona's desolate landscape brought to mind crackling narcos corridos and the sound of decrepit Chevys. "Empty City" was a thousand times darker, a desolate aural ghosttown. Tor Lundvall's "Empty City" is not a city at all - it is a room populated by one, one hunkered under a flickering electric bulb, wondering if there's any life outside these bare walls.

Paul Thomas

TRAUMA PET - You Cannot Feel This
(Line Out Records / www.lineoutrecords.com / www.trauma-pet.com)
Trauma Pet have crafted a lovely debut here, tying together elements of classic synthpop and goth with modern production values, but it's lead singer Elie's lush vocals that tie everything together. On "Breaking" she's smoky but sinister, while tracks like "Rain" and "Yearning" highlight gorgeous melodies, made all the sweeter by the harmonic underpinning of bassist Tara on backing vocals. Musically, there are nods to tradition throughout this album; "Puppet" and "Fragile" have a definite old school synthpop vibe, and in spite of the predominantly electronic arrangements, Elie's guitars on "Sick" and "Rain" wail with a timeless goth rock moodiness that could draw its inspiration from any time in the last three decades. Trauma Pet are hardly a retro recreation, however, and the modern house and techno influences on "The Darkness Inside" and "Controlled Hysteria" owe at least as much to Covenant as Clan of Xymox. Regardless, anyone who appreciates a lovely singing voice will find something to enjoy here, and the band's masterful mix of moody melodies and thumping club beats is just icing on the cake.

Matthew Johnson

UNTER NULL - The Failure Epiphany
(alfa matrix/www.alfa-matrix.com)
Femme Fatale Erica Dunham is the enigmatic force behind Unter Null. With a razor sharp mind and something to say, or rather scream, it is no wonder that she is such a rising star in the Electronic music scene. The Failure Epiphany is a raw slice of pure EBM shot through with harsh electro beats and heavily distorted vocals that seem to spit vitriol right in your face. With this release Erica Dunham draws her rusty old saw blade across your exposed brain whilst dragging you along on a mind-bending joyride full of fear, domination and madness. Prior to the release of The Failure Epiphany Dunham was already established on the club scene in both Europe and the US with the tracks 'Sick Fuck' and 'Your Nightmare' which both appear on this CD. The stands out tracks for me are the fetishist anthem 'ZombieBoy', a necrophiles wet dream, and the serene and melodic instrumental 'Desire'. Tell the world to beware. Unter Null cometh!

Brian Roos

UNTO ASHES - Songs for a Widow
(Projekt / www.projekt.com / www.untoashes.com)
Having already established themselves as perhaps the most gorgeously creepy band of the ethereal scene, Unto Ashes are back with another 15 songs' worth of darkly delicate eclecticism. While the trio's fondness for Medieval Europe is made clear by the Latin dirge "Intacta Sum" and the assortment of acoustic percussion on the Dante-inspired "Convivio," Songs for a Widow is perhaps the band's most modern offering yet. In addition to their well-known dark folk leanings (represented here by "The Snow Leopard," an instrumental dedicated to Current 93 guitarist Michael Cashmore, and "The Life of the World," which bears more than a passing resemblance to Death in June's more acoustic work), Unto Ashes also hints at a fondness for club music. Not only do the Latin harmonies of "Occupying Force" float along over an undercurrent of techno rhythm, but the album begins and ends with versions of Covenant's "One World One Sky." Surprising though it may seem, the band's replacement of the song's signature keyboard line with a screeching hurdy-gurdy works brilliantly, and their juxtaposition of modern and ancient on this unlikely cover tune makes for perfect bookends to an album that embodies both elements so well.

Matthew Johnson

Varsovie – neuf millimeters
The shadow of French alternative rock group Noir Desir towers over Varsovie so much, I thought that I was hearing the second coming of that Gallic supergroup.   For those on this side of the pond, the sound might seem rather “un-goth”—earnest, scratchy vocals, rocking guitars, and a preference for traditional melody and lyrics over rhythm and exoticism.   But this sound was France's greatest offering to the underground music scene in the late 80s through the late 90s, and it's good to hear another band recapturing that.   The standout on this EP is, by far, the madcap “Delirium Tremens,” over whose unstoppable music Gregory Catherina seems to struggle to sing.   This is perhaps where they sound most like Bauhaus (their avowed influence) but anyone familiar with the French dark wave scene will see Noir Desir all over it.   And they will smile as if seeing an old friend.

Paul Thomas

Villa Vortex – Incertitudes
“This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.”   So says the sound byte from 2001's homicidal computer program HAL at the intro of Incertitudes , a meaty rock outing by French alternative artists Villa Vortex.   “Human” is an excellent word to describe Incertitudes , an album of artful manipulation of hard-rock and death-rock formulas.   There can be no question that the distortion-heavy guitars are played by real, live guys in a rock band.   After that first, chilly sample, the album steadfastly refuses to return to our now-familiar world of machines.   We are given humanistic songs with humanistic (French language) lyrics about humanity's follies.   Whether this is error or genius is left up to the individual listener.   “Retour a Gethsemane” is a splendid case in point.   The song begins with a quotation from the Man of Sorrows himself, hours before the crucifixion.   The Christian religion is described in terms specific to the man—his blood, his tears, his physical location.   Then the camera, as it were, pulls back to reveal 2,000 years of murder and war in the name of that one man.   The return to Gethsemane is a demand that we return to the humanity behind the creeds, and a hint that part of Christ's sadness was knowledge of the idiocies to be later committed in his name.   While such earnestness (mixed with fleeting hard rock moments of roaring head-banging) may put off the American fans of goth/industrial/dark wave, it sits comfortably for the French fan.   In that context, this is a highly recommendable disk.

Paul Thomas

                                                                                                                                                                George Klagos  

VIRTUAL SPACE INDUSTRIAL - Gehenna
(www.vsi.pl)
An new release from the polish duo Virtual Space Industrial who introduces themeselves with their first full album titled Gehenna. First of all this is all about industrial similar to Suicide Commando and Decoded Feedback something that will please a lot of clubbers and djs. Other than that this is a cd that will entertain you but will not stay in your memory forever since it lacks of originallity. Problem with most bands our age is that they are familiar with a sound and a style that sells. Ofcourse it has some nice tracks such as Holy Children that I am sure it is already a club hit but I need something more in order to spend my money and place an order on the abovementioned release or even praise it in this review. If you want a nice ebm album with some heavy electronic samples and distorted vocals under a good production well just go for it. Personally I believe there is good music out there to explore and I'll keep searching for it.

Vassago

WITCH – Witch
J. Mascis, perhaps best known to our readers as the fellow who once released a mighty grungy cover of “Just Like Heaven” with his then-band Dinosaur Jr., has returned to music with Witch. Those who enjoy the latter-day Cult, as they wandered away from Indian drum beats and gothic themes, may enjoy this. The grinding tracks, like the opener “Seer,” have a sexy down-and-dirtiness to them that is appealing. The rockers, such as “Soul of Fire,” are perhaps better for gents in spandex with long bleached hair. If you think Alice Cooper is in the frontrunners of goth's forbears, you might see some value in these songs. If, like me, you'd put your money sooner on Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the darkest slices of 70s punk, you can live without this CD. But it did make me dig out my copy of Dinosaur Jr.'s “Just Like Heaven”…

Paul Thomas