Another release it took me a while to describe but it's Experimental Media and if you're confidential with the label you know it's heavy experimental music composed and recorded with a deep and hyper intellectual edge. This is the turn of a collection giving exposure to the drone materials of unconventional music composer/guitarist David First. If the cd opens with this monolitic, quasi organ-sounding track based on a theremin sound that last for almost thirsty six minutes, the second episode quietly re-proposes the same narcoleptic idea of the first one, a slowly growing drone takes the scene it's even difficult to believe the sound has been made with an e-bowed guitar. The first cd consistent of small sound variations from the drone-theme even if the third track introduces some more instruments like a dissonant piano kept sound mixed in the magma a violin and a clarinet, the mixing has been made in order to obtain some similar effects. During the listening of the second cd you can't but notice sonic structures are changing it's also true this series of compositions has been made after YTK, for what concerns the audio pro-profile, let's say the five compositions contained in this second cd by some means are a bit more "electronic" but the basic style remains the same. What really surprises me is how this composer has probably intentionally maintained the same magmatic sound throughout the years and that's also testified by the last cd containing the long piece titled "Pipeline Witnedss Apologies to Dennis" where beside David himself with laptop and his many midi and electronic devices are featured several trombones and a keyboard. This track in someway is the real summa of more then ten years of compositions and studies by this unordinary guitar player with a contemporary classic training and a deep interest in electronic music. Given the fact this last track is dedicated to Dennis Sandole, First's guitar/composition teacher I think you can understand why here the musicians probably reaches the his compositional climax and goes deep in his musical research. David First speaks about some references that range from Philip Glass to Alvin Lucier but it also reminded the suggestions created by Giacinto Scelsi. As Nicolas Collins writes in the line notes First's "textures have grown denser and lusher over the years".

This release has come out almost simultaneously with the split release with Pylone we've reviewed a couple of weeks ago. Differently from the split cd, this work is a collection of old materials came out on cdr and an old net releases and despite the fact not all of the tracks have been composed during the same period of time this slab of plastic offers a homogeneous listening. If you ever had the chance to taste Beccuzzi' solo releases you know we mostly deal with cold electronic post-industrial avant-garde music..are in you in need of some references to file the music here contained? Let's say it's mostly post-cotemporary classic music with references to Thomas Koner, Richard Cartier, Pan Sonic and their related projects in general, Zoviet France, and anything following this route. Final archives offers a full range of high and low frequencies, sharp sounds, raw materials, squared low beats, concrete sounds, electronic versus music concrete, soft-crescendos and sudden peaks of noise and silence, just to show Becuzzi knowledge of electronic/installation music has matured along the way. I can grant you both the minimal compositions and the sound installation materials have that common heavy, post-industrial feel that characterizes the majority of Kinetix solo works but overall this cd is on Silentes and obviously if you know the label I doubt you won't like its sound. To emphasize this last conclusion I should add beside minimalism sometimes Becuzzi has this quasi-isolationist post-ambient feel that many fans of the genre will surely appreciate. Honestly it took me more than one listening to get how much I was into the work, but after several listening I'm convinced this collection of recordings puts together some interesting compositions, maybe one of the best work of Kinetix so far.

One of the strongest point of the debut album by the German bouldering duo [de:ad:cibel], hiding the musical ids of Daniel Galda and Armin Kuester, could lie in the power of amusing different kind of listeners by preserving a certain stylistical unoiformity: amalgamated by appreciable EBM structures and deafening bass lines for the likes of Front Line Assembly or Funkervogt fan-base and considerably insisting on topics such as depression, religion and faith (I enjoyed some "marxist" remembrance in the lyrics of the song Jerusalem Syndrom whereas any builder of make-believe system on the basis of revealed religion acts like a pusher/seller: "...Verkauf ich euch mein Opium./Ein Konstruct aus Angst und Regeln/Die Warheit wind indoktriniert/Mit Richtig- oder Falsch-Befehlen/Die Herde grundlich selektiert" as well as the invitations on reflection on the real final aim of some religious doctrines in the song Human Product - "These lies are corridors of mundane power/to hold the might they built a watchtower/superstition was the fundament/they used it as an instrument"), ironic critics on consumerism (it's somehow funny the ideal breaking of the sacred trinity of the socio-economical system - buy, consume, die - hinting at the words of the humorous song Too tired to consume, making a long list on an enjoyable danceable psychotic electro movement of "prescribed" quinine for keep someone's finance healthy or for celebrating the scene...allelujah!) and its consequences on human relations (songs such as Architecture or B.I.I.D. arguably insists on the refusal of distorted way of considering feelings, mixed up with low-grade bodily functions) and even some conceptual statements (I enjoyed the neural connections activated by songs such as Heteronomy or One Of 47 - maybe the best song of this album -, forcing thoughts while moving dancin steps...), these lads could be even appreciated by a large range of listeners as they're able to satisfy classical dark-electro fans (One of 47, Architecture), cyber-goth or mindful techno addicts (Monster Train's ferocious march or the less rough grip of Selektionsfunktion and Geteert und gefedert should switch their hungry neurons on...), synth-pop or future-pop lovers (tracks such as the above-mentioned Heteronomy or Between My Headphones and even more "romantic" songs such as Nobody hurts like I do could be injected in their lower abdomen...), but I won't be surprised to see some reviews of Klondike on metal mags as well. Concerning the quality, Klondike ideally traces a reversed Gaussian route as I listened to more well-crafted works in the beginning and in the end of the record, being the highest peaks Jerusalm Syndrome (featuring some icy treatments on the harsch Daniel Galda's voice...) One of 47 and Geteert und gefedert. It's nice the idea of showing the dynamic range of each track! Even if they're not really newcomers of the scene if you just consider for instance that Daniel was keyboardist for Das Ich's live stages (...and it's not casual that sometimes you'll have the impression of listening an electrified version of Das Ich as well...), I could say it's really a brilliant debut!

I'm not so surprised at discovering Traumtänzer, brand new German band founded by the Irish guitarist Tom O'Conell (former member of the gothic-rock band Garden of Delight by the well-known singer Artaud Seth and co-signing maybe GOD best acts, before its founder ideally signed a sort of waiver of that project which should issue 7 albums in 7 years, each of them including 7 songs - ...and most of readers should know how meaningful is such a number for some "esoteric" cultural areas... - through the launch of Merciful Nuns) after he involved the male voice of Marco Blum from Downscared and female one by Eva Paschen (whose expressive peak has been reached in Eisprinzessin, maybe for the crystalline and fairy sound and the daydreaming medieval-folk melodies intertwined by what it seems to eb a gipsy guitar as well as the hypnotical repetition of some magnetic siren-like decoy, highlighting her skills as well certain nuance) as well as the violinist Sandra Spinnraths, precious element of the line-up. comes up from the North-Rhein Westfalia musical hatchery.

Even if their sound cannot be considered ground-breaking at all, Der Weisse Raum is able to show that they're neither a sort of GOD diorama or relics of some past time nor a tribute band to 80ies or 90ies gothic scene (but it's somewhat listenable some echoes of Dead Can Dance in many songs in fairness to that age...) by grabbing some of the contemporary tendencies in gothic scene such as the one of melting different phases (from the stylistical viewpoint as well) in the same record and I'm not referring just to the Arabian intro of Krieger (Warrior), a sample having a defined role if you consider the words of the song, or oriental scents emanating from songs such as Stigmata or Fremdes Land (maybe the most energetic and danceable rockish track of the album), but also to the way Tom managed to combine meaningful lyrics with melancholy alternated to more reactive moments and electro-industrial winking. Maybe all this different faces of this dream dancers look winded into skeins and that could be the reason I personally prefer those moments when the lines of Traumtänzer sound are more clearly defined, such as Monolith and Die Maschine, in spite of the New Wave gentle touch O'Conell instills in a regular gothic-rock patchwork, or the nicely dramatic stages ofetn imbued in classical music standards and epic vibrations of the two interludes, Zwischenspiel der Asche and Zwischenspiel der Ewigkeit, and the final track, whoch cannot be entitled other than Die Wahreit (The Truth). A little too "nostalgic" among bonus tracks, the Clubmixes of Die Wahreit and Stigmata, but those tracks are surely not the reason to avoid listening to Der Weisse Raum.

ALL ABOARD THE MULLETSHIP VOL.1 is the first Mullet label compilation and it greets its first two years of activity. Containing twenty five tracks hand picked by label boss Justin Winks, the compilation sums the many highlights of Mullet Records. As you may know, the label's growing catalog deals with synth driven electro funk, nu disco and cosmicboogie beats; music deeply influenced by 80s sound. Being a download only release and including one unreleased mix, you may ask me why this release would be worth the purchase. Well, first of all, price wise, this is a budget compilation as you can get twenty five tunes for the price of a normal album and secondly, its track list covers every genre released by the label, including tracks by Casio Social Club, Tesla Boy, The Diogenes Club, Sare Havlicek, Long Distance Analog, Baxter, Estate, The Artificial Arm, ODahl, Nuvo Rich, Two Cosmic Kids, Fatback 4Way, Dabeull, Long Distance Analog and Kouros. I can't say if this is a best of, because there are so many great tracks that didn't find space here, but for sure ALL ABOARD THE MULLETSHIP VOL.1 will give you a good view of what Mullet Records sounds like. Check it out and you won't regret it.