It has happened in spring of this year, that the Brazilian-based Electro-/EBM-musician Alex Ramos has announced, that his last release "Immortal" has been completely sold-out. For sure an enviable number of sales, even regarding the fact that this happened without the help of a professional distributor. To get out of the average mass needs efforts in promotion, and Alex has never failed in this. The predecessor "Immortal", also signed to the Brazilian Resistance Beat, was nearly a self-produced item, but available at almost every thinkable mail order resource world-wide. Alex could earn some recognition and acceptance because he has worked very hard for this – of course the talent has to be right-placed as well. So no wonder that his development wouldn’t be too long observed, Advoxya Records finally made the right decision to sign Alex. "Scare Mix" therefore marks the debut release of this Brazilian act on Advoxya. It is surely a kind of companion release to "Immortal", because it features several remix works of friends and more or less international renowned acts. Alex has composed 3 new tracks, "Scare", "The Man Behind The Mask" and "Burnout" for this EP, from which I tend to rate the latter to be the best one, while all of them show more development in his work. He’s very near to that form of style which people call Hellectro or Terror-EBM. Follows a surprise, because Alex has decided to o a cover version on MORTAL CONSTRAINT’s "Hollow Peace", a German Dark-Electro-classic back out of 1992. A bit dangerous for sure, if an Industrial act decides to cover an Industrial act, but Alex is able to include his own signature here – although he couldn’t resist to rip some samples of the original. It follows the remix section of this release and the rather undiscovered acts FATAL RAPTURE and DRAINED SCORN are walking pretty well along that Terror-EBM style. Same counts for the Infacted-recording artist PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE 0.1 out of Greece, while the Brazilian comrades of HATECH add rather chaotic and trashy guitars samples to their re-interpretation of "Save Me From All My Sins". The winner is an own reworked version of "Immortal (Self-Infliction Mix)". Both Advoxya comrades WAVEFALL and cB (CYCLONE B) behave rather ordinary, while the re-animation of Mexico’s legend DEUS EX MACHINA seems to be the sensation of this release. I don’t tend to rate their work on "Immortal" to be the best here, nope, but it’s good to see that they are still alive. "Scare Mix" is an uncompromising and very harsh release which documents once again Alex’ non-arguable talent. Get it!

Second issue of this mostly underground-based compilation series hailing out of Germany. Radio-DJ and scene-veteran Intrendent has once again collected a diverse sounding line-up, on which the only relation seems to be the fact that all acts show their dedication to electronic music. While diversity is obviously in target here, this second volume concentrates mainly, but not completely, to present acts out of Germany and some of them have already gained a higher recognition. So you can expect to get a compilation full of musically diversity provided by some up and coming artists, but without any major names.
DIVAMEE opens this compilation with a smooth Electro-Pop song entitled "Engel" featuring nasty female/male vocals. The Hungarian-based act FIRST AID 4 SOULS have been already guests on the first chapter of this series and were planned to take part on the upcoming third issue, but thanks a signing to a UK-based label, they have to take a seat on this part. "Vurt" is a driving instrumental tune with some oriental-sounding female voice samples. One of the winners of this comp I like to announce with the German act YERSINIA PESTIS and their track "To Forge Ahead": pregnant old-school-like EBM bass lines, tough and distorted male vocals and Dark Electro-like synth layers are in this combination not all new – but still the most effective kind I can think of.
OBJECT then maybe represents the international best known name out of this comp and a new full-length album will be released in these days by the Denver-based Vendetta-Music label. The solo project of Andreas Malik offers Dark Electro in style and kind very near to veteran acts like PUPPY, MENTALLO & THE FIXER or old X MARKS THE PEDWALK – this instrumental tune "Empires In Peril" with its fine and detailed synth layer sounds is a nice teaser on the coming album. Follows then ALPHA QUADRANT, another German-based solo effort by Frank Wiedemann, a project which could enter a free slot on one of the past Interbreeding compilations. Frank has banned for this compilation some "Men On The Moon" – but these men are suffering a bit under the monotonous drum programmings and the static bass lines – while the fading of the synth layers is the good point here. E:O:NITY joins this comp with a rather Futurepop-oriented work providing German/English lyrics, but unfortunately in a questionable quality on the female and male vocals.
Another remarkable name out of the currently growing army of Germany’s Dark Electro acts is FIX8:SED8 and I like to congratulate Martin Sane to his recently signed deal with Germany’s Klangdynamik Records. Back on this comp he offers with "Monolith" in a more than 10 minutes long "Infinite FPR Extend"-version a collectable alternative version to the original available on his self-released debut "Humanophobia". "Tabernacle" is the title provided by ENEMY MIND, with which they like to present simple EBM-like bass lines with some slight distorted drum patterns and hard to understandable vocals – not at all a bad idea to bring on something more primitive, but this one alters a bit under the too-good-meant use of reverberation effects. HEIMSTATT YIPOTASH can win every "best-artists-name"-contest but have been also active for the German label Hands and with them this comp turns into a more intellectual kind by offering an Electronica-driven "Stromfresser".
The duo of NDTM then offers sweat-and-muscle-EBM, very near to IONIC VISION or old NITZER EBB – excellent sounding energetic male shouts and great bass line programming, congrats. JÄGER 90 are playing in a very comparable league, but they behave to NDTM a bit retarded – maybe STURM CAFE are a quell of inspiration for "Muskeln"? In between we have another favorite, Nick Jonath’s MC1R, offering another multi-layered Dark Electro tune full of insane voice samples, but "Dysthymia" acts rather aggressive and pounding in comparison to the rather melodic works of FIX8:SED8 and OBJECT. Both, SICK EN FOR as well as MI-PROJECT, offer Dark-Electro/EBM bass line sounds and well worked-out synth layers and can convince here. While SICK EN FOR remains to be instrumental, MI-PROJECT offer a sample-driven piece with German lyrics. Comes to an end with BAGIO offering an unnecessary climax of drums, bass and guitar-driven chaos, brrrrr...- that’s a joke, isn’t it?
Since the international scene is currently in an unclear situation of what will come and in which kind and format it will continue, it’s a pearl of great price to have somebody like Intrendent still believing on terms like "Independent" or "Underground" - thanks to his promotional efforts with this comp series and at his representing radio station "Feindsender", also local acts out of your neighborhood can have a platform to get heard. A third volume of this series is nearly completed and will be out soon...

Track list:

01. Divamee – "Engel"
02. First Aid 4 Souls – "Vurt"
03. Yersinia Pestis – "To Forge Ahead"
04. Object – "Empires In Peril (E-Arc Version)"
05. Alpha Quadrant – "Men On The Moon"
06. Enemy Mind – "My Broken Heart (Single Version)"
07. Fix8:Sed8 – "Monolith (Infinite FPR Extend)"
08. Enemy Mind – "Tabernacle"
09. Heimstatt Yipotash – "Stromfresser"
10. ndtm – "Come Along"
11. MC1R – "Dysthymia"
12. Jäger 90 – "Muskeln"
13. Sick En For – "EnCroachment (White Mix)"
14. MI-Project – "Glaubt Ihr?"
15. Bagio – "Folgeschehen 2007"

After the mammoth Amon/Nimh cd on Eibon, Andrea Marutti and Giuseppe Verticchio are back with a collaborative project, which will feature different guests with every release (this time, they are Giulio Baggi/Nefelheim at synths and guitar and Daniela Gherardi at synth and voice). Since it's impossible not to use "Sator" as a reference, I'll start by saying that "Reflections on Black" obviously shares most of its characteristics, but is also looser, more varied and at times unpredictable. There's a feel of jamming that in the above mentioned work was hidden by the monolithic construction of the pieces. In "Entrance", the deep cavernous drones, dotted by electric bursts, give way to a half-buried string plucking, introducing a more melancholic passage, eventually overshadowed by a brooding distorted wall. "Descent" begins with suffocating wind gusts, but a layering of frequencies, upbeat rhythms and higher tones slowly changes the atmosphere from oppressive to cosmic, leading to a second part occupied by a liquid drone. "Transmutation" and "Recovery" stray even further from plain dark ambient territories, the former featuring warm waves of synths and guitar feedback, the latter with Verticchio lingering on depressive guitar picking, accompanied by some weird crackling noises (treated vocals, maybe?).

The Retail Sector is the musical alter ego of multi-instrumentist Kentaro Togawa and "Life's Ironies" is a remarkable piece of work. The first track is called "In Scorn" and has an emphatic guitar work resembling somehow Explosions in The Sky gone minimal - after a couple of minutes some thick layers of noise are introduced to your ears. Basically all the tracks on "Life's Ironies" seem to start following a classic ebb & flow postrock to shift into harsher territories not so far from Xinlisupreme's "American Supreme" Ep. October Man is a small UK cdr label with great homemade packaging and a small run of copies, usually 30... so you'd better hurry up!!

Last time I heard from Jorge Mantas was with his cdr on Mystery Sea. I had shared a cd with him on Thisco, and I really liked his dark, concise, sometimes lo-fi approach to digital drones. I've lost traces of him for a while and now I discover he's mellowed out: pink layout, Proust quotes everywhere... what the hell... No, really... This is undoubtedly a new course for Mantas, but it's a great one, and his musical ability has improved dramatically. His drones have turned melodic and moody, and beneath the sugar-coated layout they have maintained an edge that prevents them from becoming dull or nauseous (with the darker "L'amour, c'est l'espace et le temps rendus sensibles au coeur" reminding of his previous production). With its 13 tracks and 65 minutes, it's a quite lengthy work, and my loveless heart forces me to take a break now and then - but the quality is high throughout. Guests like José Luís Merca (Matéria Prima, at electric guitar), Tobias Strahl (Dies Natalis, at acoustic guitar) and Cécile Schott (Colleen, reading Proust, obviously), help make some tracks more varied, and Mantas knows how to dose their contribution. @c closes the album with a glitchy, more upbeat remix, which is ok but maybe a bit redundant. I would recommend this disc to anybody into Dead Texan, latest Beequeen or Stephan Mathieu, and melancholic electronica in general - it hardly gets any better than this, me thinks.