The Australian Crash Frequency strikes back, this time with a DCD set to gain some international and world-wide attention. It was lately Charles Fenech of ANGEL THEORY who told us in our current interview (please look for it somewhere else here...), that the Australian Electro/Industrial/Goth scene has reached a special point of evolution, where some good recognition occurs and that the included bands, especially the ones presented through this collective – show a lot of diversity and originality. His words got proven right with this compilation featuring almost all Crash Frequency bands – I miss only SOBIQUET, INTRA-SONIC and STARK here. The first disk named "Arrival (Home)" features 15 tracks of – so-called - "radio versions" featuring mostly the best pieces taken out of the latest albums of each band, but also some goodies and unreleased new tracks. Opening act marks – like expected – the currently striking duo of ANGELSPIT with their track "Vena Cava". If some of you really haven’t checked out their new CD "Krankhaus" – an epic in both parts, Industrial-Metal music and artwork – I then advise you to do so! Goth Rock was and is not my cup of tea, but the famous IKON give a well done piece here and their "Sunset At Golgotha" is still unreleased. To the straight and melodious EBM/Electro music of ANGEL THEORY I don’t have to give any further explanations, because this act is maybe together with IKON the most known act internationally. "Human", out of Charles’ last and highly recommended full length CD "Re-Possession" is one of the best tracks he has ever composed. Comes then N0N-PLUS, a relatively new member of the collective and musically based into the Powernoise/Ambient genre. I haven’t heard anything from this act before, so that’s a bit hard to start comparisons, but this decent track featuring ominous synth layers and a steady beat makes me hungry for more. Follows then the great duo TANKT with a new and unreleased track "Surveillance". You remember their well done "Club Life" CD, also licensed to Static Sky Records? Well, forget it, because this "Surveillance" knocks almost all tracks from "Club Life" out of the field! Comes then the duo of THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT and so the journey into a musically more strange copulation, because they mix Electro elements with Trip-Hop efforts mostly guided by decent female vocals. Their track here, "One Time In Life" taken from their new EP "Blurred Edges" is a well done example for the more Trip-Hop-based kind of this duo. LUX VOLTAIRE is also an act I haven’t discovered so far, I can only remember their funny "Oberheim" contribution from the first chapter of this compilation series. Their new and unreleased "Dreamtime" is a straight and modern arranged Electro dance track with a duty guitar riff in between. They are followed by THE PROCESS VOID coming up with a new instrumental cut and the Synthpop act TYCHO BRAHE with a track of their latest release "Atlantic", out on the US-based label Coohagen Music. RESURRECTION EVE have already produced more remarkable tracks than "Embrace", which was also available on their great last CD "Ascension", out on GUP/Endless Records. PLAQUE SEQUENCE follows and they are totally new to me. "Futuristic Techno, Cyber-Electro, Psytrance and Technosexual Fetish-Industrial", so the description on their music – nothing what could help to make the things clearer. Lee Bulig of STARK has done some additional music and Pete Crane of THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT seems also to be a member.
We have then two tracks done by DOMINO THEORY (dark Pop with Trip-Hop attitudes leaded by female vocals) and DANDELION WINE, who could lately get a deal with the German Ars Musica Diffundere, a division of the Black Rain group. DAZY CHAIN give us their track "Hush" taken from their last full length – a track which starts peaceful and calm, but then to come out in a rough and angry Punk/Metal-like raging piece. Last track of this first CD then is provided by the new collective member THE TENTH STAGE musically ranging between Goth Rock and Electro. I dig this track a lot, it mixes up both styles with some good male vocals. So 15 tracks in all on the first CD, let’s check out the content of CD2, called "Departures (Club)" and so – like the name explains it – turns the music into a more club-oriented field.
ANGEL THEORY now opens the second disk, again with "Human", but this time in remix version created by John Van Loon out of the Netherlands. The rhythms are now a bit updated, John has also done some further production and he added his voice for a kind of guest singer appearance – in all a very satisfying remix work. THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT now show with their second track "Only You Can See You" their other side, musically more depending on a modern kind of Electro dance – it’s a great and previously unreleased track. ANGELSPIT send out another invitation to join them on the dancefloor for some crunchy Industrial/X-over actions with a new "Pill Binge" remix of their "Elixir", originally another fine piece out of the "Krankhaus". I then see the difficulty to offer a club-friendly track from IKON – finally they present here with "Ghost In My Head (Adam Cal Remix)" a track of the 1998 album "This Quiet Earth". Also some unreleased stuff is offered by TYCHO BRAHE with their track "Avarice", which got by the way remixed by another Australian legend alive again, George Pappas of REAL LIFE. It’s a great Synthpop tune with some female vocals integrated, which doesn’t leave any wishes open. Also the newbies of THE TENTH STAGE give a second track "Criminal World", which got remixed by Dave Foreman of TANKT. Have a clear listen to the great and alive-sounding synth layers. Next are TANKT with the title track of their past full length CD "Club Life", here in a special remix created by Charles Fenech of ANGEL THEORY. Please note also his special guest vocal appearance on this great track. PLAQUE SEQUENCE return with a modern dance track taking influences out of Trance and Techno. Pete Crane of THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT does his best here, although the adding of some more vocals wouldn’t be wrong. The rough tunes of THE PROCESS VOID – here "Lethargy" taken from their debut - also got a remix here, this time done by LUX VOLTAIRE. Relatively danceable, but mostly instrumental. RESURRECTION EVE then show themselves from their very best side and offer a new remix of their track "Forever" – be sure and listen only 1 – 2 times the refrain, it will be undeletable burned in your mind - one of the finest Synthpop tune this act has ever produced! Comes then DOMINO THEORY with an "Apology" – but there’s nothing to excuse, because the track grows on you after a few rotations. But don’t ask me who the responsible remixers ROMUS & REMULUS are, if we don’t think of the historically meaning. DANDELION WINE have again the flute in action, their at times strange female vocals and some guitar riffs as well – it’s always hard for me to sort them in, but I take it as sports – they are another proof of the diversity offered out of Down Under. Last but not least we get an unreleased track by LUX VOLTAIRE, "Australia’s Premier Neuropunk Outfit – whatever this means. After an acoustic opening the track "Despite You" turns into an acceptable and danceable electronic track, well done, Gentlemen.
A final and special note has to be taken for the brilliant artwork created by Destroyx of ANGELSPIT - indeed it has some relations to that famous "Krankhaus" art, plus also the great "flying skull" logo craeted by Roberto Massaglia of TANKT/THE TENTH STAGE. Charles Fenech of ANGEL THEORY finally has collected this well done comp.
I of course have some personal favorites here on this compilation, but I try to avoid to pick them out specially. It is because that the Australian Electro/Industrial/Goth scene has so much diversity and surprises in all genres to offer that every listener will find his/her very own favorite. Come on and take a steady listen to Down Under and the leading Crash Frequency collective – satisfaction guaranteed!

Disc CF01 : Arrival [Home]
1. Vena Cava - Angelspit
2. Sunset At Golgotha - IKON
3. Human - ANGELTHEORY
4. Of The in Visible - n0nplus
5. Surveillance - Tankt
6. One Time in Life - The Crystalline Effect
7. Dreamtime - Lux Voltaire
8. Skyro - The Process Void
9. Don’t Feel That Way - Tycho Brahe
10. Embrace - Resurrection Eve
11. Oblivion - Plague Sequence
12. No Apology - Domino Theory
13. Tulip Eyes - DandelionWine
14. Hush - Dazychain
15. The 10th Stage - The Tenth Stage

Disc CF02 : Departures [Club]
1. Human (JVL Mix) - ANGELTHEORY
2. Only You can See You - The Crystalline Effect
3. Elixir (Elixir Remix) - Angelspit
4. Ghost in My Head - IKON
5. Avarice (George Pappas Real Life Remix - Previously Unreleased) - Tycho Brahe
6. Criminal World (Exclusive) - The Tenth Stage
7. Club Life [Club Mix] - Tankt
8. Take The First Step - Plague Sequence
9. Lethargy - The Process Void
10. Forever - Resurrection Eve
11. Apology - Domino Theory
12. Arc - Dandelion Wine
13. Despite You (Previously Unreleased) - Lux Voltaire

Started in 2004, Fire In The Head is the personal project of Michael Paige which has already released twelve CDs, counting this new one titled MEDITATE/MUTILATE. Focusing his sound mostly on industrial/power noise, Michael sees his project as a "cathartic outlet to explore and ratify the delusions and social perversions resultant of psychosis and the darker side of man's conflicted dual nature", as he says on his website. The ten tracks of the album fortunately don’t present a tedious wall of sound only but they merge elements of noise, death industrial, drone, dark ambient and power electronics without sticking only on one of these. So, if "True believer" or "Complete the obsession" remember early Whitehouse (see tracks like "My cock's on fire" or the "Peter Kurtin" album), "Kriegskunst" is more de-structured (like digital noises on the wild), "Psychotic underground" sounds like a noise version of Foetus and the closing "Meditate/Mutilate" remember me the dark ambient tracks on Non mixed with feedback noises. For sure this kind of sounds don’t require to be a trained musician but Fire In The Head succeeds into creating a certain tense atmosphere that you’ll dig for sure if you are into this kind of sonority.

Too bad I can't speak romanian or else I'd looking forward to read the inner notes of this cd from Bucharest’s own Narkoleptik. It should deal with some historical event happened during the cold war era but I can get nothing more. Beside the concept, "impulse dominant" is a quite generical but well done industrial release. It starts with harsh noises kept in the background as everything in this release, I mean Narkoleptik is more into harsh trance than power-noise-in-your-face style and also the feedbacks lay in the back. Another recording where you can sense there's a surplus of echo-reverb to mix the elements in your drink. While the constant large ambience reverb gives an heavy psychedelic feel there's no dark ambiental drone as you can expect and let me say that's a positive thing. Still naïve but as I’ve said well done.

Hypnoskull is one of the loudest and most dissident voices of the international industrial scene. Based in Belgium, Hypnoskull releases a CD on an Antwerp-based label for the first time in his career and you can definitely hear the Belgian influences at work here. The sound is as powerful and saturated as it gets in that country full of great industrial sonics and bands (if you like the sound coming from labels like Daft and Spectre, you'll love this too!).Hard hitting pounding industrial beats with brick-wall compressed ear-splitting saturated sounds and surgery-precision injections and cuts of highy defined and sophisticated sequences and layers of other sounds (I seem to recognize some sounds from some records, but maybe Hypnoskull is deeply into sound designing rather than sampling when it comes to sounds). To top it all off this record pushes the boundaries of politically correct (if there even is such a thing for an artist as outspoken and non-mainstream as this) by mixing in a vast array of samples of military voices from the battlefields (all carefully pitched for anonymity and effectiveness; sounds like they come from war movies or war video games). To make the machine-approach sound more human AND convey a socially-minded thought-provoking message, Hypnoskull walked the extra mile, and that just deserves attention and prise in my opinion. A great electro-power-industrial record with some balls and a message: just the way I like it! There should be more artists like Hypnoskull... Rather than a bunch of sheeps with nothing to say, finally we have somebody that makes a fuss without just making noise.Look out for his follow-up record "Panik Mekanik" on Ant-Zen.

After the demise of his past label Black Flames Records of Poland the Spanish act HIV+ aka Pedro Penas y Robles is back on track. He could sign a deal with the up and coming Spanish label Caustic Records, although Pedro lives since several years in the south of France. The name HIV+ is well known in the international Powernoise/Industrial scene, also thanks to several live performances like the last year’s gig at Infest, surely a highlight in the history of this act. Pedro also made himself a good name of being a DJ at several different locations. His new CD features 8 real audio pieces, different – as usual – it its kind and art. A lot of collaborations also happened again and Pedro does well to integrate several guests hailing out of different music genres to fill in his rich diversity. Three tracks here ("Suicide Diva", "Vicious Death" and "Eternity") he has composed on his own with a little production help of the Swiss act STENDECK. His famous track "Havoc 2027" is again available, this time in a remix work by both favorite members of the Powernoise legend ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO, Saverio Evangelista and Frederico Spini). We have then some noisy instrumental remix of the track "Break It Loud" done by NÖVÖ and a great reconstruction by Pedro on a track of the totally underrated French act DATARAPER, from which I haven’t heard since a long time, my favorite piece here. A real Electro tune is also available, French mad man Remzi Kellici aka OBSZÖN GESCHÖPF created a stomping EBM piece out of the HIV+ track "Schäden". Please check also out the enhanced video of two further HIV+ tracks, live recordings taken from the mentioned Infest 2005 gig. Like every release Pedro has conducted so far, also this new one is worth any investment. It is not the fast speedy monotonous Powernoise, no, this one has its own authentic style. Also the artwork featuring the hot cutie named Vanessa really got me here...