This is the latest CD from Girls Under Glass, with, you guessed it, a cover of the Madonna song "Frozen" and some other goodies, working out more as an EP than a single. I hate the original Madonna song, as it marks a period where she gave up daring music and style and gave in to corporate radio-friendly music safe for her aging yuppy fanbase of the 80’s. But this seems to breathe life into a otherwise pointless song. My favorite on this would be "Wings" with it’s ethereal vocals and gliding whistles and dance tracks. Also the Das Ich remix of "The Bitter End" and Peter Heppner on "Grey On Grey" (he’s everywhere nowadays!) definitely don’t hurt either. This one got a few rotations in my CD player. Rating: 10.

This one is kind of odd to me, having a lot of swagger for a Projekt band, who usually carry more an air of laid-back melancholy. At points it reminds me of old school Mission UK with it’s goth-ballad swagger, sometimes like a poppier Love Like Blood. Grrrr, and I hate the fact they covered Leonard Cohen’s "Dance Me To The End Of Love", I wanted to cover that song for a while now! Oh well, plenty of other songs to cover. I could easily see this played on the radio or on VH1, in a good way. Projekt, with it’s newfound dabblings in dark pop like LowSunday (think Travis with powerchords), has paid off. But at times the swagger of Human Drama catches me, yet on other times that same song makes me wonder how much pop-rock I can stomach. But eh, on the same hand I have an uneasy relationship with pop in general. Choice cuts are "I am Not Here", "Lonely", and " Imitation of... .". "Lonely" esp., with it’s Schubert-style piano musings, catches my ear. Rating: 9.

"Colonna sonora per un film immaginario" ("Soundtrack for an imaginary movie") is Raffaella Graziosi's debut as Regivar. With a background in photography, Raffaella has been one of the main promoters of the brilliant Oltre il Suono webpage and forum (http://web.tiscali.it/oltreilsuono/); now her 1999 recordings see the light on Logoplasm's S'Agita Recordings, with the usual care for visual presentation (this time it's a minimal layout on cream marbled carboard) and a limited edition on 150 copies. "Colonna sonora..." is a fascinating work mainly based on synth waves and loops, with a kind of free-flowing stream of different fragments and atmospheres; at times concrete sounds (a rewound tape, drops of water...) crawl in, contributing to the feel of mystery... I like to think of this cd as a kind of intimistic sci-fi soundscape: the sense of wonder, subtle bewilderment or trascendental peace is all there, but moving within an inner universe... Sharing some "poetic" similarities with her label-mate AAL, especially in his more "cosmic" side, and I'll repeat myself for the 100th time by quoting Tarkovskij as an ideal counterpart for these dream-like sounds...

7 tracks for this 35-minute CDep by the Dutch trio Angels & Agony. The layout is not really captivating, and I still wonder about the sense of cramming 4 not-so-different versions of a song on one ep, but anyway, enough bitching: the music is good, melodic electro-EBM with lots of wave influences (i.e. melancholic, slightly retro atmospheres), with competent song composition and an equilibrium between catchiness and good taste, which prevents them from slipping into radio-friendly kitsch crap. The title track is especially well done, but the other songs ("Stormhead", "Lost" and "Ohm") manage to stand on their own without passing for mere fillers.

It's five years that we had no news from Maurizio Fasolo and Pankow. Since their early years he's been the main person responsible of the band's sound and direction, since the post punk years (see for example the recordings of the "Gathered" and "Free" compilations) and the early electronic experiments as a duo with Massimo Michelotti (Neon's singer older brother) arriving to the electronic incarnation you all well know with Alex Spalk as singer. After years of silence (the last self titled album which had Limbo's Gianluca Beccuzzi on lead vocals has been released on 1997), the terrific news came: at the end of November 2002 a new album will be released by Minus Habens (which released years ago their "Walpurgisnacht" 12") and it sees Alex Spalck on vocals and lyrics again! I'm holding the promo in my hands and I assure you that the fourteen tracks of LIFE IS OFFENSIVE AND REFUSES TO APOLOGISE will make you forgive them for their long period of silence. Violent, nihilist and minimal this new album sees the band (which sees two new members along with Alex and Maurizio) dealing with industrial influences, working in this way on their own roots and sounds re-assembling them into fifty three minutes of absolute tension. Lyrics are in English and German (as usual for Alex) and mixes no sense with everyday life. Melody is mainly given by vocals as the other elements are rhythmical ones: treated noises or distorted synth sounds with ambient background sound sometimes. We can say that Pankow are back to their distinctive sound of the "Freinheit Fuer Die Sklaven"'s days for a perfect come back that will make you realize who the masters are.