Apparently Parametric is getting a real kick out of releasing double CDs with Mlada Fronta (whose mastermind Remy Pelleschi mastered this very 2CD) and Von Magnet drummer's band Mimetic. The formula is the same: great art-work, great electro-industrial-experimental music, great line up of musicians. Particularly in the all new "Data Sensitive" prolific Mimetic's main body is Alma Munteanu, Lais Foulc, Nikkho, Def, Dirk Ivens & Sonar, Somantic Responses, Roger Rotor, Fast Forward... Besides my surprise in learning that Dive mastermind was involved too, the line-up is getting better with every record! I am not even gonna mention all the people who participated in this record 'cause that would take up this entire page (just to mention a few: Von Magnet, Remy & Stella, the Methods, Franz Treichler of Young Gods, Frederic Chaplain & Prikosnovenie, Ralf.E.Friel & Moloko+, Ras al Ghul, Phil Von, Frederic Lacomte, Benny Braaten & Origami Galaktika, Norscq, Jolanda Kempers and many many many more). I really feel for Mimetic because they are doing what we have been trying to do with Chain D.L.K.: joining efforts to achieve greater results! Anyway, back to the music: Mimetic's new baby is a little more ambient-experimental in nature than the previous work and overall tends into a more noisy and and more eclectic direction. There is a lot more sample work going on (movies and stuff, I could recognize several sources) and more non square beats in favor of a rougher but more challenging approach. The whole picture is that of a mature collective of sound magicians who know what they are doing and offer us a valuable intersection of their experiences and their influences. The heterogeneous material contained in the new album simply mirrors the true nature of the group, one that is quickly becoming a major player in the field and one whose sound is pretty much unique and so original it is almost unequivocally recognizable. "Data Sensitive"'s first CD contains 14 tracks of which the last four are remixes by Swiss Roger Rotor, UK Somatic Responses, Belgian Sonar and French Fast Forward while the second CD (called "be-at_sound_a") contains songs of a more experimental nature and a hidden track recorded live in San Francisco. Mimetic is part of The Methods of Survive Network System and supports MACOS (Musicians Against Copyright Of Sounds) which is great (I haven't seen many bands supporting MACOS in a long time).

Montreal, one of the new fastest growing electronic music capitals in the world, is home to Applied Acoustics employee Scott Monteith, the person behind Deadbeat's electronic sound textures and intensive delay patterns. He started releasing music in 1998 on Hautec, Revolver and Intr_version records but Berlin label ~Scape picked him up coincidentally with their renewal of vows to the electro-dub genres and its closest derivatives. "Wild Life Documentaries" is a journey through the deconstruction of classical dub and its reinvention through new sonic concepts and applied emotional states. Deep bass lines are obviously included in the package, but it is rather pleasing to notice how much effort has been put in the soft synthetic surface as opposed to only in the carrying bass. I couldn't help noticing how sounds like the ones in "For Palestine" are reminiscent of Young Gods most ethereal mixes and remixes, although the warm digital structures are enriched by nice sampling patch-work and countless yet well dosed repetitions that give it that timeless aura of some British productions by Sherwood or Alpha & Omega or by German field players such as Hoester Sound System, Groove Galaxi. Personally I prefer dub when it is associated with electronic music, rather than reggae, so this is a winner in my book! Great job! If you love dub, definitely go for it... Available on CD and double LP set.

Coincidentally with Staalplaat headquarters' big move from Amsterdam to Berlin, Staalplaat founder and master of ceremonies Geert-Jan Hobijn releases his very own music after releasing, co-producing or otherwise influencing the work of hundred of artists that appeared on his challenging record factory in the past twenty years. Inspired by the big concert hall of the Centre Vooruit, Staalplaat Soundsystem created a surreal choreographed scenario of dancing and noise-making machines including 12 industrial floor polishers in the middle of the hall and a stage hosting various assorted machinery such as coffee machines, kitchen mixers, matrix printers, saws, four arm turntables, washing machines, refrigerators whose inside are transformed into light and sound installations, the VW bus-shaped toy record players and fm tuner called Vinyl Killers etc.... You can probably think of it as sort of a down-scaled version of a Survival Research Laboratory performance using every day appliances instead. The interesting part here is that all the above mentioned tools and utensils are not only used to create sound but they are also controlled by sound itself. If you can't quite understand how all this is possible it might help to watch the short Quick Time movie prepared by Carlo Crovato included in the cute little 3". The CD opens with an out take that doesn't have the machine sounds and instead has a very soft Dive-like electro-industrial texture, submarine-like sonar/morse sounds, classical music from some movie in the background and speeches of German leaders (mostly in German) about the city of Berlin, the pride of being a Berliner in West Berlin, freedom and the like. The other three tracks deliver the sound of the actual Vooruit installation/performance, backed by orchestral tunes and lots of other bells & whistles.

When I was listening to the two opening songs of this album I thought I was dealing with an EBM musician who was converting to dance music or trying to achieve some better-selling un-probable blend of house-EBM (which is pretty original and uncharted as of yet and could even have a commercial potential, but of course sounds cheesy at times, especially to those not to keen on commercial house/techno), but it turned out that the Washington DC based trio Boole (ex The Apologizers) make their real appearance on track 3 and get a whole lot more interesting all of a sudden! The music is still in search of the right balance between pounding dance floor beats and electronic music, but less of those cheap dance synth lines that I can't stand (which unfortunately sometimes come back to haunt me later in the record) and unusual (for this genre) new elements such as pop vocals, smart sampling and great lyrics populate the rest of the record, transforming it into a challenging work and a continuing discovery...
"America Inline (American Grandstand)" is a fucking awesome and hilarious piece of work that uses AOL sounds ('you've got mail', 'welcome', 'goodbye' and the like) and cuts, pastes, rearranges and repeats them constantly along with other sampled words, achieving super smart associations like 'you've got Ashcroft, goodbye freedom', 'welcome Mc Carthy, goodbye safety, you've got jail', 'Aamerica inline, goodbye east, goodbye world', 'you've got nazi history, you've got deja vu', 'welcome bush, goodbye east, welcome disaster, goodbye freedom, welcome dinasty, goodbye life', ''fuck nationalism, fuck bush', 'you've got choice - temporarily - worship life', 'you've got truth': how about that?... Other sometimes equivocal songs of course make use of the ever more used Sept 11th aftermath samples of political speeches and the like... The lyrics save this record and really bring this record to a whole new level! Finally some creativity and intelligence at work!
"Pheromones" also includes a live track and a remix by Assemblage 23.

Wow! Most certainly one of best ambient-techno-electronica albums I have listened to in the past six to twelve months! Uros Umek is an internationally acclaimed and well respected Slovenian Dj whose credits include remixes for Speedy J, DJ Rush and Depoche Mode among others. "Neuro" is his first album as a "playing musician", rather than simply a spinner/mixer, and, even though I am not familiar with his former releases (somebody should punish me for that, considering he's released about sixty records on labels such as Tortured, Primate, Audio, Prime-Evil, Consumer Recreation, CLR, Monoid, Absence, Recycled Loops, Nova Mute etc), I am told that he took quite a radical turn towards electro that might confuse his straight forward techno fans (that is if they are less open minded than they should be)... Personally, I am down with Umek's new direction, all the way, and I can really appreciate the hard word he put into "Neuro". The techno element is still there of course, but twisted, treated, distorted and blended in with minimal electronic textures and ambient soundscapes... If you like Aphex Twin you must give the new Umek a shot! He too uses non-straight-up rhythmical patterns made of saturated and powerfully pounding kick drum beats. Everything's enriched by either fast high-pitched synth patterns or sweet, flowery and charming loops and retro' musical parts of intense melodic substance, exactly like Richard James likes doing. Colourful, rich, powerful, relaxing, hammering, hard and soft, all at the same time, with a mastery that is truly rare to be found! As a surprise grand finale for what is quickly becoming one of my favourite 'technolectro' albums of this year, "Neuro"'s last track "Neuropa Humbug" features guest appearance by the legendary Slovene Laibach, which by itself could be a reason to buy this for many die hard Laibach fans out there complaining that the band hasn't done much lately... Umek's collaboration with Laibach dares his party-going technoid fans with a totally EBM composition matched up with distorted ogreish vocal parts of obvious industrial roots. Just plain fucking great! The CD comes packaged nicely in a jewel case that slides inside a transparent plastic shell that has many converging circles printed. Go out and get your copy now (the CD is also available as a double LP)! At the time of writing the label's official website www.teh-nika.net seems to be unavailable, so in case the disservice persists you may check this address: www.nika.si/tehnika1/releases.html