OK, on a personal side note before the review... ... ... ... .. We have almost all either experienced cancer or someone who has gone through it. And anyone who has seen either can tell you the biggest burden oftentimes is the financial costs that lie underneath for treatment and radiation, often leaving the patients dangling between being cured and being left homeless. This CD is a charity to help the Minnesota Oncology Hematology Foundation, a foundation which helps patients of cancer maintain a normal life while going through the treatments. The girl on the cover was saved by the foundation from homelessness and certain death. And she is stunning to put it simply, and she is beyond gorgeous! Any person would would leave her homeless must be made of stone.
On to the music now! The CD starts off with none other than Black Tape For A Blue Girl and their track "Kinski" named after the infamous actor Klaus Kinski (don’t ask me the connection I’d like to know myself!), who happens to be my fave actor. After seeing Mira in concert and hanging out with the guys, I’ve opened up a lot more to their music after being curious for a while. "Open In Silence" seems to toss away any Slowdive comparisons and is a mark of maturity to me. Audra is a band that’s growing and to me still is to reach their potential. The new CD seems a step in the right direction. By the next CD I guarantee you may just see a milestone in the goth scene, which dearly needs it. I like their new-found narrative lyrical style, though. Now onto Voltaire’s "Vampire Club"! Needless to say I fucking love this track and is a great spoof much of the goth club scene needs! I love this guy’s humor too, very Johanne Vasquez style. Some of the other highlight’s include LoveSpirals and Unto Ashes (two fun bands to interview),with some familiar tracks. I also have fallen in love with Mors Syphilitica, but this is the only other song I’ve ever heard people play in clubs and on compos. The lady singer’s voice is pure heaven, floating between operatic and ethereal without falling into the usual "I’m gonna hit the high notes like Liz Frazier" trap. And the guitar just smooth and gliding, very silky and mixing with the vocals perfectly. They are definitely going on my X-Mas list this year!
Good CD, good cause, in short. And this association may well end up helping you or someone you love one day, and plus it’s a good intro to the Projekt style of music. Plus at 3.95 what better are you going to buy? If you want to make a donation directly to the society, the address is: The Minnesota Oncology Hematology Foundation,405 Piper Building,800 East 28th Street,Minneapolis,MN 55407.
For further info call Margie Sborov at 1-612-863-8751.

Ahhhhh, X-Mas... . The smell of pinecones roasting on the fire (or something like that. Or was it elves?hell toss them in there too), people unwrapping gifts with materialist glee, and religious banter, as I shut my cranky atheistic self into my room for cover. You can tell I hate X-Mas, and I’m not a cheery one to have around the house at that time of year, but this CD is something good to come out of it, and the series in general. Projekt has always been music made for winter time and it shows why this is my choice music to listen to on a nice winter day inside.
Lovespirals kicks in with their special brand of babymaking music. I can’t help it, everything this bands sings and plays sounds so kinky and sensual, but still so classy! And it is the first time I’ve heard someone sounding dead on like Liz Frazier without being a knockoff. Frolic also sounds divine as usual, this time bringing the vocals back to the front. Their last CD was one you could easily fall into, especially if you’ve got nature around, and was one of my favorite CD’s of last year. Faith and Disease sound strangely serene on their take of "Silver and Gold", not like their usual dark selves. Miribalis is pretty good. Summer Bowman and Dru make a good pair dueting, work very nicely together (it's currently a full blown project as well that's just signed up on Middle Pillar), each one stepping aside to give the other a chance. I like the last song of Lynn Canfield (the girl from Curve, I believe)*, "Let your Sister Pet The Kitty Too", it’s half Super Mario music and Lynn singing about gifts and cats as well. It’s playful which is odd to hear from a Projekt CD, but knowing Sam and all them they can be a playful bunch as well.
I hate the holidays and I hate everything about it, but even for the many out there like me who feel the same way you’ll love it too. So hang a reindeer (or is that a mistletoe?) and grab some eggnog and have some fun with this one.

*Sam pointed out to me that Lynn Cannfield is the singer of Moon Seven Times and Area, not the singer for Curve. Oopsy daisy! I apologize about the mistake! Both look and sound very familiar so I got confused!

ASYLUM is an Italian project headed by Dario Sisto and RATTUS IN SANGUINE is his third demo after 1999's "Ploratus" and 2000's "Vox Silenti". By listening the eleven tracks of this CDr the first thing that comes to my mind is that Dario recorded these tracks impulsively caring most about the effect than thinking about the final effect. It seems that he did these tracks being fascinated by early S.P.K., nowadays e.b.m. and industrial music but he forgot to give a form to his project. What I mean is that it's difficult for me to understand what's going on with him by reading only titles like "Barbie Trip", "Everybody's Dead" or "Lesbo Sado Dance". In this way there's a lack of communication and even if some atmospheres and sounds of his instrumental tracks are quite interesting (tracks like "Everybody's Dead", "Dead Stars Light" or the electronic "Human Model"), the listener can find hard to approach Asylum's work and it's a shame because Dario, in my opinion, could give a shape to his ideas and create something really interesting. A particularity of this demo is that it seems to be a split between two different bands. This because the first six tracks are totally different from the other five which show the influence of bands like Kraftwerk (see also the industrial version of "The Model" that closes the CD).

This CD is the most schizophrenic album I listened recently, for sure! The twenty two tracks of so called "breakz / elektro / experimental" music are full of inventiveness and freshness and are capable of catch your attention in a second. Each track seems to have been composed by a deranged robot while he was trying to perform "Radioactivity" being on acid. Also the r'n'r reverbered/distorted guitar on some tracks plays slowed goth/surf tunes while electro bleeps jumps here and there. It's a shame I haven't got any news about the guy who did all this and also his webpages at www.nnt.edu.gr and www.iroiro.gr aren't reachable: it's a total mistery. Listening to "C/My Documents / My Music" it's like to listen to the whole Warp records discography pouring out of a blender having a genial cowboy as barman. Give a listen to this one if you are searching for new stimulating weird delicatessen.

Lately a lot of bands from the Middle-East are coming out and have things to say. Based out it Warren, Michigan, this four piece comes from most respectable experiences, including the amazing Orange 9mm, and gives tangible proof of their expertise with a blasting ProTools-engineered 10 tracks industrial metal record that finally kicks some ass!!! Their self-produced and self-released "Amplified Fragments" brings you electro sequencing with dance stylings, pounding industrial rhythms, gothic pad melodies and most importantly a huge compressed crunchy distorted wall of sound of electric guitars (no wonder Orange 9mm is part of their background). You may go right ahead and compare them to early KMFDM, some Ministry, definitely a lot of Headcrash (for the usage of guitars), and most definitely Die Krupps (one of my favourite bands - now DKay.com), Alien Sex Fiend and others. It is safe to say that these guys have the talent and the right cards to become major players in the electro-metal scene, where lack of fresh and original material has been taking over in the past few years. I have been looking for a new powerful abrasive aggro-industrial group for a while and I may just have found it with Firewerk, at least in part. Being a huge fan of that particular branch of the genre I feel that they can do even better, but I say so not with disappointment, but rather with excitement and expectations for what I am positive will be a great follow up record. I am really looking forward to this one!