Unusual DJ talent Cass continues his legacy of Spundea Presents Cass which features artists from the Spundea Recording label as well as the DJ's own talents of mix and composition. While there are other DJ mix compilations out there this one is unique in a few ways, one of which caught my attention was how Cass mixed his own Future Sound of Pornography, a track which he says is an ex-girlfriend (Miss Kiss) talking dirty to him with a bottle of wine in her hand, spread over tracks three through five creating an unusual mix event. Cass's style seems to be a lean in interests toward deep, progressive and tech-edged house, breakbeat and techno. Cass starts you off with a bit of minimalistic house music by Jeff Sharel then picks up the pace a bit with the Detroit styled track "Restless". This ends sort of dreamily but Cass gets the beats going with some overlaying into Bushwacka!'s "Smashed". This then bleeds into "Panikattack" by Plastikman which frankly I found while this is an excellent track, especially with Cass' additions from Miss Kiss it does not sound very much like what I'm use to Plastikman sounding like. The mixes on all these are so smooth you almost never know when you're going from one to the next where as most DJs 'pop' a track in Cass blends them seemlessly. By the way, the vocals by Miss Kiss are VERY explicit! Only an audiophile could capture something like this so nicely. "Panikattack" gets a bit trancy with some chaotic sounding beats with the Miss Kiss vocals overlayed on top of it. The tempo picks up again but with some nice ambient moods from Nu Mood Orchestra. "Microgroove" keeps somewhat the same tempo but is less ambient and more straightforward dance music. "Found" is driven mostly by it's bassline but is the type of track that I absolutely love to hear in those late night hours on the dancefloor when you get into that solid dance-trance that could go on endlessly. As for house music styles "Ladyshave" by Gus Gus is some great prog-house with traditional smooth house music vocal stylings. Cass brings back Bushwacka! to create a bit more of a pounding rhythm for us and increase the trance. I personally like all the ambient and additional stuff in the background. The main vocal sample reminds me of a 90's techno track by Awesome Three if I remember the name correctly. The bassline on "Because" sounds similar to the one we all know from The Matrix but more subtle. Some of the keyboard work later in the track sounds like something you might expect from Bill Leep of Delerium. "Backwards Retro" is driven by a vocal sample and some heavier keyboard work, a bit of an aside from most of the other tracks. "Please" is the best track on this side with some heavy house and I'm assuming the Marc Almond used here is the musical pieces which sound like his solo works which have that sort of 'musical' feel to it. This is also the most upbeat track and most interesting. Overall I find that this side contains lots of great music but which is too ambient and mellow - though dancey - for my taste for the dancefloor but then again I'm an EBM head. However, since I do like house, trance, and ambient quite a bit this is an excellent CD that runs smoothly and has lots of interesting switches which are masterfully compiled. Disc two begins quite a bit differently that the first with a very experimental electronica sound from Charlie May, half of Spooky. While it does have some ambient portions it continues with some harder beats and a much more upbeat atmosphere. This upbeat tempo continues with Dark Globe's "Mondo Scuro" which has some rather clever breakbeats. This track is much more to my personal tastes. Experimental with an element of chaos but maintianing a solid rhythm. This is followed by house music by Si Brad that has an interestingly experimental electronica sound, almost more like IDM-house with a touch of lounge if that's possible. "Moving With Me" continues the house style taking it a bit 'deep' with a bit of a dub flavor. "Shake It For Me" keeps the rhythm pumping. A very nice bump-n-grind with vocoded vocals, funky. "Be Wiz Me" still maintians the tempo driving us further into funk territory. It's got a very disco bassline. Still not dropping the tempo we move into more experimental techno territory with the hard driving "Locked In, Locked On" by Hairy Butter. This is sort of semi-hard beat trance with some trippy samples and noisy rhythms. "The Search" takes it down just a bit with some bizarre sci-fi sounding interludes so they can pump you back up again. The next one is by the DJ himself, Cass, performing "Mind Rewind" and contians some interestingly experimental interludes especially about three quarters of the way into the track where it practically disolves into synthetic noise and buzz tones with rather odd looping and effects but drops back in with a really nice dancefloor bump. "Spatialize" is by Excession which I understand is Grant Collins who was originally part owner of Fire. Great breakbeats and addictive dance rhythms. This is one of those tracks you can't help but move to and is rather non-genre-specific as far as electronic dance music goes. Awesome track! Next is "All The Freaks" by Cass & Slide which begins with a tripped out vocal sample of the song title and a truly funky bassline that would make Bootsy Collins proud. Disappointingly Cass ends with "The Game" which just doesn't have the power nor energy of the last two tracks but I'm assuming he wanted to break it down for us a bit before ending the release. This last track is some Deep Dish house music by B16. Overall Cass has produced an interesting CD set of some great underground dance sounds which takes you through various moods from the more laid back to the more upbeat. Definitely an interesting listen to say the least and practically a requirement for anyone into the undeground DJ music scene.

Two cd-rs, both dated 2001, from this experimental noise trio also responsible for many other projects (like V.) and collaborations spawning from the active Zeromoon headquarters. Second Violin is Adam Bohman (voice), Zan Hoffman (tapes, sampler) and Jeff Surak (prepared violin, the neck), aided on "Victoria" by Rinus Van Alebeek (probably responsible for the spoken parts in German). Both works share certain basic characteristics, though "Hospital Fugue..." is in my opinion more coherent and better assembled. SV have a quite original sound which is a blend of chaotic industrial noise, minimalism, ambient, impro and eclectic experimentation, sided by spoken/recited tracks. Manipulated string sounds and electronic loops often manage to create minimal, but well crafted pieces like the two "Dinner music on an empty stomach" ("First course" and "Second helping") on "Hospital Fugue..." - there's an hallucinated feel of gratuitous dada craziness throughout, which could remind (as a spirit, not as a precise sound) of some Nurse With Wound record. Sometimes the improvised parts become a bit tedious, though, as in "Victoria"'s last track, really really long and exceedingly solipsistic.

An anthologic double cd from the Garden, featuring singles and bonus tracks on cd1 and a live recording (Castle Rabenstein, Germany, 28-09-2001) on cd2. The latter has a perfect, crystal-clear sound, so it's probably the best way to listen to the band's blend of gothic and melodic rock - sort of Paradise Lost meets The Cult, with an emphasys on energy and catchy tunes. Comes with the usual esoteric layout, and information about the tracks.

An extremely mature and challenging cd-r from this Italian post-jazz-rock quartet (guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards). Comfort's instrumental tracks seem to strive between a solid, almost mathematic structure and liquid free-form detours, and the whole work benefits from this demanding and slightly cerebral quest for variation. Possible spiritual references (but bear in mind that Comfort actually sound like none of them) could be DK3, Don Caballero, Lounge Lizards, early Tortoise or Miles Davis in his electric period, and lots of soundtracks. "Cadillac" would be a perfect soundtrack for a noir movie, with its cinematic incipit, but also has impalpable atmospheric breaks, while "Lo spazio vellica" collapses its quasi-caraibic and reggae rhythms to an aggressive rock crescendo, then again to post-rock guitar dilutions. "Privilegio" is a melancholic bridge between silences and organ laments, re-building themselves in a jazzy melody; "Miriam Raving" starts with gentle impro guitar pickings but evolves into a square rhythm. "Lidia" is gloomy and obsessive, crossed by electronic shivers and lost in a paranoid solipsism. But these are mostly partial and impressionistic descriptions, since every track is more of a microcosm with often sudden - though well balanced - changes of tempos, styles and moods; it would take pages to describe the entire work with accuracy. Really one of the best Italian projects in this field, and I do hope that some label officially releases these tracks, because they're excellent.

The Laine Gebel's one-mand band "Ex Nihilo" has a total retrospective conception, completely focused on the electro-goth fisrt school born between the half and end of the 80's from the wedding of the Christian Death's macabre perversion with the DAF and Nitzer Ebb's first synthetic pulsations. So you will find grandiose keyboards cascades, possessed and wicked voices, deacadent melodic bass lines and all other classic ingredients that made the history of this genre. It's a pity that the production has a poor quality, because although the album is not original and fossilized on old ideas however it sounds enjoyable, funny and sufficiently various. I prefere when Ex Nihilo hit on the accelerator, reaching the emphasis of the furious EBM and approaching the Hocico's devilish attitude. Surely i think this cd is more appreciable and honest than several releases of idolized and famous EBM bands that make up a perfect hit single for the charts and then repeat the same versus for ten songs!