When Love Spirals Downwards left off/disbanded, the last effort, "Flux" a masterpiece by all means,left us with a poppier,more upbeat version of ethereal. And like me, alot of people may have expected those influences to seep through. But with the new group,which appropriates the name change, new influences have come through, with a strong jazz element. To think of it this is like Billy Holiday with better vocals and more of a mood!
The first track, "Oh So Long" starts off with a sensual horn section and Anji Bee's masterful ethereal vocals, which go for mood and emotion,not a high pitch like alot of ethereal vocalists. She reminds me alot of the girl from Portishead a bit,but softer. As good as Suzanne Perry was, Anji Bee has her matched,though I would damn well love to see them do a song together. The rest of the album flows with a very controlled calm,very laid back and sensual.
Overall, I still like "Flux" better mostly because I have great memories with that CD,and soothed me in some bad times. But this is still a welcome shift of direction,and should please fans of both jazz, ethereal, and emotional folk music. And if you're looking for that CD for you and your lover to listen to under some candlelight,this is it!Very recommended. Rating: 9
P.S.,
Look for an interview with the group I'm conducting right now as we speak! And find out the shocking news on what has become of Suzanne Perry of Love Spirals Downward! You will never guess.Thanks to Anji Bee and Ryan for the CD!

Harsh dark German symphonic industrial in the vein of Neubauten, Laibach, Wumpscut, Hocico and The Young Gods. Das Ich follow a precarious balance between Industrial and Gothic as well as harmony and chaos. Pounding beats and classical strings meld in rhythm with Stefan Ackerman's gritty vocals. There is much here that would appeal the the Naubauten fan or any fan of German industrial as most of the lyrics are in German and the vocals are of a similar style to Blixa Bargeld on early Einstuerzende pieces. However, the music is much more modern and a bit less experimental as the compositions remind me much of Laibach. It smoothly combines hard industrial rhythms and percussion with classical strings and orchestral styled pieces as well as some heavy Gothic choir and ethereal overtones while utilizing bits of modern EBM to bring it all to the modern ear.

It looks like French musician Remy Pelleschi is becoming more prolific as the days go by. Another MF double CD has hit the streets packed in an astonishing folding digipack with great graphics... I don't know whatever happened to M-Tronic, but "Oxydes" is coming out on his own outlet Parametric and seems to be overall more pushing... The first of the two CDs contains new and original material. Pulsing Dive-like saturated power electronic patterns reinforced by semi-distorted disturbed industrial beats collide with Young Gods-like floating ethereal sampled sounds and occasional pads. The peace is mostly slower and almost mysterious, but truly powerful indeed. It feels like the beast is hiding and observing, but rarely attacking in full blast. However when it does, it happens the right way: brutal force, true industrial strength... Finally an album of today with sounds of today that even the old "real" industrial pioneers wouldn't be ashamed of. The chemical elements are still used as song titles. The second CD contains remixes by himself, Gom (trancey), Tarmvred (noisier), Milligramme (more prodigy-techno-like), Dither (going ambient/experimental), the great Mimetic (power noise-ish/ebm-ish) and Data Raper (more epic and new-industrial type). And what do we have here? \Remy also presented us with unreleased video tracks... There are four concert clips here that you can enjoy only if you have Quick Time 5.02 or later installed. Recorded with the same long-sleeve shirt in Liege, Cannes, Bordeaux and Lyon, the performances stay pretty true to the record and would be a lot more exciting if supported by some kind of additional visual aids such as videos, projections, special lighting etc (from that point of view Lyon's performance is probably the best, thanks to pounding trance-inducing almost Detroit/Jeff Mills-like techno, lots of slowly changing and filter-sweeped sounds and cool red over-lights and blue/green laser-like stage lights... too bad it seems like he's playing in a big place with very few people)...

DND is a recent Italian project who had self-produced 2 cdrs before having this work released by Spatter (in the usual DVD box and an edition of 100). Well, he may not have been active for long but this is really good shit, surely reaching the standards of a lot of big names out there. The cdr is opened by a tranquil ambient fragment just to smash everything a second later with an all-out attack of brutal noise. Harsh frequencies with that cold surgical touch given by digital equipment, and some structured rhythmic pattern here and there adding some frenzy to the chaos. I think this easily reaches the standards of Merzbow's late laptop noise production.

God, I thought this was another electro duo but no, luckily Novalis play dark folk. Songs tend to be good, with effective arrangements and sober playing - acoustic guitar, keyboards, some percussions and trumpet, and two voices alternating from track to track; at best, the production's similar to Death In June's "Rose clouds of holocaust", like in the opening track "Human". Influences logically embrace the good ole days World Serpent rooster (a lot of DIJ, some Sol Invictus and Fire + Ice in the more epic moments -like "Of the golden future time"-, a bit of Current 93), Swans ("What if", my favourite one), and unfortunately some gothic/wave slips in a couple of tracks ("Hey God", "Bloody") which are, in my opinion, the weakest of the whole work. I'd say the first half of the cd is really quite good, while the second one presents not that memorable songs. It must be a matter of tastes, but I wish Novalis stuck to folk ballads increasing traditional arrangements ("Von Traum", for example, has a great atmosphere for that) and dropping the goth influences that stiffen their sound.