After ten years of activity and five albums, the duo formed by Patrice Synthea (vocals & live keyboards) and Wrex Mock (programming, vocals, synths, guitar,live percussion and woodwinds) decided to celebrate the event by giving their music to several other artists which produced a massive amount of music. All those tracks filled two versions of REGENERATED X: one released as a double CD in Europe by Alfa Matrix (their new label since 2001) containing 14 remixes and 14 remastered tracks and the other one released as a single disc by Archetype Multimedia. I've received a copy of the latter and it contains sixteen tunes of which eleven are exclusive to this version. Bands like Razed In Black, Assemblage 23, Front 242, Observe & Control, Bigod 20, Clan Of Xymox, Lights of Euphoria, Epsilon Minus and Attrition (to name few) give their interpretation of Regenetor classics such as "Blink", "Take Me", "Everyone Follow", "Faith", Archetype", "Lightbringer", "Organism", "Shores Of Forever". "Archetype", etc. Every remixed version tend to explore / exploit the dance vein of each track characterizing them with e.b.m., synthpop or trance moments (only Vultures did a version of "Wirklisheit" using ambient, industrial and e.b.m. all together). If you are a fan, this release is worth the purchase.

I already had the chance to listen to Grand Chaos music with their mini "Pelerin" released back in 2000 but this one is much better and sees the project grown. This new limited and not for sale release titled LA FORGE sees Grand Chaos dealing with a mixture of early electronics/industrial. "Electro Troop", "Density", "Anyangelanyvoice", "If You Need" and "Groundlight" are five minimal tunes and sound like a cool mixture of early Die Form mixed D.A.F. Ivanovitch Tcheleskov is the only man behind the project and I've got to say that he's got a good taste producing a mini full of tension and cool atmospheres. Contact him and persuade him to sell you this release. Absolutely nice!

Trespassers W are a Dutch band with too many albums under their belt, we lost the count. Trespassers W travel across labels, they are crafty and intelligent trespassers. They sing mostly in English, they use all the instruments they deem useful for expression, a true variety orchestra. They not only engage with music, they engage with ideas and should be not only heard but listened to. "Sex and the end of it" delves into some choice moments and icons of 20th century sexuality, both legendary (Josephine Baker) and everyday, mundane anecdotes of sexual pleasure: Fifties’ Dutch housewives ogling at the ice-cream man passing in the street while their men are at work, barmaids ready for a pick-up in the sexually-charged male bar culture, sexual escapades among ordinary, un-heroic couples in ordinary Halifax... Trespassers W have a talent for accurate detail and look at everyday culture (especially their own, or European and Western history in general) with an ironic consciousness of its historical fragility. Maybe this explains also their loving, sometimes nostalgic glance at our past. Sex not only tangles men and women in all combinations, but also men and women with objects and representations sexually filled with pleasure and imaginary anticipation. Therefore we have songs on sex toys ("Newly in stock"), bananas and double-entendres ("Bananalities"), fetishes ("Stiletto" click-clacking with high heels), sex jokes, visual images (a nude painted by Tamara de Lempicka of a woman reclining in a green Bugatti). Was this the sex that gave birth to us, too? Are we the children of this 20th century sex? If this is so, Trespassers W are right to be curious and enquiring, because after all we were born, happily or unhappily, out of those fantasies. "The end" of sex might mean both the purpose of sex, and the end of a certain history of sex. "Cyberporn revolution" hails a potential new era of pornography: "Porno was a man’s boot on a woman’s neck ... the solution is for women to make porn of a better sort". Having said that, what does the music of Trespassers W sound like? "Sex and the end of it" follows different styles as usual, according to the atmospheres suggested by the songs: there are rockier moments, but the overall impression is one of flexible eclecticism, complex moods. You can take it as a film score, with different songs as in a musical. Sometimes it is sung, at other times half-spoken half-sung. It is not an album that overwhelms you, takes you in, rather, if you are disposed to listen to it a few times.

This is the first time I've listened to an album of Depeche Mode covers without constantly comparing the original to the new version, and I don't think that in this case the reason is because Brian's voice is similar to Martin's. Instead, I think that the only thing we are dealing with in this case is: talent. The fact that Depeche Mode has always been a reference point for Brian's music isn't a mystery (his "Ponytail Girl" has been taken as one of the Exciter songs on Napster and it's still present on some Basildon boys bootlegs) but in this case it's like the opposite has come true: it's like there's Color Theory into DM tunes and this is an amazing effect, as the eleven songs take a deep breath of fresh air living a new life with Brian's arrangements. Everywhere you can find new melodic lines, different intros ("I Want You Now", "Sister of Night", "I Am You", "Surrender", "One Caress" and the dance version of "Leave in Silence" are the most evident cases) and everything sounds so natural. It's like the songs had been written originally that way. This isn't absolutely an album for fans only but it's the evidence of the value of this project. Brian did it right and if you want to do yourself a pleasure you'll get this gem!

As anticipated on the Ninthwave website months ago, the "I Am Gothic Remix Project" as been released and it's a really interesting one. Along with four new Spray tunes it presents to the audience ten new bands that took the challenge of remixing the track starting from the files they downloaded directly from the label's website. Even if the CD is catalogued as a mini it has got a massive amount of music for a total of 76 minutes! Let's talk first about the band's tracks: their 2003 remix version of the main title takes form from the original version giving to it a techno revisitation. The techno influence doens't end with the first tune as "It's all in the drums" takes inspiration from New Order's "Blue Monday" (for the drum patterns and for some bass lines) just to make of it a pumping 80's techno tune. "He Came With The Frame" with the following "The Story Of My Life Is An FX Showreel" and "Whizz For Atoms" keep the dance approach alive but with synthpop melodies. As a general comment, the new tracks seem to be more driving and pumping and that's good... Now let's pass to the ten remixers. First comes the "Back To The Expanded Mono Mix" by The Electroluvs (an good basic eletro version) followed by the "FMU Club Mix" by FMU-Frederik Andersson (which bring us catchy techno ambient version). As third remixer we find Syntetik Fm which mix the original track with Bach giving to both a digital revisitation. Following is the "OccuMix" remix by Occupant (good remix that doesn't change that much the original touch of the track but at the same time Occupant makes of it his own creature), "Virtually Gothic" by the label mates Xero/G (a really weird version which makes of it a distorting vocoder festival with ambient backgrounds), "Don't Like Your Bands Mix" by Raindancer (I already listened to some of his stuff and I liked it just like this electro version), "Synomatic Mix" by Synomatik (excellent version with good sounds. It makes you wanna know more about this project), "Low Technicians Mix" by Technicians (the only version that gives to the tracks an ebm touch), "Absorb Mix" by Absorb Projects (really good techno remix with driving bass sounds). The last one is the "Trance-endental" remix version by Astromill which mix trance, synthpop and electro in a good way. Maybe a little long with its seven minutes and half lenght, but good. Wow, end of the review, at last... After all this, don't tell me you ain't going to give it a listen, ok? :)