Dutch band Smalts formed 20 years ago with a line up that included three members of their original band Minny Pops (whose material will be re-issued on UK LTM label shortly) plus a new drummer and that is still the same line up today. "It's Good to be on a well-run Ship" is a concept album dedicated to the victims of two years ago tragic and controversial disaster of Russian submarine Kursk and their families. The entire CD booklet is written in both English and Russian and comes with pictures of the sub, victims and mourning families. Musically they move between psychedelic electronic and post wave vanguard rock inspired by their former band, the Residents, the Legendary Pink Dots, Velvet Underground, Vadergraaf, Studio Pagol, Pink Floyd, Barry Adamson, Brian Eno and so forth... You'll find apocalyptic atmospheres engraced by ethnical percussions (track 5), introspective pinkish experimental vocal-centered acoustic ballads (1, 3, 13), almost out of context ethno-dub (2), electronic floors with ethnic passages (4, 8, 12), typcally Russian-inspired music with Russian words (6), very modern eastern-flavored electro-acoustic suites (7, 11), modern folk music soaked into electronic music and treated as dub music (9), interesting and challenging blends of blues-inspired funktronics (10). Very variegated and eclectic album with a noble intent and a theme that deserves more attention and more action than what has been done (or better say, not done...).

Misterious project coming from the Amon/Never Known's personal label, AFE Records. Famous for releasing high collectable and limited CDr albums AFE involved the misterious duo (even if I've got some ideas about who they are) into an important project consisting in two releases. The first has been their first album titled MUSIC FOR YOUR HOLIDAYS and the latter is the colossal "Teddy Bear Remix Project" which consisted into a boxset of four CDs ltd. to 100 numbered copies with pro-printed artwork and gadgets. It contains 64 versions of Wolkspurz & Ramirez's original title track created by some 60 musicians and djs from all over the world and covers each and every known (...and unknown...) style of electronic music from Synth-Pop to Click'n'Cuts through Ambient, Noise, Minimal Electronica, Computer Music, Techno, etc. All this for a total playing time of over 280 minutes. "Teddy Bear" is the only song with vocals of the whole album and it's a synthpop track with a touch of melancholy. The other fourteen tracks are electronic extravaganza influenced by twenty years of analog experimentation. Something that goes to early Kraftwerk to modern techno passing through launge and Jean Micheal Jarre's music. Tracks like "Move Your Feet" crawl insidious between insane melodies and dark atmospheres just to leave the place giving space to the 60's atmospheres a la Peter Gunn of "Grune Zwiebeln". Each track has got something different from the other ones and explore new genres remaining loyal to the duo's style. If you are looking for something different to listen to, Wolkspurz And Ramirez are here to stay. Check the label's website to taste their music.

Alfa-Matrix offers a 4 in 1 concept of 4 CD singles on one full-length disc. Strictly limited to 2000 copies this release features singles by Aïboforcen, Epsilon Minus, Plastic Noise Experience, and Hungry Lucy from the Alfa-Matrix catalogue. While this is a unique format it seems to be an excellent way for a label to introduce their artists to new listeners and give something unique to fans outside the standard compilation album format and get more people to buy the singles, possibly. Aïboforcen stategically position themselves in the new generation of EBM fans with a combination of energetic rhythms and melodic female vocals. Here we have the "Testing New Waters" single, four tracks one of which features a mix by ArtOfFact Records' Headscan. Recommended tracks would be "Give Me These Wings" which features a bit of male vocal too and the Headscan mix which adds a bit or a darker feel with some trance elements to the song. Epsilon Minus, based in Canada, start with "Through" in which the vocals are very smooth and match the EBM-Trance/Synthpop based music texture perfectly. The "Freedom" mix by Angels & Agony has a bit of the latter band's musical elements and a slight lean toward minimalist synthpop. In all honesty the vocals are bit weak only in the first portion of the track but as the music builds to more of club-based rhythm the vocals are much stronger as is the track overall. That however is my only criticism for Epsilon Minus as Jenn's vocals kick on most tracks as she has a great voice with enough power and sensuality for this type of music format. This is extremely evident with the next track which is mixed by Massiv In Mensch, another ArtOfFact Records artist that rocks this genre. Lastly, we have the album mix of "Through" which is a bit quicker paced, an excellent song. Next on the list is Plastic Noise Experience who begins with "Clean Head", a track with lots of Noise elements but with a pulsing dance beat and harsh whispery vocals. A bit more hard-edge and dark than the previous artists Plastic Noise Experience show another side of Alfa-Matrix. PNE is Claus Kruse whose compositions are more of an EBM-Industrial format. Alfa-Matrix describes him as, "harsh vocals and a very distorted type of sounds with virulent vibrating melodies", which is right on target. This single also includes remixes of the same track by Pzycho Bitch and Implant. The Implant mix is a bit cleaner and more of an aggro flavor while the Pzycho Bitch mix takes us in the exact opposite direction with a slower pace and more of a Power Noise rock-n-rhythm. The other track by PNE is Mechanical Beatz which reminds me of old SPK with the female vocals similar to the more operatic stuff by Die Form. Lastly, is Hungry Lucy, a sort of trip-hop gothic EBM in which Christa's vocals are very smooth and harmonious and the beats throb with a rhythm you can't help but move to. I love that 'twisty' electronic sound in the first track "Her Song". One of these days I'm gonna figure out how that's done (War-n?). War-n does some amazing synth work on this project that utilizes many genre elements to help create a totally unique sound in my book. Everything from Techno, Euro-pop, Synthpop, Industrial, Gothic, EBM, Trip-Hop, and of course a host of other club styles meld together smoothly in this interesting project. Haunting and danceable at the same time - love it! "Fearful" features mixes by Aïboforcen (my fave mix on this one) and Implant. The song "Storm" drops us back into more of trip-hop feel likened to Portishead with vocals as smooth as Tori Amos and music with a dark/ethereal dance beat. Alf-Matrix brings some great new and original works to light in this first of the Sqaure Matrix series!

This is not your average Warp release, so don't expect complex futuristic electronic textures or stuff like that, and that's mainly because it is a soundtrack to the new film from independent director Lynne Ramsay (Cannes' aficionados might remember Prix du Jury winners "Small Deaths" and "Gasman" or internationally acclaimed "Ratcatcher"). It's a little awkward to dive into a movie soundtrack when you haven't seen the movie, especially when, like in this very case, the music is complementary to the visuals. Every song is an integral part of the film that enhances the sensory experience of the scene you are currently looking at. The movie (from an adaption of an Alan Warner novel) tells the story of Morvern Callar (interpreted by Samantha Morton), a woman who looks for life and excitement in the club scene but then drifts away from that in search for more and in doing so travels from Scotland to Spain. Trips and traps are accompanied by music from mainly the seventies and the nineties (with a couple of pieces from the decade in between). Experimental, introspective, surreal, flowery and dark at the same times, the fourteen compositions give you an idea of the variety of emotions the film carries with it... As I said earlier, expect less electronics and more experimental wave approach, with a line up that includes Can, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Stereolab, The Velvet Underground, Broadcast, Gamelan Drumming, Holger Czukay, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood and Ween. The musical voyage is appealing and what I read about it sounds interesting, so be on the lookout for this film (let's hope that the IFC Independent Movie Channel will soon show this fine European production on the other side of the ocean). The movie was released two days ago, on the 1st of November, and Warp's soundtrack CD will be released tomorrow, November, the 4th. For more info about the movie go to www.allianceatlantisfilms.com

Russian laptop artist Coh (which means "sleep" in Ivan Pavlov's native language) became a name know to the scenes with his 1998 release on Carsten Nicolai's Raster Noton records. Throughout the years he did pretty much stick to Raster, to Austrian Mego records and to Idea records, plus a couple of detours, among which a collaboration with two Coil members that came out on Coil's label Eskaton. Sleepy is one thing Ivan and his electronic-noise music is not and makes you not. His laptop drives out warm, textured, wrapping and atmospheric electronics. Noise is pumping throughout the entire and only track of this almost fourty minutes long CD but it is not fiercely scratching your insides, like some noise records do, or unconsciously and caninely caressing the top shelf of your hearing capabilities, like other glitch music records do. In this "Mort Aux Vaches" (recorded in 1999 for his Paradiso, Amsterdam, live set and issued with a wood-looking plastic wrap-around cover) Ivan sets noise in motion and keeps it rolling under the surface serving as a floor of wilderness, above the surface as a reminder of the power that lies beneath or in the middle of it all as the natural origin of all sonic creations and of all throbbing rhythmics. Overall murky but raw and Sevenish I highly recommend this record for those who enjoy creative laptop artists and can appreciate the departure from the usual improvised buzzing, hissing, glitching material and the approach of rather well thought out and designed musical structures where electronics teams up with all of the above to reach for a higher level...