Lost Signal is Charles Rehill at vocals, lyrics, programming and composition; this cd also features Tom Shear (Assemblage 23) at production, mixing and additional programming, and Mads Fogt (Arzt+Pfusch) at digital mastering. The production is actually very well done, with clear and powerful sounds. Lost Signal plays a blend of pounding and aggressive (but not monotonous) electro beats, some ethereal synth/keyboards layer and clear, unfiltered vocals delivering some personal, existentialist lyrics. There's a constant presence of multi-layered beats and catchy melancholic tunes, like in "Apathy", which sort of draws a line between Lost Signal and the tons of heavier, but rougher electro acts.

Alfa Matrix is a relative new label which is linked to the well known electro magazine Side Line. This compilation starts a new concept of gathering four different CD singles together and sell them at a normal CD price. In this way you get sixteen tracks, you've got a deeper idea of the label's bands and you save some money. I liked the idea which I think is also useful to present to the audience new bands just to test them. On this first issue we find Aibforcen, Epsilon Minus, Plastic Noise Experience and Hungry Lucy. The first two bands play a mixture of e.b.m., synthpop with techno inserts and female vocals (personally I don't like that much the effect because it's too dancey and lolita voices tend to annoy me). Plastic Noise Experience is powerful as always and "Clean Head" (here present in three versions alon with "Mechanical Beatz") is a good tense industrial track which confirms the value of this project. A note: better the original version respect the Implant and Pzycho Bitch even if this last created something really interesting slowing down a little the rhythm and exceeding with the distorted rhythms. Hungry Lucy are more mellow respect the first two bands, a little more synthpop and the tracks are catchy but, I'm sorry, I don't really dig these fairy female voices: they tend to sound the same while a personal voice could improve a lot a band's sound.

Spellgate is a project whose sole aim seems to be to create music of fantasy and imagination. Every song is based on a storyline which they claim will span through subsequent releases. All the music is synthesized and they claim it has the speed and power of metal music and is called synth metal but I personally don’t see this at all really. To me it sounds like epic styled synth works and there are no metal sounds, styles or anything in my opinion at all. It seems that their previous works were known under the name Chivalra, at least the musical aspects by Darynlard. Dosashlia is the vocalist and the two entities seem rather well matched. Both artists have been composing for at least five years before they came together it seems. Vocally the only comparable similarity I can think of is Kate Bush. Musically there is a bit of range just from the first to the second track. The first track is very epic sounding and the second very dark and the supposed ?metal’ elements I can ?almost’ see but only in the rolling drumlins and the grinding synth pieces. The last piece is just plain happy synth music sort of like the pop-like New Age stuff that has dance beats and sing-songy melodies and rhythms. With only three tracks to judge from I’m not sure what I think of this project. I like the concept but since there are no lyrics in the inlay it will take some time for me to figure out the story scenarios. Also in all honesty the vocal style is not personally appealing to me, style-wise, however the singer does have a talented voice. While I’m curious to find out how this project progresses, especially to figure the story as it develops, I don’t think this is something that would be in my normal listening stack.
*NOTE: You can view the lyrics at the band’s website.

Active since 1995 Terminal Choice passed through different phases from the early industrial e.b.m. of "Totes Fleish", "In The Shadow Of Death" and "Khaosgott" 'til the late nineties club friendly guitar e.m.b. A lot of fans didn't dig how Terminal Choice's music changed. Personally I think that "Navigator" and "Venus" are good records even if the last E.P. "Collective Suicide" disappointed me. Anyway, let's talk about this live CD. BURIED A-LIVE is a collection of eleven tracks recorded directly from the mixer (or at least the sound is that one) during 2001/2002 live gigs. If you love the later sounds of the band you won't disappointed even if the recording doesn't catch the power of the gig indeed. Along with a video of "Der Schwarze Mann" live in Leipzig you can find eleven tracks: "Armageddon", "Collective Suicide", "Time", "Sons Of Doom", "The Saviour", "Castles In The Sky", "Der Schwarze Mann", "New World", "Deathfuck", "Someone" and "Dämonen".

This release is an independent release not for sale anywhere that I know of and is a collection of 83 unnamed tracks ranging between nine seconds to over six minutes in length. The music is composed by Kevin Schlueter and this solo project was started in 1999 when he was fifteen. From the outset it is an interesting collection of works combining ambient, atmospheric and noise elements. All electronic in origin and ranging from ambient beats and dark and moody atmospheres to heavy industrial pounding grinds, this proves to be some truly interesting pieces. Thoroughly experimental this is not for the timid or conservative type. The nine second tracks seem to be simple spacers (beginning at track 19) for a ?hidden’ track only a minute and a half in length (track 66). The remaining tracks are also spacers. All in all there is only about 35 minutes or so of actual audio on this CD-R release. There are no actual compositions per se as all the works seem to be completely experimental noise and ambience in nature. I’d like to see this artist create longer pieces to see where his creative mind would take him and I wonder why most of these are so short. In fact my only real gripe about this is that the pieces are too short and thus to not elaborate on their theme or have time for more variance. If the artist decided to put out more and longer pieces I think they would have an easier time getting people to listen to them as what he has done thus far is actually rather creative and would highly appeal to the eclectic and noise genre fans. According to the information sent with this CR-R Vehemence 6.2 will be releasing a ?split CD’ titled Maybrick soon so we’ll see what develops. This particular release will also be available as a limited tape edition with new material through Christcrusher Productions.