Seven 13, previously known as Coven 13, were initially known for their gothic-pagan structure. In broadening their spectrum and becoming more open to alternative spiritual perspectives they have changed their name to Seven 13 to represent the balance and unity evident in their music. While always about the love and magic of life their music has a rock-ballad tone to it. Passionate and dark they open this release with the song "Drink" which is purposely vague about it's focus. The complimentary video which the band is sending with purchases for this CD leaves me with one main thought and two words, 'Acid Flashback'. The video is very cleanly produced and is filmed with that same liquid look and evidence of tracers that LSD can give you. Combined with the red and blue stage lighting the effect is only hightened while Kenneth Michael sings, "take a look and you'll see nothing is quite as it seems, reality, reality." All I know is this combined with the strong vampiric overtones and personal passion make this a powerful live video. Drugs, Vampires, Spirituality? The band leaves you to guess on this one. Fans of the band will recognize "Haunted" from their previous album Book of Shadows however the performance here is a bit stronger and harder than the original. Seven 13 is obviously after a theatrical response here. This was one of my favorites from the previous album and it is not repetitive here in the least but redone with more impact. This is a song which brings to mind the imagery of one driven mad by the light of the moon. With this and the newer track "Outcasts" as well as others the band deftly portrays how smoothly they combine piano melodies with rock rhythms and guitar while other tracks combine acoustics with electronic guitar such as "Whenever You Close Your Eyes". This seems to be a song about not letting go of hatred and jealousy and the lonliness that it brings. Such is the case with many songs by Seven 13, a bittersweet lesson in life. "Venus" seems to be the prime love song on the album. "If You Want Me" is a 70's rock grind with a small twist. Seven 13 as you'll note combines many elements of 70's rock ballads as most every track is fuzed with rock heavy guitar, tinkling piano keys, and melodramatic vocals whose lyrics could only be compared to a theatrical Steve Perry with pagan and gothic overtones. However Kenneth's vocals are a bit more gutteral and strained at times as he belts out the band's unusually etheric rock anthems. "Diane" is a love/hate relationship. Something I really found enjoyable was the inclusion of Cello on "You Could Be Mine" by Jacob Shaprio. "Falling" ends the album with it's lustfull desire that leads to loss of self. Seven 13 / Coven 13 is the type of band you either really like what they are doing and you understand it or you simply aren't interested and find it as nothing more than nearly childish theatrics. The band has acquired a bit of polish since the last release and I think they are on to something unique and personally I'm one of those who likes them. Musically it's not my favorite style of music but there is some obvious talent here which is continually growing with time. For those who don't like them, well keep watching them, they are sure to do some interesting and amazing things in the future. The band is full of great ideas which are not always easy to pull off, the most difficult is will the audience get it, some do and some don't. The only disappointment I may have with them is they seem to have lost some of their spiritual focus and are more focused on the elements of sexuality. Also, while understanding why they changed the name I don't see it necessary and only further confusing for fans and will make them look a bit 'watered down' to many older pagans. However, with all that in mind the main single "Drink" and accompanying video are a sure sign that the band has much to express and we can expect them to continue expansively in the future. Lastly, love that Jack shirt Justin! ;-)

As if we didn't have enough pseudo-priests trying to evangelize us in this world oppressed by Christianity (and other religions), Anatoly Pereslegin's second release (composed, arranged and performed in Jerusalem, Israel; while edited, recorded and mixed in Moscow, Russia) brings you some more words from the Book, precisely from David's psalms (Anatoly even thanks David, for the inspiration I guess). If I try real hard to put aside my bias against Christianity and the lies of the beautiful tales that the bible tells, I will tell you that we are dealing with an interesting electronic neo-classical album with somewhat medieval influences and an experimental approach to the blend of the ingredients. Looped sequences, churchy synthesized sounds, soft string pads holding long chords, organs playing lines, harpsi-chord-like sounds playing fast sequences repeating forever, heavenly bells punctuating high chords or creating intertwined textures in the background and ghostly synth voices are the main sounds you will hear, but this record is made unique by the addition of a cello (Alexander Zagorinskiy) playing sad but lovely melodies and by the tenor and baritone vocal performances by Ivan Jmaev and Yuriy Valenkov, respectively... The nine tracks (with awfully long titles, taken from the bible itself) will take you into a decadent vortex of claustrophobic and dark atmospheres that, if anything, will make you think about hell rather than paradise, which gives it a weird twist, considering the used lyrics's origin. Very discomforting, sombre and nightmarish, tonal dark paranoia, rather than solar, this is not church music or anything like that, to me it's more like the soundtrack for a trip through eastern Europe's regions forgotten by god or, alternatively, a Roman Polanski or a William Friedkin movie.

«Deusexmachina - a denouement which occurs as a consequence of unexpected situation. Sometimes in a scope of antique tragedy the denouement happens after interferation of a god, which appears on stage as mechanical figure (with help of machine)»: this is the definition of the famous latin words that Lithuanian Anatanas Jasenka provides on his first CD on ElectroShock records: 55 minutes that for some weird unexplainable reason are divided into 10 tracks on the cover but only into 3 tracks on the actual CD - 55 minutes of noise ranging from ambient noise to industrial noise. As a matter of fact, if you think about what Electroshock roster of artist is like, it's not easy to file Jasenka in their catalogue. A record like this would probably look better on the shelves of Ant Zen, Staalplaat, Multimood, Drone or other similar labels. But regardless of that, if you are vaccinated for harsh noise but that's not all your are looking for, don't miss out, listen to this as you may find a number of new dimensions usually left unexplored by those who perform the most extreme arts of sound. In fact, even though occasional bursts of violence are part of the wide range of moods to be found, this CD represents much more than just another Masonna album. It's a complete composition of compositions, composed by blasting decomposed sounds and very quite composite noise. For example, beautiful ambience with manipulated and reversed vocals on soft ethereal string-like grounds are to be found at the other end of the spectrum as well. My only discontent is about the length of the tracks, even though the evolution takes place slowly, it is a little too slow at times, in my humble opinion. In other words, dynamism is key here, so be patient and let yourself in on some multifaceted noise art.

Funny coincidence, I am in Italy while reviewing this 74 minute long CD by an Italian sound sculptor/manipulator (whose name is Gianluigi Gasparetti), released on the Russian label Electroshock; not only that, but in a shameless display of my ignorance I will admit you that I had never before heard about this man and his project, even though I lived in Italy for over 15 years and I started Chain D.L.K. in Italy, in the mid nineties. Oophoi is the first non-Russian project to see the light (in this case maybe the blue light) on Electroshock records. Anyway, once I got over my shame, I dove into the deep surrounding drones of "Bardo", a concept album about the six states of Bardo, which, from what I understand from the liner notes of the inside cover, is related to the Tibetan meditation and the Buddhist beliefs about transitory states of body and mind. The four tracks illustrate the first four of these intermediate states (Meditation, Course of Death, After-Death and Rebirth within Samsara) and original language was used to name the tracks as well. "Bardo"'s long masterpieces of rapturing spirituality can easily get you really close to meditation with its deep roaring sounds and the sombre yet peaceful soundscapes made of low-end choruses sounding like Tibetan choirs one or two octave down, eternal electronics, infinite synth pads, treated percussions, sporadic calm gongs and more. Tibetan singing bowls and flutes are to be heard, but everything, like Bardo itself, is in a state of passage, like not delineated, airy, far, slightly but never fully perceivable. The essence of the beauty of the things that are by you, around you, in you, but you can never see or touch until you reach that point in time and space where everything receives new meaning under a different light. Oophoi's "Bardo" is a first-rate soundtrack for this, a fully deserving and remarkable plate of truly inspiring and immersive experiences, where the incantation of a sacred temple in the middle of the mountains is right in front of your closed eyes, and where the senses receive new food for the soul. Beautiful and charming may not be the most appropriate terms when describing a record of intimate relaxation, but this distant trance-ambient ritualistic outer-body experience really is. «Bardo ends where illumination begins».

Stainislav Kreitchi's electroacoustic musique concrete proposal comes as a concept album about the excitement of our imagination and how voices (sounds) and movement (rhythms) complement each other in every auditory perception. The entire full length CD with its 7 tracks is played on the legendary ANS synthesizer (whom Electroshock has dedicated vol. IV of their "Electroacoustic Music" compilation series), keyboards and ovaloid. To enhance the perception of nature surrounding you, found sounds, human voices, field recordings and themes from Star Trek and other movies are pasted in digitally. The interesting part is that the opening track "Rhapsody in Rorschach" (where the Rorschach test focuses on visual stimuli to instinctively create pictures in our imagination) is the mother composition that branches out into four fantasies: "Winter" (with its cold bells, long pads, eastern women's chants, glacial sounds); "Spring" (with its watery samples, heavily treated singing birds, more female choirs and more, as in nature waking up and coming back to life); "Summer" (with its intense field recordings, where the field are actual fields, with buzzing insects, lots of birds, wind, reverberated ritual chants and traditional breath instruments, occasional pounding indus beats etc); and finally "Autumn" (with its many bells, windy sounds, low frequency notes, deep male choruses and so on). The other two tracks, "Ruins in the Waste" and the self-titled track, show a tiny bit more musicality, with orchestral breath instruments sounding like french horns, but the abstract structure of these compositions is way beyond and far away from what you would normally consider musical anyway. Strangely, not much of a general rhythmical structure is allowed either, even though the rhythm is supposed to be half of the theme behind the record. In the last track, in particular, water, adult voices, babies crying and steps on a ground covered in stones recall the graphical theme of the booklet and the cover, where on a shore big coloured stones laying on the sand and getting wet with the waves, visually represent what is supposed to equally excite our imagination. Also car sounds, public sounds, more steps (strongly separated in an unreal stereo image), cinematic orchestral music pieces and hiss at different frequencies (who knows if coming off of the recordings or actually part of the experiment) color the atmosphere and contribute to the picture.