Spruke is Bill Boulden from Buffalo, NY. Hey, that's not all that far away. Nice to get something from New York State artists now and then. Bill's DIY project is obviously geared for the dancefloor with big-beat synthpop leanings. The title track might be a bit spazzy for club play, but it's certainly catchy. Nicely processed vocals too. 'Wir Konnen Nicht Deutsch' remedies the dance beat situation and adds a bit of satire lyrically concerning Teutonic Industrial music. 'Eight Above or Twenty Below' is a very cool synthpop gem with vocoder enhanced vocal. A bit more production work and it could have monster hit potential. 'Motorcade' (featuring Digital Geist with the F-16 Remix) has a compelling club techno beat and choppy processed vocals. Sounds kind of future-poppy with an old skool vibe. Very infectious dancefloor fodder. Digital Geist's remix of 'Infektipede' is more straight ahead and upbeat than the original, definitely geared for the dancefloor. At 9:28 it's also the longest track on the EP. Since the bass has changed along with the rhythmic momentum, it bears little similarity to the original except for touches here and there. My problem with remixes (and if you read my reviews with any regularity, you know how I usually loathe them) is that you can take nearly any piece of music and turn it into something else, and it usually isn't better. Such is the case with this one. Except for the odd sample here and there, this isn't even the same song. It's just another club groove. Why even bother?

Still, there is enough on this EP that shows promise. It is interesting to hear an artist (this is only Boulden's Spruke project's sophomore release even though he's been at it ten years) honing his craft and working through ideas to establish an identity. Few artists have risen overnight to create sonic masterpieces. It merits checking out and keeping an eye on. That goes double for DJs. I think Spruke needs to focus on a theme or concept and run with it. The talent is there. What follows next could be really interesting. I believe the EP is available on iTunes.

Poésie Noire was founded so long ago, not even its press release can tell the year for sure. The best it can do is dating the foundation to the early 80s. To the influences of black poetry belong Front 242 and Neon Judgement, but also pop artists such as Paul Haig and Fad Gadget. Soon enough the trio has obtained a small but loyal fan base. This is supposedly one of the most discussed Belgian acts according to Oor magazine.
Their sound can be best labeled as Electropop. Marianne voice will mesmerize you ' clean and feminine. The lyrics are so to say real life lyrics. They criticize the current state of the art in terms of norms and opinions in today's European society; they are dark, not very jolly and share honestly personal experiences.
The album has quite a number of songs that could be enjoyed while driving or in the club. To my personal faves belong 'Eurika', 'Dream One', melodic 'Uncertain Smile', somewhat Roxette-like 'The Radio Plays' and sung in German 'Die Sonne' (no, it is not a Rammstein cover).
'Sence of Purpose' is a totally pleasant album to listen to.

Portugal's most recognized Harsh-EBM quartet returns with another new full-length album, their third so far. And nearly out of tradition, also this one impresses with a comic-stripe as telling the story and meaning hiding behind. The graphical work is once again an outstanding form of expression by them, which receives additional support by their art to produce band photos ' the new ones, especially the one with body hanging lifeless out of a damaged bus, are very stylish and well fitting with the music. If they will reach their definite break-through also in middle-Europe, that ' to me ' has no longer anything to do with their quality of music. Fans of this special music genre, as well as the dancefloor-junkies, can't go wrong with them, since Hypecrash, Chainheart (both also active under HYSTAKMINE, lately signed to Hellektro Holocaust Records ' from which I lately haven't heard anything new..?), IDK (who helped out the country mate of IN[PERFEKTION] with some production efforts'¦) and the graphical mastermind Glamour Diesel do offers their most matured, but maybe also their calmest release so far. Yes, some socks-rocking tunes for the hard-stuff consumers are of course featured like 'Correcting God's Design', or the nailing 'Le Voyage D'Ivoire Sophisme', which features Jan L. of X-FUSION providing the lead vocals. But in all I have the impression, that this new album rather focuses more to present opulent arranged synth sweeps ('White Beast (Retribution', or some orchestral-like inserts ('Eight Thousand Square Feet') - stuff, which is nice to get consumed at your home entertainment too. And this gets a real crown with the track 'Leitbild', which offers German lyrics provided by Carsten Jacek of [:SITD:]. His voice as well as the rather [:SITD:]-related instrumentation results in the maybe most catchiest track ever by them. Coming back to their upcoming break-through: I think, this can be only reached, if they can decide to storm the stages in all thinkable dark clubs ' they suffer well under the circumstances to belong too far away from the bigger markets for this kind of music, Germany for instance. Musically here is nothing to complain with, ESC offer as usual the better and more comfortable form of Harsh-EBM/Hellectro music and are technically far above their average followers. Slight tendencies to repeat themselves a bit can be recognized too, but'¦ Let's agree, that this special genre of EBM/Electro/Industrial music is generally repetitive.

This one lays already for some months available on my table, but I unfortunately didn't find the right time to check more detailed with this new, first album of Maikko A. (member of HUMAN DECAY). Thumbs up also to Ionium Records/AF Music to remind me two times to concentrate on this remarkable album. This isn't that sort of a time-stealing procedure to review the deeds of a red-headed step-child, this is rather a review done with pleasure, as Maikko has already gained higher recognition with the previously released downloadable EP 'Thenceforward', as this one is still the biggest pearl in the roster of the Russian X-Line label. 'Long-Distance Side Trip' continues to catch its listeners through dense, but also haunting and ominous moods, combined with an extravagant kind of rhythm programming. Where comparable Dark Electro artists may here and there try to re-animate the dusty PUPPYan-ghost, Maikko manages hard to figure out alternative paths. A tiny Break-Beat, a bit Dub, or Trip-Hop beats here and there mixed under his matured synth arrangements offer a delicious meal for the ears. Tracks which feature his remarkable synth programming skills as its best, like 'Assimilate' (No PUPPYan influence at all here!), 'Fanatic Romance', or 'New World' are fine tunes not to be missed ' in that case, you prefer some 'real' compositional efforts over the still rushing, pseudo-aggressive Hellectro-repetitions. Three remixes by such musically valuable and well-chosen artists like the too seldom re-discovered Serbia/German project BLAME (too much gaming, Boris!), Slovakia's Dark Electro-/IDM-/Ambient-institution DISHARMONY (well done and surprisingly straight, Ryby'¦), and of course of Maikko's alter ego-comrades HUMAN DECAY offer all their best, to bring in diversity to Maikko's sound environment. A modern sounding and fine worked-out Dark-Electro opus full of intelligence ' stuff, which suits at best with fans of older FLA, PUPPY, DISMANTLED, but too with the new kids of the block like OBJECT, NCE, or Australia's EMPTY. Good one, keep it on.

Yebo! One of the two Saafi Brothers (the psychedelic trance and dub freak he created with Michael Kohlbecker), Gabriel Le Mar, erects an ideal bridge between Zulu traditional music, one of the richest one as well as one of the meaningful of the African ones, and contemporary forms of techno music by bringing it back to the concept of tribalism, which inspired for many years all those essayists which tried to give a conceptual framework to the techno movement. Zulu music already acted as a source for inspiration for many European and American contemporary composers, but Gabriel maybe has been the first musician proposing an interesting mélange mixing together contemporary minimal techno with branches of Zulu musical tradition (in particular mbaqanga and maskanda) as well as a certain mysticism belonging to that culture ('¦and many musicians know how important is music for those tribes, whose lyrics are usually old poems, lullabies, chants which sometimes even include animal verses in order to highlight the deep connection with environment and nature'¦) by putting them into the groove in such a brilliant way and by involving some key figures of that scene, including the deep voice and the creative wit (according to many African music experts, she had been one of the best fusionist of the contemporary age, by proposing many astonishing hybridizations of marabi, maskanda and mbaqanga with elements of jazz, rock, rap, reaggae and even opera!) of Bushi Mhlongo (mourned by all South-African music scene for her recent decease in June'¦she will enjoy ethereal dances on tracks such as Critical Caution together with the holy spirits of other musicians in the area of the Heaven, which, I imagine, has been reserved to musicians'¦), one of the voice which inspired the fight for freedom in South Africa according to President Zuma, Lungiswa Plaatjies (another impressive singer, who got a certain notoriety for the fact she's maybe the first mbira female player) , Madala Kunene (the enthralling Konkomania, a remake of his song Kon'ko man, meaning Strong Man in Zulu language, which helped spreading the music from the native Kwa Natal all over the world, is definitively one of my favorite track of this record) and Mantombe Matotiyani, voice of Amampondo, one of the favorite band by Nelson Mandela and previous collaborators of Gabriel Le Mar as well, borrowing her trance-inducing voice on Drift, one of the best sample of the above-mentioned mélange, featuring a catching dub-techno groove .

Vocal-powered record whose mystical connection has been based on the whimsical and meaningful mixture of some ancestral feelings and hypnotic African rhythms with nowadays forms of dub and techno (Le Mar's preferred music territories indeed!) which reminded to me that daydreaming state of mind between reverie and befuddlement Zulus usually name Dwaal. A calling to arms to all music listeners who love more syncretic electronic freaks!

Jubulani, Zakea! [Be happy'¦it's beautiful!]