Debut CD album from Marspiter – ULTIONIS ( Latin for "revenge") on the small Somnambulant label out of Redmond , WA show lots of promise for fans of neoclassical dark ambient. Subtle shades of muffled militant atmosphere that rises and falls in intensity but always seems to stick to the theme. Without going into the historical/ mythological background (suffice it to say that with track titles like "Gradauidus" and Legionis", you get the drift) of the concept, it is an effective war-oriented set-piece that takes a bleak mood and makes it even bleaker. The sonic blender that Michael Todd (the guy who IS Marspiter) seems to run his music and repeated sampled loops through seems to be set permanently on "churn". This has the effect of giving a thick aural ambience to the soundscape, which is very effective in one sense, but kind of disturbing in another. There is a definite lack of anything in the higher frequency range (anything over 1k or so) and so nuances tend to be submerged in the lower frequencies. There are times when I would have liked to have heard what was going on a little more clearly. One commendable note- no violent noise blasts, as can sometimes be the bane of an otherwise decent dark ambient album. Still, there is enough atmosphere here to make ULTIONIS an intriguing first effort, and worthy purchase. Good ritual music for unspeakable ceremonies, or even FRP gaming where you need an ambience of oppressive and foreboding doom. Since the CD is limited to only 300 copies (and a of this writing, hasn’t sold out yet) this could be quite a collector’s item. Should appeal to fans of In Slaughter Natives, Puissance, and a good chunk of the Cold Meat Industry roster.

Five track CD with four remixes of the title track from German synthpop band Minerve. Why is it that SO many synthpop bands seem to want to play the Depeche Mode clone card? I don’t know about the rest of the world, but personally, I’m tired of hearing yet another electronic-based dance ensemble with a David Gahan wannabe crooning more insipid lyrics. Minerve is no exception. "My Universe" has all the earmarks of pop mediocrity – the words- "Tonight is all I dream of you, and everything we plan to do, but now you are so far from me, your smiling face, you gentle fingers, and every though of you will bring us together and each other closer... all I gave, all I found were your pictures in my songs, I just want to give my universe... all I am, all I feel, is an emptiness in me, I just want to give my universe... " hoo-boy. This is lame. Maybe this song got some play on the flavor of the week club circuit, but this is the last thing I’d want to hear on the radio, or even buy for that matter. (Dephyte Records couldn’t even bother to send me a REAL copy of the disc, they sent me a CD-R copy in the printed sleeve. What’s up with that??) Even as slickly produced as it is, four mixes of it is akin to sonic torture. And the last track, "Drifting In A Maze" certainly doesn’t save this maxi. Speaking of saving, do yourself a favor, save your money and skip this little piece of pop trash. It has about as much musical nourishment value as a big Mac with fries.

It took most unusual CD to prompt me into writing reviews again. It’s not that I haven’t heard a lot of good music lately, just the opposite. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed in the past few months and my focus has become somewhat skewed. Be that as it may, leave it to Audiobulb Records to release a CD so different and intriguing that I can’t help but be impressed.
Calika’s ?small talk kills me’ is one of those rare recordings that stimulates right-brain activity in such a subtle way that you may hardly be aware of it until you’ve experienced repeated listenings. On first impression, Calika’s music falls into the electronic glitch-n-paste category with a smattering of acoustic guitar and sing-songy wordless vocal samples scattered here and there. As a background sound palette, there is a feel of random activity over repeated patterns of disjunct melody. What’s really happening though, is that you’re entering into a completely different audial world, where conventional structure is abandoned, giving way to a new mode of expression where an ever-changing, evolving tonal mood within the deepest realms of imagination.
At times the music crosses into the realm of the psychedelic, and we get the first hint of what could almost be considered a ?jam’ on track # 5, "We Slaves Nine 25". Beyond that, abstract hallucinatory terrain is traversed and you get the feeling that you’re no longer in the concrete world as you know it. There are sonic elements that may cause windows of memory to open and reveal things long forgotten. Perhaps one of the most dramatic shifts occurs in track #9, "Calm Laid Her Head To Have A Nightmare" and the track title is most apropos. A placid melodic repetition gradually gives way to a grumbling chordal drone that seems to go on for an uncomfortable period of time, then suddenly stops- as if the listener has suddenly awoken from a bad dream.
More abstract hallucinatory terrain follows, and by this time, consciousness is stretched and bent in so many directions you’ll be hard-pressed to get your bearings. It is almost like stepping into a funhouse of the mind, and after this carnival of acousma is over, you’ll come out with an altogether new perspective, although you won’t be able be able to put your finger on why. And even when it seems to be over, it’s still not over. A hidden (untitled) 15th track reels you back in lest you forget the last 80 minutes you spent in wonderland.
Where most glitch-n-paste experimental music fails for me is in the lack of conceptual cohesion and too much percussive bombardment with too little payoff. Definitely not the case here. Calika has assembled something marvelous and special. If you’re a fan of Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Oval or Plaid you’ve just GOT to pick up this CD. Available directly from Audiobulb in the UK, and probably at your electronic music specialty shop, wherever you buy all the good stuff.

I’ve ruminated over writing this review for a long time. Initially, after my first listening session of Battery Cage’s "Product" CD, my reaction was pretty negative. I thought, "This sounds old, clichéd, scattered, and the singer can’t sing at all. Yet, there was something there that kept drawing me back for repeated listenings. Although it sounded overall like a cross between Mentallo & the Fixer and Frontline Assembly style techno-industrial, there were flaws that just seemed to push my buttons in all the wrong ways. Lyrics (from those that I could even decipher) that seemed inanely clichéd ("you’re getting in my mind, your wars, your lies, your lies, you hatred of mankind... their vision’s so pathetic, your words- so prophetic, you’re drug-dicked (?) all the time, attempt to realign... " from "Gone Postal"), vocals that ranged from a harsh whisper to a distorted scream with little concession to intelligibility, and a chaotic quality that makes this a very difficult initial listen. Only one song ever grabbed me at first, and that was "Caged". I thought it might make a decent dance-floor number and could be the saving grace for this otherwise erratic mess of a CD. But... .I knew I was missing something here. There were elements all too familiar that kept drawing me back to replay the CD. One of the elements was the electronic programming. I could tell that a lot of work went into "Product". My initial impression of chaos was gradually being replaced by the concept of a band that had so many good ideas that were unable to control the frenzied explosion of their creation. And also, it seemed like I had heard some of this material before... Which turned out to be true. I HAD heard them before, as I was reminded when I visited Battery Cage’s website. Back in 2001 they did a live show in Ithaca NY and I remembered that I did manage to catch it. I don’t remember being overwhelmingly impressed, but I don’t recall hating them either. I think I noted mentally, "has potential, needs work". I didn’t realize what the ?behind the scene’ scoop was. If I had bothered to read the inside of the CD insert, I would have found out. Battery Cage (from Boston) started out back in 1997 or so as Tyler Newman, AJ Kaelin and Jeremy Page. They met up with Da5id Din and were supposed to have "Product" released on his Sinless Records label, which collapsed prior to the release of the album. So "Product" is actually a 1998 CD that never saw the commercial light of day until 2005. I was beginning to get the picture. In the interim (sparing the drama of band personnel hijinks), the last man standing in Battery Cage ended up being Tyler. Tyler began collaborating with Mr. Din and was drafted (grafted?) into his Informatik project and resulted in the critically controversial "Nymphomatic" CD which I found to be OK, but a little boring after a few songs. This project permitted Tyler a relationship with Metropolis Records and gave Battery Cage a new lease on life, so to speak. Jumping ahead to Battery Cage’s 2004 CD, "World Wide Wasteland" (now Battery Cage consists of Tyler, Josh Greco, who engineered "Product", Paul Savio and Roland Adams) the sound they offer now has been completely revamped and "improved". Well, commercially improved from the standpoint of marketability. Generally, WWW subscribes to the VNV/Apop/Covenant school of dancefloor-oriented EBM with much better vocals than they’ve ever had before. Although intrinsically there’s nothing wrong with aiming your music to get some club play, I find this tends to make all bands that follow this route sound the same. There are so many VNV clones out there now that it doesn’t seem like there’s much in the techo-industrial realm of new releases that sounds really different. Back to "Product" – in light of the "trends" for new releases, this IS really different. In spite of the vocal deficiencies and some dated sounds, there is a hell of a lot going on here that is well executed and occasionally brilliant. Perhaps the departed Jeremy Page was responsible for a hefty portion of it, but "Product" has so many merits and juicy elements in it that repeated listenings will minimize the inherent flaws. This is "old school" techno-industrial, the kind that just doesn’t seem to be made anymore. Here you get influences ranging from early Haujobb, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, Mentallo, you name it. Really creative and complex rhythms, a vast variety of synth sounds, amusing sample of dialogue, atmospheric ambiences, and just about everything else you could imagine. No, it’s not perfect by any means (the twelve-plus minute instrumental "Killfile" could have been distilled to half its length and the eleven second final track "Product" is just superfluous), but there’s enough good stuff here to merit repeated listenings. If Battery Cage could incorporate some of the better aspects of "Product" with their new direction of "World Wide Wasteland", they’d have an absolutely killer ?product’ that might even be able to blow away the big boys of the techno-industrial scene.

Everything about this CD is pretty. Pretty cover on the CD. Pretty tri-fold digipack design. Pretty band name. Pretty music too. Kind of sad, melancholy, rather. Haunting, maybe. Goth? Definitely. Consciously "goth". Candle lit rooms of people dressed in black, sipping absinthe or some kind of exotic caffinated beverage. These things come to mind when I listen to "A Whisper". Chirleison is a trio from Sardinia, off the coast of Italy. There is Alessia Cicala (voice, flute), Mara Lasi (keyboard, drum machine) and Daniele Serra (guitar, drum machine). Pretty names all. Personally, I don’t think anybody should ever take credit for a "drum machine", but we’ll let it go for now. So exactly what kind of pretty (but melancholy, has to be melancholy) goth music does Chirleison make? Pseudo-medieval neo-folk. On first listen, this CD "sounds" like everything a band in this genre should sound like. Heavenly voices, rich, atmospheric musical backing, simply gorgeous... BUT ... (and you knew there had to be a but) nothing stands out compositionally even after three or four listenings. And truth be told, an hour or two later, I can’t even remember what they sound like. Remember the "Heavenly Voices" compilations from the mid ?90s? Remember the track somewhere in the middle of the CD that somehow just seemed to float by? It’s something like that. Actually, this is better than I’m making it out to be. I think I just want this to be more than just a passing diversion. Everything is very well executed. And it doesn’t matter that Alessia sings in Italian, in fact, it makes the music sound even more exotic. I just wish there was something I could hold on to, some remarkable song (like Ordo Equitum Solis’ "Our Lady Of The Wild Flowers", though I’m not wild over Leithana’s voice) make me want to tout this CD as the next big thing in the genre. I guess I will just have to accept it for what it is; a tasty dark musical dessert to savor occasionally ... but probably not too often.