Yeah, I am a bit late to have an ear on this one... the French Electro/Industrial producer Vince Pujol returns with his newest full-length album “Into Darkness” under his well-known Electro Synthetic Rebellion moniker, which is at least his 8th releases in more than two decades. So Vince can be seen already as a veteran producer and he still spits out an excellent formulated arsenal of highly thrilling Dark Electro / Industrial music.

“Into Darkness” picks up the era after his last album “Machines of Destruction” in 2017 and it has been again signed to the Hungarian label Advoxya Records. The collaboration with this label has been always fruitful as Vince could re-release his early classic albums “Distorted Visions” (2001) and “Corroded Fragments” (2003) each re-mastered and extended with a bonus disk which features the non-released self-produced demo-albums “Rebirth” and “Entropy” through the years. Well, it has been a while when he was lastly presented here on our site.

ESR in the year 2021 also celebrates the anniversary of the debut album “Distorted Vision” originally released 2001 by the German label Wire Production which went off from business far too early. So you'll find a new re-recorded version of his classic and meaningful track “Reanimate (Reminiscence)”. Well, at least and with through all the years of Vince's activity I have stopped to count the numbers of different versions and remixes of this tune.

Asides his pounding and blasting high-tech sci-fi related sound outfit provided in his very own signature, what else is actually new here? Actually not too much. Vince generally remains faithful in his style and leaves out bigger musically surprises. So you'll get again the full dose of driving Dark Electro/Industrial music filled with modern sounds, hammering kick-and-snare-works, vibrating bass line sequences and skillfully produced synth textures. To use highly pitched fx-manipulations on his vocals like in his earlier days he has meanwhile completely given up. So to hear Vincent's real voice in between his tracks is somewhat unusual, nearly too “human”-sounding compared to his music. Here and there I would recommend him to return to his classic roots.

New to me is his love for more spherical sound ambiances and the will to create filmic interruptions with some instrumental tracks like “Mechanical Nightmare” and/or “Lost”. It seems to me that Vince tends to install more and more of this movie score-like instrumental tunes after he has started this kind of work with the second CD “The Cinematic Tracks” available on the limited edition of to the last ESR album “Machines of Destruction”. It is generally noticeable that almost half of the 13 featured tracks are instrumental tunes. Best tracks and pretty much infiltrated with Vince's strongest ability, the programming of futuristic, ice-cold synthesizer-pads, are to me “Broken”, “Worms of Darkness” and the opener “Too Late” as they are counting to his most accessible works on here. More drastically dancefloor action he then provides with the fast-pacing “Breakdown”, “The Awakening of Machines” and the last tune “Dark Forces”.

ESR in the fall 2021 and after more than 20 years of activity acts musically in the known paths and avoids a musically risk or brings up something extravagant new to his style and the Dark Electro / Industrial music genre generally. It's not and has never been a question of the quality he offers track by track and album by album, but I would like to encourage him here and there to bring up a something completely surprising element or to try a musically flirt with a different style or genre.

The fall of 2021 sees a new album release of this German-American Electro Wave-project consisting of Patrick Georg Kasperski and Haether Wayward. This is their second mutual effort after their last release “Cautionary Tales” (also out on darkSIGN-music), although this project exists already since 2014 with Patrick as being the founding member. In the years 2015 to 2019 Zattna Uhm was a part-time member and has brought in the lighter component to the deep-dark, almost spoken-word vocal performance of Patrick. This “job” now belongs to the US-based female member Haether Wayward - but actually it is more than this. Haether meanwhile is completely integrated, co-composes and arranges the musically outfit of this project. It looks a bit that two minds on the same wavelength have finally found together.

To sort in Cyanbaal musically is at least a bit challenging because the chosen sounds out of Patrick's dark laboratory and his preference to experiment a lot with different moods, leads and sounds turn it out to be complicated. It is to me at least an experimental form of Electronic-driven Dark Wave music often accomplished with cold Synthpop notes. Not at all a continuation of the classic Puppy-an Dark Electro formula lately often discovered, although the “Maestro” Arnte of Pyrroline has given his best studio talent to thicken the haunting and unusual undertone of this album. It was a wise decision of Haether and Patrick to give this album into the hands of the “Maestro” for the production and mastering process.

Compared to earlier recordings of this project I must say that this one sounds more clean and polished than ever before while it hasn't lost its dark and dense note. The older Cyanbaal tracks often came out infected with an intense lo-fi, bombastic- and with a deep-dark sounding Avantgarde-like influence. At least it isn't surely not only Haether who brings in verbally a lighter and more accessible form of the general outfit.

Well fitting to this ominous sound content are the often scary and hauting lyrics thrown in. At times the content nibbles a bit too much and too obviously out of the Goth-like honey pot (“Seance (Vers. 2021)” or the teddy-bear story taken out of “Dead Doll in a Basement (Vers. 2021)”) to my taste, but yes, it fits. A bit haunting, cold-minded, eerie and with some hints into esoteric and mysterious themes, but also here and there romantic oriented as well as some of the lyrics have to be taken with a smile too.

This album kicks off with “Swallowed Light” and this one demonstrates already the black-and-white-symbiosis of this dynamic duo. While Patrick remains in his typically deep spoken words-like performance, Haether sets up the contrast as being the light into the darkness. But don't be too euphoric about her beauty of her voice as she can be able to sound nasty and / or mysterious the same time within the continuation of the album.

A favorite of mine is the ominous “Dead Forest” which can be seen as a cold form of a Synth-/Electropop tune with Haether smoothly installed vocals. This one is to me the perfect example where the both protagonists blend excellently all of their skills into one brilliant tune. “Black Neon Life” follows and this one has already seen some nicely reactions after the upload of a snowy video clip on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvV-MmSgPtU).

“Beasty Angels” is an instrumental tune and starts smooth with lots of bell-like sounds and some underlining voice samples – until it suddenly turns into a spooky and ominous sounding Industrial storm. A perfect example out of Patrick's laboratory.

“Dark Reflections” finally unites both, new compositions as well as revamped versions out of the past discography of this project. It's a Synth-Electronica release driven by the unusual and a bit out-of-place kind in compositions, chosen sounds and lyrics too. Generally it needs a bit more spins to gain fully satisfaction and it is the question if people in our rushing times do invest this instead to jump on the next Spotify playlist – but yes, it's a valuable contribution to the music scene worth to discover and to invest the needed time.

I knew in advance that there would be an opulent discography behind the Austrian musician Richard Lederer and not only under his Dark Electro / Industrial project Ice Ages. But burying out the depths and richly filled discography of this musician and his uncountable projects and his activities beginning in the mid-90s mostly released under the roof of the famous Napalm Records label then left me speechless.

Black Metal fans surely know about Summoning in which Richard is active under his pseudonym Protector. But the Metal genre isn't the only style which he represents. Next to Summoning he could earn some reputation under the Dark Wave-project Die Verbannten Kinder Evas founded in 1993, although their last release "Dusk and Void Became Alive" in 2006 is already a bit dated. Not to forget his uncountable collaborations with rather Goth-Rock related projects like WeltenBrand or Sanguis Et Cinis. So Richard can be seen as very experienced musician with long-year lasting career who's capable to service perfectly diverse multiple styles.

Ice Ages is of course that one project which fits the most with my preferences. Richard has started this Dark Electro alter ego in 1997 with his debut album "Strike the Ground" (M.O.S. Records), followed three years later with the second effort called "The Killing Emptiness" which got released under the roof of the famous Napalm Records under its side-label Draenor Productions. Some might say that Richard's basically Electronica-minded side-project could swim well in the success of Summoning and its Metal-head audience to that time. This is surely right on target because also long phases of a creative time-out of Ice Ages activities haven't altered his recognition and respect especially in the loyal fan-base out of the Metal genre. "Buried Silence", which is up-to-date his most prominent release, came out in 2008 again under Napalm Records, until Richard took again a longer break until he released "Nullify" in 2019 completely in self-responsibility.

Now we have with "Drain Of Scorn" his 5th album. This album impresses optically with a fine, dark futuristic-looking, sci-fi related artwork created by A Path To Oblivion in which all the lyrics got printed asides the usual credits. As mentioned above, Ice Ages plays a sort of classic Dark Electro-inspired sound outfit in which the tracks are almost very slow arranged. None of the 8 tracks on here would animate the club goers to some wild Pogo-like movements and so the advantages of the gloomy and mysterious sound efforts of Richard have to discovered somewhere else. Actually the sound scenario of this album needs a bit of patience as well as dedication because this album won't reveal its complete content after only one or two listens.

All tracks are clocking to not lesser than 7 minutes and are richly filled with complex arranged rhythm patterns. Especially Richard's rhythm- and percussion-work deserves attention. The drums itself are sounding pretty much metallic and completely prefabricated to undersign a quite authentic form of musically expression – the efforts of a real steel-worker, if you like. Multiple clangs, rattles and steel-sounding rhythm patterns widely placed into the stereo field in combination with the generally slo-mo tempo of the tracks emphasize a broadly based and bombastic mood. Accompanied with a dense and thick installed synth-based pad-and-layer-programming plus Richard's abrasive and raw vocal performance aren't for sure that kind of stuff for your next romantic rendevouz with a hot chick in front of a fire-place.

His music sounds cold, static and mechanical, but it also screws into your head with its obsessive, if not ritualistic outfit pretty much accompanied with a drastic lyrically content often filled of hopelessness and misery. Here and there I would recommend to break a bit with his stalking slo-mo style to a more danceable EBM-like outfit (I'd swear he could do that!) and throw in a faster arranged track as this would add in a bit more diversity, especially consumed on album-length. But on the other hand there's enough different dancefloor-oriented stuff for the club-goers available.

“Vibe of Scorn” consumed as whole album impresses with its anthemic and authentic sound design, it offers an eerie and haunting score-like outfit which is able to touch your inner fears. Even if it flirts here and there with known elements of the EBM / Dark Electro genres, it avoids to leave the impression that this kind of stuff has been copied or heard somewhere else before. The artistically vision behind album and project got pretty well supported with the brilliant cover art.

This album is available at all official streaming portals via Distrokid, (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/iceages/vibe-of-scorn?fbclid=IwAR1Gj2cLAPnaalgbXtZRCWe9v7ItahrJ4pzsnjkTIcnRJ6Oe-hZmAb7SsGM) plus also at Richards own Bandcamp site.

It can be too purchased as a physical product via the German retailer Poponaut. Right after the release of this album Richard has created a t-shirt edition which is too available via Poponaut to offer you also optically the complete vibe of scorn...

Maikko A. of Mind.Area has established another side-project entitled Sceptica in 2016 under which he experiments with a more raw sound-design in the wide field of classic Electro-/Industrial and EBM compared to his main project. He cooperates under Sceptica from time to time with Flesh Wire, who takes responsibility for the lyrical content on a few of Maikko's tracks. Under the Sceptica moniker they have released 3 digital-only EP's available via the Russian Synth-Me net label (https://darklab.wixsite.com/synthme) and with a quite comparable concept: putting together 4 – 6 tracks and spread these EP's via Bandcamp, this Russian net label has a few remarkable releases in its holster.

„Paranormal AI“ is their newest effort and got released under their own responsibility and is destined to be the first part out of a trilogy in this year. More noisy and more Industrial-oriented compared to his main project – this is the self-explained target and actually these 4 tracks available here show us a more drastic sound outfit.

Both the instrumental tunes “Decloom” and „Samtram“ stand respectively for this with installing various percussion elements out of Dubstep and IDM genres, twisted synthesizer sounds and uncountable fx manipulations. The title track gets my vote for being the outstanding tune here, I am highly impressed with Maikko's layered lead-and-pad-programming with unheard synthesizer-sounds and his raw, distorted vocals – a really outstanding Dark Electro track.

Also the 4th and relatively straight produced track “Create” doesn't disappoint with its haunting depth and Maikko's raw vocals, although I tend to rate this one as being the most related to Maikko's main project – at least this track would fit the best also on a Mind.Area release – and that isn't a bad reference.

It looks a bit that the vocal tracks are calming down Maikko's sense to express himself in a more experimental and noisier sound-outfit, somehow the vocals are “sorting” the song structure more to a traditional composition. But that's absolutely fine with me compared to the usual top-notch quality of Dark Electro-expertise grown out of Maikko's sound laboratory. Dark Electro music has still its heydays in its illustrious community – and this one isn't to be missed.

This new release is kind of collection album between the Italian producers Francesco Rago and Gianluigi Farina with the duo of Italoconnection (Fred Ventura / Paolo Gozzetti), which have been internationally renowned not only being pioneers of the Italian Electronic music scene but also for their highly recognized remix works for Hurts or The Human League. „Rago & Farina vs Italoconnection“ compiles for the most part the works of the duo Rago / Farina released originally under their projects like Atelier Folie, Decadence, Expansives, and/or 'Lectric Workers.

Kindly note that this duo has been active since the early 80s and especially with their Atelier Folie project in the years between 1982 to 1987 signed under major labels like WEA or EMI Music they could gained some recognition. Rago and Farina themselves have reactivated their mutual projects over the last decade and have pimped here and there some of classic tunes. Now and with the producers of Italoconnection backed up, this release is about to pay tribute to mutual years of friendship, collaboration and travels. It is about to collect some of their iconic Italo Disco songs in a reworked, reproduced and remixed sound outfit.

This album therefore has been already available via the Italoconnection web resources as a 9-track digital-only item and since the presented quality on here is mouthwatering, it's relatively understandable that the protagonists behind Nadanna in person of Marc Schaffer (Anna Logue Records) and Nader Moumneh (Electro Aggression Records) couldn't resist to re-release it and to spend 4 additional tracks to this CD edition now laying in front of me.

So the album starts with their Atelier Folie classic tune “No Rhyme, No Reason”, originally released in 1983 on WEA Italy and available as the usual vinyl items (7“ / 12“) and backed up with a video clip. It's interesting to see that Atelier Folie tried musically to unite elements out of the UK-based New Wave styles in vein of New Order / The Cure (check the guitar insertions on here...) with the traditional Italo Disco sound (The beloved DX7 hook-lines...) to keep it more danceable and energetic.

“Freedom Time” with its opulent keyboard lines and a singing-along-the-line chorus got featured two times on here and I am pretty much fond of the Original Club Mix created by the duo itself. What a beautiful, sun-drenched summertime-tune. Best thing is that also the second version provided by the Italoconnection offers entertaining ingredients.
Same counts for the musically reanimation of Decadence's “On And On” with some cool female vocal insertions in the chorus. The producers of the Italoconnection have already put their fingers on this item a while back, two of their re-produced versions can be checked out here.

A rather unusual track can be discovered with the spacey sounding instrumental tune “Borealis”, originally composed by their side-project 'Lectric Workers originally in 1982 – of course newly revamped, this is finest Synth-Electronica entertainment.

Lots of well-arranged Synthpop and Italo-Disco on at least all 13 tracks here, which unites the classic 80s inspired sound with up-to-date studio production tools and with the right guys for a fruitful joint venture who know about the stuff they are producing here.

This CD is limited edition of 300 copies and comes in a beautiful digi-pack. Absolutely recommendable and of course available directly via Marc Schaffer's Anna Logue mail-order service.