Stellar Dynamics is one of the multiple alter-ego-projects of the steady and hard working Russian artist Alexander Borsov. We had him here on our site under his Dark The Keeper-project which has featured a deep biographic stab into his rather Death Metal-activities in his early years. Nowadays he's almost completely producing Electronic-based Industrial music with several stylistically variations. While Dark The Keeper was the more slow, dense- and sick-atmospheric Dark Electro-project pretty much inspired by a veteran act like G.G.F.H., Stellar Dynamics brings up a more pounding and rhythmically kicking outfit. Alexander meanwhile quite often releases regularly new compositions of his multiple projects mostly via his Bandcamp-account linked above. Also “Dark Elite” got released here and it looks that he has lately stopped his collaboration with the US-based DSBP label.
Stellar Dynamics with this new album is musically still a very close expedition to a classic Dark Electro-minded sound outfit. What impresses the most in Alexander's tracks is his ability to create melodic, but spooky, dense atmospheric synthesizer-layers always concentrating to leave a thrilling and creepy effect. Here and there, especially with the slower tunes like “Dark Elite” or “A Nail Put Out Of A Wound” he comes closer into the creepy Dark The Keeper-territory.
While most tracks of this album remain instrumental, Alexander offers with a few collaborations providing guest vocals (M. Ghost of G.G.F.H, Tommy T. Rapisardi of Diverje, and … well... me...) a throughout diverse sounding full-length album with 13 tracks to the listener. It is without doubt his most matured work under this project so far. Also worth to mention on here is a remix by the German talent StateMent on the track “Preachers Of Hell”, which fills in a few cool voice samples and refreshes the whole track by installing more almost catchy sounding synthesizer-pads.
As for criticism on this album – and yes, I listened several of Alexander's works so far – it wouldn't be a bad idea to add in a bit more variation into the chosen drum- and percussion-sounds. Always to use the same-sounding cymbals, hi-hats, snare- and kick drum-sounds over years and on several releases has finally become too one-dimensional. Here should be space for further development.
Once again an album out of Alexander's deep-dark laboratory which balances well on the fine line between the musically depths of classic Dark Electro / Industrial and the pounding Harsh-EBM style. This one should appeal friends and listeners of these genres.

It's not only the first compilation release for Rexx Arkana's newly established label Haus Arkana, it's also kind of a heart-melting project which at least has some historically meaningful content to offer. There's a sentimental storyboard behind this 4CD-set. Let's turn back an imaginary wheel of time into the years 1994 -1996. The Milwaukee-based radio-DJ and writer for the legendary Industrial Nation-magazine, Ric Laciak, has founded his own label RAS DVA out of the Leaether Strip US-fan base GAWMUS. First releases have been such notable outputs of Benestrophe (a Mentallo & The Fixer-side project), “Sensory Deprivation”, or the well recognized Kevorkian Death Cycle debut “Collection For Injection”.

Since I was personally involved as being a writer for the German glossy print-magazine Vertigo to that time, I still remember our days of pride, to have had contact with this fine, eloquent person and the inspiring conversations with him just from the beginning and for the most time without e-mail – fax messages or written letters did the job. It resulted in a license deal of a Kevorkian Death Cycle-track to be switched on one of our Vertigo-compilations accompanying the print-magazine (“Faithless (Club Edit)” - Vertigo Compilation 03/1996). However, the biggest impact this small label has left for the posterity was without doubt the legendary 4-CD / quadruple compilation “There Is No Time” with its innovative cardboard slipcase packaging. This opulent compilation still stands for being one of the few groundbreaking, must-have-items in anyone's collection. It has presented the state-of-art of underground Industrial music and included dozens of music projects licensed from various labels world-wide.

Again, and just check out the terrific track list via Discogs with well-known artists side by side with promising newcomer acts, this hallmark of a compilation can't be missed at all. The activities around the label RAS DVA then ended in 1998, shortly after the release of Jihad's “A Prayer In The Night” debut album. In 2006 the label made some online activities with future music plans but finally it hasn't worked out. Founder Ric Laciak unfortunately passed away in November 2014 from complications with cancer.

To conclude this and the tragic loss of Ric, here finally comes a fact I had to learn out of this history. It was Rexx Arkana being pretty much involved, doing promotion works for RAS DVA and collaborated with Ric in those days. It was all about to share their love and dedication for Industrial and, unfortunately but necessary, a history of cancer. Both have seemingly had their ideas for a second edition of the “quadruple monster” before Ric passed away. So this is all about it, “Passing Strangers” is the quadruple release, that kind of dedication to RAS DVA and to Ric Laciak – maybe that imaginary second edition already considered. Actually I feel myself pretty much thrown into a similar feeling of curiosity to listen CD after CD and to discover the pearls which also “Passing Strangers” has to offer. Just check the track list below and with respect to the meaning behind this compilation, it is almost impossible to give out a track-by-track review. I rather like to pick out a few of the most valuable contributions.

Disc One impresses with the highest amount of popular global-players compared to the all other discs on this quadruple set and with Orange Sector, Kevorkian Death Cycle, Lights Of Euphoria or Leaether Strip (here available as guest vocalist for Blind Vision), there are a few participants which have been already guests on “There Is No Time”, 27 years before. On the other hand, since there are so many familiar names on Disc One here, the amount of exclusive tracks only available on “Passing Strangers” here is reduced to zero. Nevertheless I like the float on it thanks to cleverly chosen apposition, this whole CD1 impresses on almost all tracks. Worth to point out are a few of the lesser discovered projects so far. Texas-based Curse Mackey, founding member of Evil Mothers and collaborator for My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, offers us with “Lacerations” a solid, stomping Industrial-tune with subtle, accompanying guitar riffs. The icy, deep and dense synth-layer- programmings of Daniel Myer (haujobb.), here active under his pseudonym DSTR, are definitely ear-catching resulting into another fine tune. “Man Made” by Kevorkian Death Cycle can be found originally on their 1996-debut “Collection For Injection”, but lately the band around Roger Jarvis and Ryan Gribbin made a few re-recordings from a few tracks out of this phase and this is one of them.

Disc Two kicks off with a stomping Suicide Commando-track (also a contributor to “There Is No Time”) and presents with Point5 a new project by Ole Anders Olsen (alias Andy LaPlegua –> Combichrist, Icon Of Coil, Scandy, Panzer AG, and, and, and...) until Rexx Arkana himself participates under his famous FGFC820 with a new, unreleased remix of “Crush”, a track originally taken from their album “Homeland Insecurity” (2012). After some closer to guitar-driven Industrial sounds by UK's Inertia or Stoneburner, the tone of this disc changes more and more into TBM / EDM styles (Stoppenberg, ESA, Cenotype). Pretty Retro-EBM-like bass lines and a straight drum pattern programming – so sounds the contribution of the UK-based talent Discipline & Control, while the dramatic, out-of-range-like vocal performance is somewhat of getting used to it. Venal Flesh and their unreleased track “Calcination” could be a well-working addition in the row of some Dark Electro-projects with a modern twist in vain of VAC for example, while the rhythmic Powernoise-specialist Endif unites with Retcon to present us an unreleased re-recording of the Endif-track “Ashes”, originally released on the debut “Meta” (2006 – Crunch Pod).

The third disc pushes further the already discovered hard-edged TBM / EDM sound with Soman or the second appearance of ESA, while mastermind Jamie Blacker this times joins the ranks of Mika Groedrijk's rhythmic Powernoise-project This Morn' Omina. Although signed to the German ProNoize label, Neuroklast is a newcomer to me, founded by the both German producers Kay SchÄfer (ex-Chainreactor) and Markus Horschig (former ReAdjust). A bit more compositorial creativity can be discovered by the UK-based musician and DJ, Matt Hart, who isn't afraid to reanimate some classic Coldwave-like guitar-driven structures on his exclusive remix of “To The Core”. Civil War on the other hand would musically fit well to the row of prominent old-school EBM veterans like Orange Sector or Pouppée Fabrikk – but they are a promising newcomer out of Argentina. Back to Europe to Manchester, UK, with another newcomer, Red-Meat providing us “angry queer body music and sex positive energy”. Also worth a mention and relatively comparable to the both predecessors is the Denver-based electronic musician Fernando Altonaga and his EBM-outfit eHpH. More and more the music turns into Dark Synthpop with classic New Wave-undertones with the contributions of Coldkill (a mutual project by Rexx Arkana with Eric Eldredge of the NYC-based Futurepop-project Interface) with their interpretation of Minitry's “We Believe”, and Dead Lights.

Disc Four starts with the Munich-based Rue Oberkampf and their 80s-inspired minimal Synthpop outfit, while the Italian-based Unconscious aka Andrea Riberti impresses with a hammering, classic EBM-inspired tune entitled “You Belong To Me Now (Re-Edit)” - another one of the previously unreleased tracks. Florida's Aeon Rings, recording for Negative Gain Productions, offer a quite different sounding tune turning towards into Synth- / Electropop-regions with natural sounding male vocals. A pretty much Dive-/The Klinik-inspired tune with its typically distorted rhythm- and percussion work can be discovered by E.L.I., a project by Mike Smith, who is a modular producer and DJ from Scotland.

To conclude this review it should be mentioned, that Rexx Arkana did an amazing job to collect as much as possible diversity in Electronic music styles for this quadruple release. Additionally I tend to say that the times, evolution and development of this music has continued into stylistically wider and more complex forms and in uncountable variations, than it has been during the days when”There Is No Time” came out.

Finally – maybe the most important reason to purchase this fine compiled quadruple set - $5 from the direct sale of each CD compilation will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, https://www.stjude.org/

Also: no download available – you have to purchase the physical product.

Track list:

CD 1:
1. A Split – Second – Rigor Mortis 2.Covenant – Judge Of My Domain 3.Absolute Body Control – So Obvious (Live At E-Only Festival) 4.Curse Mackey – Lacerations 5.DSTR – Disappear (1st Draft) 6.Blind Vision ft. Leaether Strip – DDF 2 (Album Version) 7.Lights Of Euphoria –Access Denied 8.Armageddon Dildos – Colder 9.Orange Sector – Blood Brothers 10.Pouppée Fabrikk – Burn Forever 11.Noisuf-X – Finish Him! 12.Fusspils 11 – Fleischfresser (PS Edit) 13.Kevorkian Death Cycle – Man Made 14.Fektion Fekler – Let's Jump (Yes You Will Mix) 15.Rohn - Lederman ft. Jean-Luc De Meyer – Where The Wild Roses Grow

CD 2:
1. Suicide Commando –Kill All Humanity (Short & Painless) 2. Point5 – The Kid Is A G 3.FGFC820 – Crush (Letting Go - Mix) 4.Inertia ft. Steve White (KMFDM) – Scowl 5.Stoneburner –Excrementorium 6.Stoppenberg –Soldat 7.Electronic Substance Abuse – BBWO (Expel Mix 2022) 8.Cenotype – Hour 10 (Live Action) 9.Discipline & Control – Burning Up 10.Reichsfeind – Wish There Was A Drug (Exclusive Mix) 11.Marred – The Fragrance Of Blood 12.The Gothsicles – INFL8-R (Resurexxion Mix) 13.Venal Flesh – Calcination 14.Endif Vs. Retcon – Ashes 15.Kounter Mezhure – Golden God

CD 3:
1. Soman – Divine (2022 Short Remix) 2.Moris Blak – Umbra 3.ESA vs. This Morn' Omina –Consumption (Compounded) 4.Neuroklast – Scavengers 5.Her Noise Is Violence – Djinn (Original Mix) 6.Matt Hart – To The Core (Further Down Mix) 7.Civil Hate – Honor & Dignidad 8.Red-Meat – Vore (Gordon Young Mix) 9.eHpH – Rust 10.INVA//ID – The Sinner 11.Spankthenun – Crushing Blow (Mirland Remix) 12.Coldkill – We Believe 13.Dead Lights –Ice Queen (Club Mix) 14.Lola Kumtus – Wasted Years 15.Hem Netjer – Connect

CD 4:
1.Rue Oberkampf – Never Stop To Dance 2.Unconscious – You Belong To Me Now (Re-edit) 3.Visitor – What World Is This 4.Hammershøi – Hélas (Remix By Coldkill) 5.One Flesh.Infektion.–Martial Doom 6.XTR Human–City Hai 7.Aeon Rings –Lover 8.Dry_feel – Repellent Machine 9.Soj – Pensamientos Impuros 10.Black Light Odyssey – Under Your Spell (Hexmaschine Vs. Blo Edit) 11.Sanderson & Esterhaus – Composition 080621 12.E.L.I. – The Antagonist 13.Crying Skies – Around The Walls Of Horror 14.Sigsaly – L'avenir 15.L – Discipline

This US-duo has been often guests here on our pages, be it with reviews or interviews. FGFC820, consisting of the both international renowned DJ's Rexx Arkana and DrÄcos, sends out a sign of life after almost a decade of silence. After their last full-length release “Homeland Insecurity” in 2012, “American History Vol. 1” is kind of a “Best of...” compilation and provides us the most remarkable tracks of this highly acclaimed Harsh Electro project out of their heydays from the Noitekk Records times. It's all about to celebrate the 15th year anniversary of their first full-length album “Urban Audio Warfare” out in 2006 on NoiTekk Records. This release also marks the first one out by Haus Arkana, the new label outfit established by Rexx Arkana.

Within often critically viewed thanks to their perceived militaristic and patriotic “pro-America” image, please note, that this compilation represents pretty that music style we all know and have widely discovered in those days: it's the newer form of a Harsh Electro rush – or Hellectro, if you like so. Often praised for its versatile dancefloor-attitude, but also cursed for its repetitive, one-dimensional sound-design too often inspired by various Techno styles, FGFC820 have been always counted to be one of the best horses of this style and can count on a loyal fan base world-wide. They could successfully enter international stages of renowned gigs and festivals abroad. It shouldn't wonder therefore, that “American History Vol. 1” offers some of their most recognized tracks, all in completely remastered versions, just to bring themselves back into the ears of their audience.

First and foremost, there's their anthem “G.B.A.” (= God Bless America), which has already made its slot on the above mentioned debut album. Asides the remastered original version, you'll get two new remix contributions provided by such global players like Suicide Commando and Leaether Strip from which I enjoyed the more old school-vibe of the latter one a bit more. “Not The World I Remember”, taken from the second album “Law And Ordnance” is another personal favorite with its view of an uncertain future. I generally like to praise and point out their mostly well-thought lyrical work, on which “Doctrine” and its father-son discourse has left me pensively back.

At least, almost every remarkable track taken from all three full-length albums of FGFC820 got collected here to provide you, the listener, a full-scale sonic assault in the band's typically signature sound of raw, adrenaline-driven, pulsating Harsh EBM. As said above, it's generally perfect club-food with raw, distorted screams by Rexx presented on here on all 10 original tracks plus the two remix contributions. Actually this course of action finally doesn't offer the more of a diverse sound design, which I miss here and which this duo has definitely to offer too. As for my personal taste, I am missing the “nuggets” out of their discography like the cool, old school EBM-tune “The Victim”, the provoking “Hello, Baghdad”, or the tricky bass line sequences of “Relapse” - but that's just me.

Also, a decade after their last full-length album, wasn't there the possibility to release at least one new track to the fans to show up the things which may come up? I finally hope that both protagonists do find their way back into their studio to produce mutually new music and so I find a bit a pity, that this collection doesn't offer any hint of this. Finally, please note, that this collection doesn't seem to be availlable as a digital download - You'll get the physical product in form of a CD with a well-fitting artwork.

This is without doubt the most unusual release of the label joint venture Nadanna so far, as the new project of Thomas Martiné stands for the first output which drifts away from their self-proclaimed label program to “blur the lines between Minimal Synth, Italo Disco, and Electropop”. Martiné differs and deals rather with a well-balanced mixture between common Futurepop-elements up to the lighter side of Dark Electro- / Industrial music. This been said, it's surely a nice and appreciated form to vary and extend the label program and its roster.

After a long-year lasting career as being an electronic musician, Thomas Martiné has finally decided to release simply under his surname instead to hide behind pseudonyms, although his career has a lot of stations to offer. Thomas was back in the days a member of the German Dark Electro duo Silent Invasion, which had its heydays in between 1988 to 1992 with remarkable tape releases („The Picturesque Decay“) and a self-released CD album in 1991 („The Dead Born Content“) under a distribution support of the Danse Macabre label.

After a longer time-out, Thomas returned in 2007 under the playingGOD moniker, a rather Powernoise-oriented project, and he founded Mr. Hilter. Under this controversial discussed project-name he has self-released 10 full-length albums in between 2011 to 2020 stylistically ranging between Industrial, Ambient up to raw Electro- / Harsh-EBM-styles. I have to admit that this project flew at least pretty much under my personal radar. But now Thomas is simply Martiné and he unites the spirit of some mid-90s, lighter Dark Electro artists like Evils Toy, Paracont or Abscess with a Synth- and Futurepop-oriented sound design which here and there reminds on projects like Wave In Head or Minerve. This is of course a free and personally oriented comparison, you may tend to view it differently, but I've completely concentrated on German band projects for this, because Martiné sounds pretty much along the European form of danceable Synth-Electronica and not only because of the usage of the German language on almost half of the 16 tracks.

While the anthracite-colored cover art could lead one to really dark and schizophrenic album, the music outfit of Thomas is lighter than expected. The opener “Wer Ich Bin” is calm and smooth Synthpop tune which gives lyrically some insight on Thomas' personal condition with hints into self-doubts, uselessness, but also the uprising against oppression. “Deus Exodus” turns into a darker mood with its richly and detailed arranged synthesizer pads and an attractive sounding drum-/percussion programming. “Where's your false God now” dashes it loudly out of the loudspeaker system, “Dies Area, Mortem” - I guess, you'll get the message behind this one. It's without doubt one of the highlighting tracks with it's perfect blend between Thomas natural, well-sounding vocal performance to the darker minded Electronica soundscapes, very well done.

People may tend to rate the pure Futurepop-tune “Sturzflug” with a bpm value far beyond 145 bpm as being the ideal dancefloor booster track, while I find it a bit too repetitive. “Dying Of The Light” is another outstanding tune on this album with a more angry and slightly fx-manipulated vocal performance and its stomping kick-drum work. While “Atmosfear” follows a bit too offensive one rhythmic pattern sequence after another in a straight 135+ bpm speed, I am pretty much impressed with the haunting, evolving textures filled with mysterious sounding whispering voice samples of “Innocence Dies”. This is cleverly arranged track with its eerie introduction and the depressive-sounding on-going song progression.

Three of the further tracks, “Original Sin” (available in two different versions produced by Thomas plus a remix contribution by Synaptic Defect), “Cutting Edge” and “The Inevitable Lie” have at least survived Thomas' activity under the Mr. Hilter moniker and have found their place well fitting into this album. It generally has to be said that the track listing works fine on the whole album, as it mixes well between slower and moody tunes to faster, more danceable oriented ones.

To point on a weaker part in Thomas' production process and to come up with a point of criticism, I at first can assure that Thomas' vocal performance is excellent in all terms and mostly all singers / front men of this music genre would be proud to be capable to “sing” and to sound naturally in a comparable style, but... It does not help a track to make it more catchy or easier to recognize again, if chorus phrases get to often repeated in an almost unvaried style There's a fine line between a pleasant accentuation of a chorus line with great vocals before it starts to fall into unnecessary repetitions and Thomas here and there tends to exaggerate it (“Original Sin” or “Leave Me Nothing” for example...).

To sum it up, this is a very nice arranged and diverse sounding Electronica album which balances well between the mentioned music styles. Moreover it brings a sort of a fresh breath into some dusty, one-dimensional Dark Electro music structures and especially friends of the lighter kind with hints to the above mentioned comparisons can't do anything wrong with this album.

Object and the mastermind behind, Andreas Malik, counts to one of Germany’s leading projects when it comes to produce pure and authentic sounding Dark Electro music in vain of classic Mentallo & The Fixer, Skinny Puppy, and…
Well, I guess I started a review like this far too often with a comparable introduction. Finally, it isn’t necessary since Mr. Malik has been often a guest here on our web resource with a few reviews as well as with two interviews. So anyone into this special kind of music should be well informed about Andreas and his career, which he started already in 1994. Also in 2022 he’s still vital and active and so he has recently completed his new studio album “Epilogue of Fear”.

Compared to earlier Object albums it can be noticed that Andreas has successfully developed his kind of sound expression and this album gives the listener a perfectly conducted album, which touches all relevant styles out of the Object sound universe. “The Tormented Mind” is a clever placed opening track of this album and surprises with various, fat installed drum patterns in a rather mid-tempo oriented composition. Accompanied by his strongest talent to create soothing, delicate atmospheric pads and evolving textures, no one's gonna asking to have it sounding differently. Also worth to mention is his kind to manipulate his vocals in this rather unearthly sounding, almost Alien-like style. At times hard to understand if one likes to follow the lyrically content, on the hand an intended form to add a human-like additional “layer” to his globally sound outfit.

Second track “Nothing Left Inside” then turns into a rather known Object tune, arranged so typically for Andreas. Definitely a glimpse more catchy produced compared to the rather raw sounding opener, the maestro impresses with his breathtaking layered sequencing work formulating a dense and haunting atmosphere. This one is pretty much following the path of some mid-90s, mostly US-based projects like InformÄtik and/or Pulse Legion.

An imperviously installed wall of filmic sound sculptures opens then “Nowhere To Hide” with various vocal samples supported by aesthetic synthesizer pad sounds until Andreas' cruel sounding vocal performance disturbs the mood of this scoring tune intentionally. This reminds me a bit on his idea to establish a rather Ambient-inspired sounding side-project under the pseudonym “Borderline”. We all know nowadays how this ended, as Andreas at least decided to release “Borderline” as a full-length album under his Object-moniker in 2019. Also the almost instrumental tune “Sprawl / Undone”with its catchy pad and synth layer sounds would be an ideal addition to this almost buried plan for an instrumental side-project.

“Hidden Perception” is to me personally one of the most outstanding tunes of this new Object album because on this track Andreas manages it perfectly to combine almost fragile sounding synthesizer drops in a rather calm, almost catchy sound environment. It is still a dark and eerie sounding tune, but this track also impresses with its ability not to ruin the mood through an unnecessary, overwhelming technological aspect or through over-aggressive vocal interruptions. Yes, Andreas still relies pretty much on his heavily saturated, fx-processed vocal performance but at least here it doesn't disturb at all. If it generally needs a point of constructive criticism, then I tend to call his fx-manipulations on his Alien-like vocals as being a part which could need some refining or at least a bit more variation here and there.

“Memories Dissolved” reminds me pretty much to the opening tune in a good manner, while the title track “Epilogue of Fear” with its almost tarnished percussion loops and its epic, evolving pad sounds leaves the listener once again speechless – maybe this one represents the most Puppy-like tune on this whole album, it's simply brilliant arranged. “Antagonize” follows in the track row of a high-quality produced Dark Electro output and this one features Kai Neugebauer of Les Berrtas and ner\ogris (this is a new collaborative project with Tino Claus of Amnistia / TC75 and signed to Dependent Records - soon more about them...), who co-produced and mixed this tune.

At least with “Last Day” you'll get another instrumental and slow-stalking tune on which Andreas proves again his talent to produce Ambient-like, transitional soundscapes so eerie and haunting. 10 original tracks plus two quality remix contributions by the Hands-recording project Syntech on “Hidden Perceptions” and a classic reinterpretation on “Mescaline Crisis (Epic Clubmix by Wide Dreams)”, taken originally from Andreas' DCD set “Mechanisms of Faith”, released in 2012 on Electro Aggression Records. Especially the last one with Martin Sane of Fix8:Sed8 providing the guest vocals gives this album at least that sort of a stomping dancefloor-oriented tune which has been missed so far. Andreas with his rather mid-tempo-based dystopian compositions lacks a bit of dancefloor compatibility, so this remix seems to be ideal to raise Object towards to the floors at every dark club.

I agree with the given information sheet that “Epilogue of Fear” stands up-to-date to be Andreas' most darkest, pessimistic and dystopian album so far, while this all shouldn't wonder with a fair look on the current times. Precisely mastered by the ultra-talented Vincent Uhlig (2nd Face) and packaged in a beautiful conceived digipak design with a rainy, autumn-like artwork by Caroline Malik, this album satisfies all needs and expectations of a top-notch produced Dark Electro- / Industrial-album of our times.