X Marks The Pedwalk* ‎– Meshwork

On their previous album "the killing had begun" XMTP were beginning to explore more technologically advanced sounds and were looking to step out of the shadow of their previous incarnation, which often earned them the reputation of being the “European Skinny Puppy.” Meshwork is a polarizing album for many fans of the band, some preferring their skinny puppy clone music of the first 3 albums, and some (like myself, obviously!) preferring the well layered and programmed techno material. I think this album is a landmark, and it actually shows how fickle and moronic much of the electro industrial fan base is, given that when this was released in 1994, it had many detractors, crying murder that an EBM band would have the audacity to shift to clean vocals and techno structures, only to jump on the bandwagon en mass when this sound slowly became the new norm for the scene (spitting it between people who like their ears to bleed listening to rhythmic noise, and the other half liking this more "future pop" stuff).

The record itself stands up quite well to scrutiny 16 years later. It's "techno" but more from a goa angle. The songs take their time to build the layering, and they move through some nice transitions. Lyrically, XMTP have never been very deep or stimulating, I would suspect due to the fact (which is common for alot of German bands) that they don't speak English, or don't speak it very well and yet record and sing their lyrics in English. However, despite the lyrics being nothing earth shattering, the sound of Severin's voice more than makes up for it. He has one of the best clean vocals in this genre of music hands down, and moving past the need to scream and/or distort his voice like on previous outings was a definite plus for Meshwork.