• Contributed Releases (45)

• Browse Collection (32)

• Browse Wantlist (17)

• Contact

Hansel - Lorentzian Lineshaper - 28-Jan-08 08:32 AM
After a stunning Respond_Violence, Boston-based Hansel had lofty expectations to live up to. Unfortunately, Lorentzian Lineshaper is far from being a worthy follow-up to it's groundbreaking predecessor.

The album sounds better, but that's the only way in which it outshines Respond_Violence. The compositions, althought solid and interesting, are simple and short. Repeated over and over again, sometimes for several minutes into a track before any change actually happend, they tend to become annoying rather fast.

Perhaps it should be telling that the best song on the record is Hookwormz, which was previously released on the Subatomic Particles EP. Should the album have been as eclectic, everchanging and finely crafted as this song, it could have flat-out outclassed Respond_Violence. However, this is simply not the case.

It's unfortunate that this album isn't even half what it could have been. But even with all these flaws, it's still a good album; one that let the hope live on. The hope that someday, somehow, Hansel will get back to their former brilliance.

Futurisk - The Sound Of Futurism 1980 / Army Now - 20-Aug-06 08:38 AM
An essential piece of work, The Sound Of Futurism is a record that perfectly blends the first steps of modern synthpunk with abstract noise, with a deep, deep production value.

On side A, Army Now, this dizzy, fuzzy, mixed hymn to war, blows up in a burst of conflicting synths and crunchy guitars. The vocal delievery is delicious, complementing the music perfectly, being as gritty and film-noir as possible.

On side B, Futurisk unveil what may be their most forgotten piece of work, the bittersweet What We Have To Have. Starting with a squarish, happy synth, the melody soon drown into more somber tones and finally reveal a hint of... ehm, "musical cynism", if you know what I mean.

And that's where it ends. After searching this vynil for... oh, well, way too long to remember, I was kind of disappointed that it barely lasted 7 minutes. But in retrospective, these 7 minutes of music were amongst the best ones I've ever experienced.

A truly visionary record.

Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa, The - Slowthinking - 14-Feb-06 05:37 AM
After nearly 12 years of making noises and rocking the guitars, The Ecstacy Of Saint Theresa lived an incredible number of changes, both in line-up and in sound. The first thing one will remark is that this album is maybe their finest moment ever. Then, to anyone who heard The Ecstacy Of Saint Theresa's previous album, In Dust 3, the jump to Slowthinking will be hard and easy at the same time. The electronic edge returns : the delicate voice of Katerina Winterova recover cleverly crafted beats, compromised of glitches and hard explosions, and that alone could be breath-taking. But everything take a new turn when the duo decided to trade most of the synth-armada of In Dust 3 for an insane amount of organic instruments. The final equation is rather confusing, but this album isn't just another innocent experiment : in fact, it's nearing on perfection in almost every aspect.

From the groovy moments of Local Distortion to the thin-ice-fragile works of Plain.com, everything recalls the magic of geniuses like Björk or Fourtet, all the while never feeling like it was meant to sound like it. Whether it sounds at moments like an acoustic version of T. Raumschmiere or like the best moments of Schneider TM's hybrid works (with a whole orchestra behing him, that is), the music of Slowthining is simply too good to be true and show the way to go to many artists who seek to conjugate minimal glitches with organic components.

On the whole record there is only one song which could have been done better, and it's "Then I'd Have Less Time For Myself". But then again, asking more than Slowthiking has to offer would surely be asking for too much.

Nitsch & Gleinser - Deuxieme - 26-Nov-05 06:24 AM
The first release on Voltage Musique was sporting the label's arrogant slogan : "Fantastique musique for fantastique people", French-induced typos included. Nevertheless, that release held La Deuxième's first incarnation and for that alone, the slogan became more true than anyone expected it to be.

Two years and five releases passed since at Voltage Musique and the moment came to unveil once again that killer track, due to popular demand. The song itself is based on a rather strange idea : take the most growly analog synth you can find, add a retro string, lay a BIG (I mean HUGE) church organ sound over it and then, while maintaining the aforementionned, drop a phat, heavy bass lead. Then, when the chorus (well, kind of an instrumental chorus) comes, a weird Commodore64-reminescent (are we hearing a sidstation here ?) sound which bombs in with an unsure tremolo. The track really reach it's peak when this particular sound is twisted hard-time by the German duo and then starts over again, just satisfying you with one of the weirdest electro releases ever. What Nitsch & Gleinser did here is a fine piece of electronic music that is sure to stay around for years to come...

That's for the B-side, which is, well, the original. Now there's the A-side, which is supposed to be a remix. But there is no organ, no Commodore64 tremolo, no silly strings and really no growling synths. However, it's still agressive, and it surely manage to get one's ass moving on a dancefloor. The track is brilliant and it's very "spanking new" in the fashion, with destroyed loops and modern acid synths screaming everywhere. You know, typical "bounce-it-or-die" stuff, but nothing short of becoming a classic. Too fashioned to please the market. We'll leave the "classic !" mention to the original. It justifies buying the release on it's own.

Fischerspooner - Odyssey - 03-Oct-05 09:18 PM
Fischerspooner. The royal family of electroclash. Yeah yeah... that's it, and I'm a donkey.

After getting huge success with their debut album, #1, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner had some serious financial problems (no joke). So, away they went. Fischerspooner wasn't just a music band. They were the head of an art creation crew, their show involved dancers, costumes, video sequences... their videoclips were the finest examples of what a clip should be. Artsy, original, inventive, beat-oriented... summed up in one word : creative.

2004, Fischerspooner claim they'll be back. But there's some kind of a problem : they say they will change the formula. Now don't get me bad : I like it alot when bands change, when they evolve. But the big Fischerspooner machine was quite impressive and everyone's first idea was : how in the world will they be able to renew both sound and image ? THe answer was a blatant letdown : they flushed the dancers, the fashion, the costumes and the spectacular show. They gathered a band around them, left the electroclash, took a 70's reminescent sound and worshipped it with producers like Mirwais and Nicolas Vernhes, waiting for a big hit. Well, don't get me bad : all the songs are good. But just, you know, good. Good as in "good-not-great". Some are great. But you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Just Let Go, We Need A War and Ritz 107. That's it. The rest isn't that different from the bullshit you hear everyday on your radio, the only real difference being that the melody are more intelligent, but just a little. As for videoclips, yes, they still do fascinating stuff. But you know, I will not buy an album everytime I watch a sweet music video. Where Fischer's and Spooner's so heard-of passion for the electroclash went ? Well, don't search it in their Odyssey : it is as empty as an old nutshell. A thirty-something years old one. 3/5

View all 20 reviews...