Reviews
8/IX/00
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ADRIAN ALEXIS "Random Cuts" / (p)99 Perimeter Sound Arts
This CD became a real surprise for me. To say the truth, the majority of
promos and demos of young bands does not arouse any enthusiasm but of course
one might also single out some masterpieces from them and naturally these
outstanding bands get contracts rather fast.
The given CD undoubtedly
belongs to masterpiece branch, recorded in 1993 it was released only last
year by musicians own efforts and became available for the masses. It's
almost impossible to describe the style of the album, for its material is so
original and diverse, ranging from gothic ballads and death rock to almost
new wave compositions and piano passages. The whole album is a result of a
solo work of singer, multi-instrumentalist, painter, poet and just an
extraordinary and eccentric personality - ADRIAN ALEXIS. Every track is a
sole conceptual piece, bearing its message and idea. All the compositions
are gathered in rather a heterogeneous album, but this heterogeneity doesn't
disturb the perception, on the contrary, it creates quite an unusual
atmosphere, successfully stressing the separate ones. I would like to note
the charismatic vocal of Adrian Alexis, at times reminding Peter Gabriel,
Gary Numan or even Peter Murphy. Separate place is given to lyrics. The
greater part of compositions is rather ironic (for instance a kind of parody
track "I want to be a vampire"), but there are enough of serious
compositions devoted to the essence of life and death (the occult influences
are noticeable in Adrian's work with the naked eye...and ear, too).
Excellent, original and distinct album - a rare occurring thing nowadays. If
you manage to get it, I think you won't be disappointed.
coroner
http://www.icehouse.net/alexis/
CENTURIA "Dreams And Feelings" / (p)00 Black Flames
I first saw Centuria at the Castle Party, and their performance impressed me greatly, which caused my immediate purchase, right after the concert, of their debut album, Dreams and Feelings. The title of the album reflects its contents better than enough.
Listening, one finds oneself in a dream, and his feelings differ from light melancholy to deep sadness. The music is so catchy that you finally dissolve in it, acquiring the ability to float on the air of mysterious dimensions and emotions, and the heavenly voice (as written in the booklet) of Anne, the vocalist, becomes the guide in the endless curves of starlight.
If I should break from the emotional side and speak of the music, the latter is a combination of various electro canvases with the splendid voice of the vocalist and sometimes guitar fragments. All this combined creates a music easy to perceive and listen at a gulp. In the end, I even felt sorry that the running time was only 44 minutes; I would listen to it on and on!
To tell the truth, this is a most strong debut of one of the most promising bands of Poland (maybe of Europe, or of the world). The CD is highly recommended. Problems with that are hardly possible, because it is distributed by such a monster as SPV. You wouldn’t object that such luck is very rare with debuts of unknown young musicians - it is not another prove of their potential?
Sergey Merenkov
CHIASM "Demo" / 00 demo
Apart from gothic scene, where females achieved considerable results in
music sphere, electro/industrial scene hasn't gladdened us by industrial
divas, and if there occurred any women in some bands, they played
exclusively supporting roles. And at last we have an exception from this
rule. One-girl-band CHIASM founded by Emileigh Rohn convincingly proves that
fair sex representatives can successfully work in such brutal and unwomanly
genre as dark electro. All tracks are quite original and don't sound much
alike. Every composition is a complete first rate club electro hit. Rigid
but romantic electro with Emileigh's vocals (through distorted) and plenty
of samples, plus a distinctive feature - piano passages in the background.
It is clearly heard, that music is created by a woman - I don't mean vocals
but the music itself. To my mind it's a great merit, because it possesses
some special charm and sensitivity, the traits not peculiar to dark electro.
The quality of the given demo doesn't arouse any doubts and it was the same
with the label COP int., which is about to release CHIASM's debut album.
coroner
CINEMA STRANGE "Cinema Strange" / (p)00 Sad Eyes/Trisol
Hardly have we reviewed the promo-singles of this American band, when we received their freshly squeezed album. As you see, the latter was released in Germany, which is quite reasonable: the sound and the look of CINEMA STRANGE as anything but American, and very close to brutal German gothic. If we investigate deeper, we see that the band inspires in the relatively far past, in the British, like a baby unborn, Goth subculture of the 80s. They look as if they have been transported in a time machine directly from the Batcave, a cult gothic club in England, where all the forefathers of the contemporary gothic music would perform. At present the word “batcave” is already a common noun, denoting a gothic with rude and depressive sound, which is right about CINEMA STRANGE. The only evidence pointing to the fact that it was recorded nowadays, is the quality of the record. In contrast to early Goths, who would record their masterpieces on low-quality MC recorders, in our case everything is recorded and mixed just as a real gothic album should be. Although there are traces of archaic sound everywhere: the naive drum-machine, the guitar fragments, the androgyny vocals. By the way, the vocals are goddam lovely, Lucas, the vocalist of the band, has reached such perfection in androgyny singing, that I was quite assured, listening to the promo, that it was a woman singing. Moreover, the vocals aren’t the same, they are very mutable and unpredictable, sometimes the voice sounds like the vocal of a real batcave band, and sometimes like sick laments of Anne-Varney (SOPOR AETERNUS). I mention the cult German project because there are really a lot of things that trace us back to SA, and even to the early creative work of Anne-Varney, which contained some pos-punk nuances - I think it was due to that that the band got the contract with the German label Trinity. Their possible post-punk influence - SEX GANG CHILDREN, SKELETAL FAMILY and X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND - and in fact they sound like this - on the break of archaic post-punk and sick gothic by SOPOR AETERNUS. A very good release, with original and nonstandard sound. Highly recommended.
coroner
CYCLOTIMIA "New Death Order" / (p)00 State Art
The release of this CD is a great event, it is not very often that Russian gothic/industrial bands get to western labels, although some are lucky enough to have an audience not only in Russia. Amidst the new wave of industrial and gothic bands, CYCLOTIMIA are the first to release an album at a western label, but believe me, they are not the last. And although this CD is only a 30 minutes long mini CD, it is a very big step. We can long speak about the reasons why western labels to not accept Russian bands, but from my point of view it is due to the non-professionalism of the majority of them; even those that play interesting music, that could be of interest to western labels, do not go to the end and their music remains known only in Russia. It is no secret that “there” both gothic and industrial music make a small show-business, but if you want to join this business, you should try your best and - which is the most important - you should make music professionally. CYCLOTIMIA has always done it so, from the very beginning (which was in 1998), they have been doing music seriously, that is why I think the release of this CD is a reasonable effect of the project’s progress.
As for the “New Death Order”, it is a conceptual release, devoted to global spread of Americanism, although political correctness is not only an American feature, today’s Germany is a country even more politically correct than USA, which caused some changes both in the tracklist and in the CD cover. The original sleeve was changed by the label, because the latter found it rather provocative (there were the logo and style of McDonalds), and it was ousted by a picture of three geezers, symbolizing the “New Death Order”. (By the way, all the cover stuff was designed by Chthon, a member of RGP.) One track, featuring samples from a speech by Gabbles, which is nearly a crime in contemporary Germany, so the track was excluded. In the end we have five tracks 30 minutes long in total. As for the music, it is made up by industrial, noise and ambient soundscapes. There are percussion/industrial moments, but in general the album is perceived as a solid soundscape, from time to time there appear copyright CYCLOTIMIA’s choral samples, heavy industrial noise collages actually squeeze your brain and influence the subconscious. I think that the fans of such music will not be disillusioned, although I confess I like rhythmic CYCLOTIMIA better.
coroner
GOTHIC LETHARGY "Breathless and Abandoned" / (p)98 Selfreleased
What an interesting phenomenon "one-man-band" is! Experience shows that they
are as usual practically not long-living ones - any other organization of
creative group (duo, trio, quartet and so forth up to symphonic orchestra)
appears to be far more productive and long-living. What makes more and more
people create bands comprising themselves only, in proud solitude? For some
people solo work is indeed the optimal variant, but they are few. I guess
the reason is rather evident for the many - the absence of the like-minded.
And if such thing occurs in European countries, where goths multiply like
rabbits, what can be said of our "gothic" country? Though we have enough
gothic bands, the majority of them is founded by sole persons and every band
has a charismatic leader, shadowing all other members. But these
"like-minded" are rare birds at some places as we have plenty of
one-man-bands. The further described project belongs to the same
kind...hmmm, but why one-man-band??? GOTHIC LETHARGY is a one-girl-band! We
haven't come across such thing in our young gothic scene. The project is
founded by Elena Pravikova and is located in the Orel city. The fact of
"discovery" (it's hard to call it appearance, because the demo was recorded
in 1998) of another gothic project on the Russian vast lands (moreover in
the city not yet marked on the 'gothic' map) is pleasing, and the fact it's
founded by only one girl is twice pleasing.
And now it's time to estimate Elena's work, presented on this demo. As one
could imagine, the basis of the music is electronic symphonism in the vein
of PENITENT, ARCANA, STOA. Though it's evident, that due to many factors
(the quality of equipment and recording) the "symphonism" of the enumerated
groups and "symphonism" of GOTHIC LETHARGY are polar things, but there's
nothing one can do. The analogy with PENITENT is the most evident (but I
guess, the author hasn't even heard such name), but it's inevitable for
projects with such sound to be compared to Karsten Hamre's activity. But
what Elena definitely has heard is DEAD CAN DANCE and their influence is
felt in this work. Demo consists of 6 tracks (and a short outro). The album
is opened by a composition "Breathless and Abandoned", enriched with goth
keyboards in the spirit of PENITENT and ARCANA. The composition is rather
emotional but not so original. The second - "My Consolation" is undoubtedly
the hit of the album, starting with sounds of nature. The track gradually
flows into eastern percussion a la DEAD CAN DANCE - beautiful ritual
composition. "Forever in Lethargy" consists of two parts, the first one
continues the eastern theme - a deep eastern percussion plus atmospheric
keyboards. The composition is slower than the previous ones and it's the
very composition to be considered one of the best on the demo. And when I
nearly abandoned the hope of hearing the vocals on "Breathless and
Abandoned" (all previous tracks were instrumental) the second part of the
track began, greater and more atmospheric, with vocals (naturally performed
by Elena). The vocals are beautiful, lyrics are in English, intonations are
good, but it looks like Elena tries to sing in the manner of Lisa Gerrard
and that is not the thing she does best. The track 4 is a vocal version of
"My Consolation" and it is comprehended better and more interesting in such
form. Unfortunately, the vocal tracks are over from this moment, the
following two compositions "Under the same stars" and "The Cradle of
childhood" are instrumentals again. Keyboards (sounding a bit naive) and
synthesized sound of distorted guitar are not the best moments on this demo.
The album ends up with a short nameless outro, light in the mood and
reminding ARCANE ART.
To sum it up, one may say: there is a certain quantity of hits, all the hits
are vocal tracks. The instrumental ones are less successful, the recording
quality leaves much to be desired, but the order of tracks is optimal and as
a whole the demo is perceived not like an odd set of compositions, but like
a conceptual album. There are no direct borrowings, I doubt Elena has ever
heard any of enumerated bands (except DEAD CAN DANCE). The project has high
potential and I guess this material could be released by some western label,
if it had better recording quality.
coroner
HUNGRY LUCY "Apparitions" / (p)00 Fishtank Soundworks
I've been waiting for such an album for a long time. Now the debut work of
HUNGRY LUCY is well settled in my CD player. No, there's nothing wrong with
the player, the disk hasn't got stuck, but for the last two weeks I
practically haven't taken it out of there. What have this American duet
mesmerized me with?
Of course, it's their music - lyrical, slow, melodic, tragic, romantic, etc.
I can go on listing the epithets forever, this sincere album is saturated
with emotions and excitement. If I was to decribe HUNGRY LUCY's music, I
would choose the recently invented "dark trip-wave" style. There are but a
few bands that play in the same vein, so HUNGRY LUCY can be mentioned with
plenty of justification. Actually, it's very beautiful gothic music at the
junction of ethereal, darkwave and trip-hop, an extremely original
symbiosis. SWITCHBLADE SYMPHONY tried to do something like that on their
last albums, but compared to "Apparitions", their efforts seem comic and
pathetic. As far as I remember, it's the most successful project that puts
together goth and trip-hop, though this symbiosis seemed kind of strange to
me before I heard this recording. The main components of the music -
electronic trip-hop, darkwave and synth rhythms with extremely beautiful and
melodic vocal of Christa Bella. Maybe, her voice is not very powerful, but
quite natural and nice, enveloping and invocating. It seems simple, there's
a bunch of bands that do the same, but why can't they have the same
results? All, I repeat, all the tracks of the album are full-weight,
finished hits, every song is original and individual, some are more
optimistic, other are gloomier, other are tragic. All together, they form a
dark/gothic masterpiece, one in a million. Evidently, there's great future
for them.
P.S. There's a cover - DEPECHE MODE's "Blue Dress", as one could expect,
it's a killer track, one of the best DEPECHE MODE covers I've ever heard!
coroner
THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN "One Winter's Night" / (p)99 Middle Pillar Presents
This album is an example of what can do the people that do not copy the
others' works, but try to create something original. The second full-length
album of TMITG has consolidated their rather stable position on the American
Gothic Olympus.
Really, THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN is one of the leaders of
modern American scene. There arise difficulties already at the stage of
classyfying it - it's not easy to attribute it to some definite genre. There
is beautiful female vocal - but it's not ethereal, there are guitars, but
it's not gothic rock, there're dymanic and sombre electronic beats, but it's
not darkwave either. Though, "darkwave" is the most likely term (I hope,
those zealous for the purity of the genre won't be hurt). The base for this
music is mostly electronic, but there are melodic tracks as well as dynamic
"killers". Stylistically, it's a wild mess, though not fragments of
different styles, tastelessly thrown to form a heap; everything is thought
out and lined-up in the most exquisite manner. From time to time it reminds
of a heavier version of SWITCHBLADE SYMPHONY and CLAIRE VOYANT, sometimes it
can be compared to TRANCE TO THE SUN and AUTUMN. It's extremely emotional
and sensual music, that makes you feel a wide range of quite different
emotions and shades of feelings. Though I mentioned the fact that the album
is exquisitely thought out, it's absolutely sincere as well, and may be
because of the sincere feelings of the duet Roger Frace-Summer Bowman, it
produces a marvellous impression.
coroner
http://www.io.com/~tmitg/links.html/
SOULGRINDER "Enter" / (p)98 Moriensis Production
The album of the Swedish band SOULGRINDER was officially released in 1998 by
a local label "Moriensis Production", though it was sent to us only now. The
duet (now already a trio) of Lillman brothers, Niclas and Daniel, turned out
to be a decent and rather competitive band.
The musicians themselves define the style of music as "dark
gothrock/gothmetal", and, frankly speaking, i can but agree with them. The
dominating element of their music is gothic metal, though there are definite
echoes and from time to time soft breathing of gothic rock. The sound in
general reminds me in some rather elusive manner of the band called EQUINOX
OF THE GODS, well known in certain circles. Though, I can not definitely
say, whether it's due to general sound, simple keyboard lines and specific
thick guitars, characteristic vocal or who knows what else. The allusions
are quite stable, without distinct plagiarism, though. In general, all the
tracks are rather short, not longer that 3,5 minutes, most are
middle-tempoed (though there are faster tracks as well), quite even and easy
to remember - hits, as one would call them. The whole album is very even,
without any failures and twists. It's rather a decent CD for the numerous
fans of gloomy middle-tempoed gothic metal. I only doubt the possibility of
purchasing this album (except from the official site -
http://www.soulgrinder.com), cause the label has practically no
distribution.
I highly recommend this album to the fans of THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS - you
won't be dissapointed, I bet.
Sergey Merenkov
(c) 2000 Russian Gothic Project
Design by Chthon (c) 1999
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