Sordid reviews - 30/10/01.

Psyche - Sanctuary EP (artoffact)
The North American release of 'Sanctuary' is a weightier object than its European predecessor, with ten tracks, including remixes of three songs. Alongside the title track, there's 'Unbreakable', as heard on the Accession comp. There are three new mixes of 'Sanctuary' - the banging trance mix by Negative Format, a thumping bassline on the ravey Implant mix and the ultra dancey Icon of Coil mix. Of the three, though, the last is the only one to retain the vocal line completely, the other three have a much more authentic dance mix feel. Other mixes include 'Misguided Angels' by Headscan, where the electro sound is completely changed with an ultra fast (almost gabba) speed techno backing. Finally, there's the Massiv in Mensch mix of 'Unbreakable', which IS massive, a huge anthemic techno-EBM mix a là Covenant. As a bonus, the three mixes from the Accession Records single are included, but they do pale into comparison to the five cracking mixes that precede them.

Diorama - her liquid arms (Accession)
In contrast with many of their labelmates, Diorama have not fully taken the plunge into techno. This is very much EBM, even though it does borrow elements from the various different forms of dance music. Diorama is not among the new breed, but, like Cut.rate.box, they do manage to make EBM sound fairly fresh. Much of Diorama's appeal lies in the powerful emotive vocals Torben Wendt. At times, the atmospherics are strong enough that they could even be called darkwave. All in all, this is a tasty and enjoyable release, if not exactly innovative.

megadump - alles, was du willst... (Accession)
"Large shit", sorry, Megadump (that really is an awful name for a band) follow their debut release with this full-length album. It all starts out well, banging industrial techno with gravelly German vocals on 'tod und teufel'. 'never stop' is, due to the bad English of the vocals, a bit less cool, but it's 'hass mich!' that's the real let down. It's a blatant copy of Rammstein's 'Du hast' that even seems to be based on the incorrect translation of 'Du hast' as 'you hate'! Why a band that had put its own mark on the scene would retreat to copying a style of music that's dropped so much out of fashion escapes me. From that point on, Megadump cease to be one of the shining lights of the new breed. Copying Rammstein's not all they do, how about a synth-pop ballad? Well, here's the dreadful 'let you down'. The album stumbles through bad indus, bad electro, boring synths, completely failing to live up to the promise of their innovative debut. Pity.

Various - very introspective, actually: a tribute to the Pet Shop Boys (Dancing Ferret)
I said about the Succubus Club compilation that it was surprising it wasn't on Cleopatra. Well look what we have here - a tribute album and guess who's at the top of the thanks list - Athan Maroulis, formerly of Spahn Ranch and, of course, the man responsible for many of Cleopatra's crimes against music. This is truly awful - really, it is. The only good thing about it is that it reminds you how good the Pet Shop Boys really were. Most of the versions are simply terrible, not in any way imaginative or inspired, just bad. There's the odd completely strange version, like Human Drama's folky flute filled 'This must be the place I've waited years to leave'. Motormark's hyper jungle take on 'Left to my own devices' or the aforementioned Athan's lounge version of 'Heart' with Zeitmahl do raise an eyebrow of interest, but they're swamped by crap versions of great songs.
It does improve somewhat towards to end, as the ever-eccentric Momus (what's he doing hanging out with this crowd?) presents a deliciously overblown version of 'So Hard'. Hungry Lucy can't really do much wrong and their delicate take on 'Jealousy' is lovely. As one is trying to block out what Daniel Myers (as Cleaner) does to 'You know where you went wrong' (what did it, what did it, what did it do to deserve that?), recent Recoil collaborator Nicole Blackman gives us an amazing spoken word version of 'West end girls' - dark, brooding and intense with atmospheric noises by John Van Eaton. It all wraps up with the very telling version of 'Being Boring'. David J sounds like he picked up a guitar and casually threw off a version that is the only thing on offer that's actually better than the original. But hey, it is David J! Despite the much too rare flash of acceptable music, this is another tribute to add to the list of criminal acts.

Girls Under Glass - Frozen (Van Richter)
GUG finally release their first US single, their much-vaunted cover of Madonna's 'Frozen', and it is, without a doubt, too late. When their "Nightmares" compilation was first aimed at the US market in '99, there was a chance it would do something for them. It established them as a band with a strong and enduring standing in the European darkwave/EBM scene and pointed to a bit of dancefloor cred to come. Since then, they've been completely overtaken by the Apoptygma-led techno-EBM assault on the States. 'Frozen' sounds dated, a retro, rather than modern, EBM take on the dark pop song. Much the same is to be said of the other five tracks - 'Wings' is an atmospheric Das Ich remix where it should really be a banging Assemblage 23 mix. Then there's 'The bitter end' from '97's "Firewalker", 'Desire lasts forever' from '99's "Equilibrium", 'Grey in Grey' from '92's "Darius" and 'Don't be afraid' from '93's "Christus" - what the hell are they doing releasing MORE back-catalogue stuff when they need to come up with some new material? Unless they release something a lot more up-to-date and absolutely breathtaking, GUG have just consigned themselves to the history books.

Alan Moore & Tim Perkins - The Highbury working (RE:)
Not a new release, but worth mentioning simply because I haven't before (and because they're just about to release a new CD, "Angel Passage"), this is simply the most atmospheric album I've ever heard. Follow the sibilant rich voice of comic-book maestro and bearded occultist, Alan Moore, through the history of the all-but-forgotten Highbury region of London. The drug-crazed Samuel Coleridge, the freakshow of phantoms and Siamese twins, Aleister Crowley's magic, Joe Meek's music and suicide, the Kray twins murderous activities, the construction of the Underground, the first Arsenal team with amphetamine psychosis all related in rich and evocative words and backed by an experimental and ground-breaking collection of sounds and music. This takes atmospheric music from the realm of floaty esoterics and explodes it with screeches and beats. This isn't something to relax to, this is a history like it was never taught in school, dirty sleazy, completely entrancing with a unique musical power that supports the words without ever drowning them. Turn this up load and let the pictures form in your mind.

boole - boole (dancing bull)
The first track on this is a ridiculously stupid and pointless piece of disco silliness that makes Sneaky Bat Machine look like classical music. 'Disco Vampyre', with its Alvin and the Chipmonks vocals and bad disco beats almost made me quit listening to it and ignore the rest of the CD. However, persistence is rewarded, as it does get a lot better. It's never completely serious and obeys no rules about style or content, but the industrial techno take-off of Kraftwerk on 'Kraftjob' actually shows considerable skill. 'Subversitech' is absolutely cracking, a mix of techno beats and retro electronics that leaves the likes of Daft Punk standing. From there on, everything goes into the mix, techno, funk, punk, industrial - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes, like on 'Panic', with some lyrics Smiths fans may recognise put through a voccoder and put to a disco beat ("hang the DJ, hang the DJ"), it's just completely mad. This is actually quite fun, if you don't take it too seriously and don't mind things getting a bit cheesy.

Slut Freak - Rok Anthems (Slut Puppy)
Oh dear. Every now and again something like this pops up, a band that thinks they're doing something new in dark electronica without any knowledge of the scene that's been around for over 20 years now! A cursory glance over their press release shows them name-checking Cradle of Filth, Underworld and Cabaret Voltaire. This is a bizarre combo, to be sure, but all that comes out at the end is some generic retro electronica, influenced by the likes of Cabaret Voltairs/Throbbing Gristle and co. with some blunt dance music elements added in, but its missing everything in between, the likes of Test Dept or Front 242 or KMFDM. There's tons and tons of this stuff around in the so-called post-industrial scene and it's largely as boring as this. It's too slow most of the time, the samples are unoriginal and it really sounds like Slut Freak have never heard anything from Wax Trax. Because, if they had, they'd probably have come up with something more interesting and inventive than this.

loretta's doll - creeping sideways (Middle Pillar)
As Derek Rush has now joined with Loretta's Doll, it's difficult not to compare this release to the stuff he's already done with Bryin Dall (Dream into Dust, A Murder of Angels). Initially, this suffers, it's not as immediately captivating and, at first, seems a lot more dense and coarse. For example, Bryin's growling vocals and the almost overpowering backing noises of 'Nature' is initially a simple wall of noise. It takes quite a few listens to get beyond that density and reach the complexity beneath. This is not an ethereal album, it's hard and coarse and often noisy, it's music as much for its own sake as to create an atmosphere. But it's challenging and interesting and enjoying it's a much more long-term project than your average atmospheric compilation. And who could criticise the collaborators, when you've got Orson Welles orating in MacBeth over the industrial backing of 'Song of Solomon' or Genesis P. Orridge caustic criticisms of humanity on 'the disconnected'. The stand-out track, other than the afore-mentioned, is 'Covered in the Wild Roses', on which Bryin offers us a booming spoken word offering with Lovecraftian symbolism over a pulsing electronic backing. This ain't easy listening, but it is worthwhile if you give it time.

Technoir - samples
This isn't a release per se, but rather a collection of tracks to mark the end of one phase of Technoir's existence and the beginning of a new one. Steffen Gehring's been joined by Julia Beyer on vocals, moving the band from its former status as a mainly instrumental band creating electronic dance soundscapes to a more techno-influenced vocal band, with Julia's somewhat All About Eve-esque vocals. This CD contains some of both styles, showing where the band has come from and where they are going. The future is shown brightest in their dancefloor targeted techno version of Ultravox's 'The Voice', a track that featured on the "Cryonica Tanz" compilation. Technoir have the potential to take a position at the forefront of the techno-EBM scene and they are well placed to do so.

Thread - Abnormal Love (Middle Pillar)
Thread creates electronic music that is both scarily original and yet easily accessible. These sounds are quite unlike anything anyone else is doing right now, they have an organic feel in their technological precision, confirming James Izzo's own description of himself as a cybernetic musician. There are a lot of paradoxes in here, the music is often chaotic yet rhythmic, structured yet emotive. Mixing all forms of electronic music together in a way that is all his own, topped with his own rather monotone, but expressive vocals, Thread is never boring, always entrancing. This features a duet with the equally unpredictable Jarboe right in the middle, on 'In Sweet Sorrow', a melodic and tender piece with a pseudo-classical feel to the electronic sounds. 'Blue Darkness', which follows it, has a stated classical feel as it is the Orchestral Mix and shows how progressive electronic music does not need to be necessarily po-faced or overblown. Jarboe also features on the more chaotic and noisy industrial noises of 'Contours' a track that couldn't be more different from the other duet if it tried. This is a diverse and powerful collection of innovative and experimental music and is well worth taking time out to listen to.

Shimri - Lilies of the Field (artoffact)
This is an incredibly boring release from the former Mentallo & the Fixer frontman. Shimri "specialises" in extended instrumental electronic workouts lasting fix or six minutes. They excel at repeating the same blips, beats and whirrs over and over again for what seems like an eternity. Sometimes they're slow, like on the excruciating 'Retrograde motion', at other times they pick up the pace a bit, like on 'Vendetta', but they consistently fail to be interesting.