‘Comrades in lost’ is a multimedia (!) compilation aiming to introduce people to the Latvian industrial community. A community I’d never heard from before, but definitely worth checking out more thoroughly after this splendid introduction.

The CD part consists of music engineers such as Traur Zot (three tracks), Devnoise (three tracks), Claustrum (three tracks) 20t (two tracks) and Barodarho and Knauzers; both present with a single track.

Traur Zot opens the compilation with a very dark and heavy track titled ‘Kas tu esi?’ I’m immediately warped into the time in which underground industrial was still interesting. Very powerful rumblings, distorted spoken-word samples, beatings and overall brooding menace are posed upon the listeners sad ears. Unsettling and rich in noise and structure. Akin to Folkstorm, Death Squad and Brighter Death Now, but with much more variation.

Also Devnoise isn’t suitable to play during a picknick in the sun. Again, sounding like tearing all the illusory veils of happiness and light from the world, uncovering a brutal demon engine called civilisation. More influences from Haus Arafna and November Novelet are present in this angst-pop. Noisescapes are the foundation on which rhythmic, danceable tracks are build.

Claustrum: damn, what is Claustrum? Again I’m stunned by the high quality of the noises, more nervous and sizzling, beating and evolving. For every track and every artist counts that they do not make noise, or dark-industrial or ambient exclusively. It’s all blended into a complex and exciting mixture.

2Ot is like a visitation to the mental ward where the listener is lobotomised with high pitched shrieks and penetrating electronic noises. It reminds me of the less harsh stuff made by the Italian Atrax Morgue. Still, it is just as unsettling and disturbing. This is also the case with Borodarho, although this project has a more varied and complex structure. With Knauzers we return to the genre of angst-pop. Very enjoyable and pleasantly frightening.

Since I’m not a reviewer of graphic multimedia design, I’ll just give you the artists description of what is to be found on your pc when ‘Comrades in lost’ is inserted (if compatible of course, but most pc’s are):
‘The multimedia cd is an artist’s subjective perception of the industrial topic. The cd is developed as 3D acoustically visual space with gates and rooms, which can be navigated, creating impression of real space.’
One can enter these rooms and to do so is to trigger different noise sculptures. With an internet connection, updates are available.

I hope I’m clear on this one: these guys from Latvia are creative, inspired and enthusiastic sound-artists, not to be ignored.

Author: JS. Published on: Sunday, August 14th, 2005.
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