Reviews: electronica

(idm / electronica / technoid)

Flint Glass – Nyarlathotep

This release is impressive at first sight: a luxurious fold-out digipack with great artwork and a cd crammed with music. Nyarlathotep takes you deep into the bowels of the earth and is inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

ICK – Les Actions Rétro-Actives

ICK is the radical French nihiltronix project that is known from its release on Hau Ruck! and other labels. This new LP shows that the project is moving more and more from old style industrial to traditional minimal electronics territory.

Saltillo – Ganglion

From Hive Records I usually expect harsh and complex electronic music. With their side-label Suspicious Records, the musical scope is widened. Saltillo, a new name for me, is mostly the solo project of one Menton J. Matthews III, aclassically trained musician who plays a whole orchestra of instruments by himself and also does the electronic […]

Oil 10 – Beyond

Beyond is the follow-up album to Arena (Brume Records, 2003) and the first thing I hear of Oil 10 since the split 10? with Empusae on Divine Comedy Records. Oil 10 is the brainchild of Frenchman Gilles Rossire. He produces electronic music in the shadowzones of ambient and techno.

Implant – Fading Away

The Belgian act Implant is one of those acts that is hard to define if you want to put them into a niche like EBM, electroclash, electro, industrial or any of those. Implant just is Implant and brings a lot of varied music. Before releasing their seventh album, the crowd is pleased with this EP […]

Antigen Shift – The way of the north

Antigen Shift, a project initiated by Nick Thériault from Canada, made a good impression on me in the past with an industrial soundscape style. The way of the north appears to me as quite a departure from his previous work.

Ginormous – The Endless Procession

Most of the time Hymen comes up with good releases. From time to time their releases are even more then just good. This Ginormous album is one of those. Expect no standard IDM. This is really something else.

Duo505 – Late

I had to pick up this cd when I saw it at a fleamarket for a single euro. Morr Music is a respected label in the field of contemporary electronica, and B. Fleischmann has built up a name with his harmonic electro soundscapes. For Duo 505 he worked together with the lesser known Herbert Weixelbaum.

Detritus – Origin

When I first encountered cdr’s of Detritus I found the music directly exciting. Now Detritus has released his second album on Ad Noiseam. The musical recipe has not changed that much, only the musical spectrum has become wider and the production richer.

Reutoff vs. Antlers Mulm – Kreuzung Eins

Here we have an interesting collaboration: Reutoff from Russia and Antlers Mulm from Germany. On this streamlined looking LP release both acts contribute an exclusive track, as well as remix two tracks of each other.

Ich Wollte, Ich Könnte – Musique au mètre

Elitepop is the bold name of a new label from The Netherlands. Their first release is directly something special; a limited vinyl single with special packaging by Ich Wollte, Ich Könnte, a new side-project of Wermut.

Architect – The Analysis Of Noise Trading

Daniel Meyer is well known as electronic musician in gothic, industrial and idm/electronica circles. This new record is what Skinny Puppy could have been today.

V/A – Polymorphic Piece 3/3

The third and last chapter in the Polymorphik series is a remix album. This time the record opens with two rather atmospheric pieces.

V/A – Polymorphik: Piece 2/3

This is the second chapter in the breakcore / experimental electronics trilogy of the Belgian
PuZZling Records.

Ab Ovo – Empreintes

One year after ‘le temps suspendu…’ Jérôme Chassagnard and Régis Baillet present their second Ant-Zen release.

Hecq – Bad Karma

The third record for Hecq, the second for Hymen. On this new record there are still hints of other idm / electronic music artists in his music, but more and more his own style is being displayed.

Hanin Elias -­ Future Noir

Hanin Elias was the front woman of Atari Teenage Riot. Now she is the label boss of Fatal Recordings and producer of electronic music with a punk attitude.

Stelladrine – You’ll never see your world again

Stelladrine is a project that chose for a humoristic angle in their release. The entire concept of ‘You’ll never see your world again’ is that of a bad science fiction movie from the fifties.

Daemonia Nymphe – Remixed

Daemonia Nymphe from Thessaloniki, Greece, has a quite original style of music. They try to recreate the sounds of ancient Greece with the help of reproductions of ancient Greek instruments. Often the resulting music is quite ritual and esoteric, in songs about satyrs, gods, nymphs and other mythological creatures…

V/A – Signs Sampler

This compilation, which came out about a half a year ago, intends to give an overview of the current EBM/electronic scene in (mainly) Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Ten projects from those countries are present, all unknown to me before. Two renowned guests were flown in to make the cd even more interesting: Flint Glass and Polygon…