The first release on the new Russian label Monopoly Records, and my first acquintance with Cyclotimia, who previously released material on Stateart amongst others. This project is already active for more than a decade. The industrial music which they started with was later combined with other electronic styles, to achieve a hard to describe mixture of various influences. They call it ‘L`Electronique Mondial’ themselves. Important conceptual themes in their work are ‘globalism’ and ‘free markets’. “Trivial Pleasures” is the first part of a trilogy which will feature two more mcd’s. Songtitles on this cd include ’24 hours of non-stop consumption’, ‘Market experts’, ‘Stock talk’ and ‘Office comfort’.
Though there are eleven tracks present on this release, the playing time is only 26 minutes. Some tracks are more like sketches or intermezzo. The instrumental electronic music on this release is certainly weird, and difficult to get used to. Their sound is heavily influenced by the use of old Soviet analogue synths. I’m not sure if they sound different than ‘western’ synths, but the music of Cyclotimia is certainly not very conventional. It sounds a little spacy at times, like simple old computergames, with strange high bleeps and sounds. Other soundscapes sound more cold and sterile. Interesting experiments perhaps. But not pleasing or rewarding to listen to at all, and atimes simply irritating. I don’t think that modern commercialism will be scared a lot by this release.
