And now for something completely different… Here we have a true multimedia release, five industrial/electro tracks and a digital graphic novel, created by Jacob. R. Ross. Dog Solitude_9 is the name of his independent multi-media studio. When you start the cd-rom you can immerse yourself in a strange future world… As the creator states, ‘Order” is the first of three chapters to be released, to be followed by ‘Chaos’ and ‘Nihil’. There is an original navigation to browse through the pages. Dark ambient sounds make you feel welcome, and you are invited to enter a dark future world.
In the introduction you learn a little of what is the matter. “No one remembers when we went underground, into the Chasm”. Probably it was not possible to live on the surface anymore, so mankind descended into its last refuge, where ‘The City’ arose, an ‘urbanized tomb’ and ‘morgue of the human spirit’. Only one man can answer why this all happens… And then you enter the city, a futuristic metropolis with unendless high skyscrapers, which look very threatening. Everything is drawn in a comic/manga style, with strong superheroes, sexy future-vamps and very scary supercrooks, who get involved in some ultraviolent scenes. Larger images are alternated with comic strip-like pages, on which you have the option to switch text balloons on or off. With the navigation of the left side you can switch back and forth between pages. The images certainly show a fine graphic talent. Perhaps some pages would be better readable in print than on a computer strip, but this is of course more original. I would have liked it if there was more music accompanying the graphic scenes on the cd-rom.
Off to the music then in my cd-player. It’s surprisingly good, and not just included as a bonus to the cd-rom. The Machine Made Flesh offer us a varied menu of electronic sounds, from harsh breakbeat industrial on the first track to more classic EBM structures and distorted vocals on ‘Deformist’, a very good track that I would like to hear on a dancefloor. I very much like the third track ‘Defective’, which is very atmospheric and which gradually becomes more danceable. Powerful, somtimes hectic beats, moody synth layers, some (horror)movie samples and various sounds and samples make this an exciting cd. The compositions on this album are very surprising, sometimes a song turns into a completely different one. Only the last two songs are less to my liking, ‘This revelation’ is a bit too chaotic for me, while ‘Recombine’ is rather experimental an inaccessible. But overall very good stuff from a multi-talented artist.
