Mimetic – Sensitive / Sound A

This is the second impressive looking release from the young French label Parametric, after “Oxydes” by Mlada Fronta. Again we are treated to a double cd digipack, with a little more sober industrial design this time. And again you get two cd’s packed to the brim with electronic music, with some remixes by well-known names. Mimetic is the rather mysterious project by Jerome Soudan, also knwon as drummer of Von Magnet. As usual there is this confusing play with names: cd1 is made under the name Mimetic Data, the second one by Mimetic Beat. In the past there were for instance releases as Mimetic Mute, Field or Tune. So far I only heard one release by Mimetic, the 3LP set “On the other side”, released by Hands. This release contained soundscapes/collages, dedicated to various European cities. The music we have here is quite different though, less experimental and more straight forward danceable, although there still are some strange sample collages to be found. A lot of the material on “Sensitive / Sound A” is more techno/trance or EBM-inspired, with a lot of vocal samples.

My favourite tracks on disc 1 are ‘Schizophrenic’ and ‘Destructive’, very contagious technoid dancetracks, rather repetive and mixed with some samples (Is this game sexual in nature?’) and female vocals. Also nice is the more atmospheric ‘Weak’.
Some tracks are a little too ‘busy’ and tiring for my taste, like ‘Gloomy’ and ‘Forlorn’. Some of the vocal samples used are raher erotic in nature, which makes me think of Die Form at times. The music also sounds rather ‘retro’ at times on disc 1. At the end of disc 1 are four more industrial-based remixes, by Roger Rotor, Somatic Responses, Fast Forward and Sonar. Disc 2 continues in a harsher and noisier vein. This cd, under the name ‘Mimetic Beat’ contains more rhythmic industrial stuff, with some good powerful tracks, like ‘Sdaa1’ and ‘Sdaa3’, that still sound rather warm and atmospheric, partly through the many samples. if we aren’t treated to enough music yet, the album finishes with the bonus live track ‘Lucid’.

Quite a solid release by Mimetic, with some powerful danceable electronic material. Some tracks can’t hold my attention though, and the sheer quantity of the material is too much for me to digest in one time. Often when I listen to this this album I only play some selected tracks. But you won’t be easily bored by the wealth of material on this double album.

artist: Mimetic
label: Parametric
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