V/A – Drinking To Better Days

With every release Punch Productions seems to aim at a more impresive packaging. For Drinking To Better Days they succeeded in this once again. This 12” comes in a black velvet (!) gatefold sleeve. It really looks very impressive. The music on the record also fits this stylish packaging well.

All four bands (AIT!, Ô Paradis, Totenlieder and Novy Svet) contributed two tracks that can be described as dark lounge music. None of the artists need an introduction for fans of post-industrial/neo-folk music. Especially Novy Svet and Ô Paradis are known through their releases on other labels.

But, it is Totenlieder that suprises me again with some excellent atmospheric music. ‘Como Olvidar’ is a stange and dark intruiging orchestral / neo-folk piece. Also AIT! shows it skills again in producing fine dark lounge music. His style may also be called “sick-beat”, because of the weird and strange elements in it. Both tracks on this record by AIT! are great
examples of artistic interesting post-industrial music.

After some dark tunes and moody pieces and a few lighter moments Novy Svet closes the album with their weird jazz music. Thus making >Drinking To Better Days a wonderful overview of contemporary avant-garde/post-industrial mysic. A true must have!

artist: V/A
label: Punch Records
details: 12”, 8 tracks [PP008]