Second full-length album release of this Russian duo, which is actually a collaboration between the Russian Shadowplay Records and the German AF-Music label. Still remembering the good produced debut 'Blowback' (which is additionally available as a re-release via the AF / Ionium Records collaboration label) 'Places' sees some developments and a rather unexpected evolution in the sound of Absent One. First off, it does quite good to listen to a band concentrating to focus their skills on the content of their compositions. This album isn't meant to get consumed to enjoy a straight pattern-after-pattern row supported by a harsh Techno kick-drum performance ' here are real songs with an overview and important meaning behind. A quite critical view on a social- problem regarding the use of drugs combined with unemployment and hopelessness in young years. This album may reflects a doze of some auto-biographical content of these both Russian protagonists, but who knows? What disturbs is the fact, that this real-life content gets presented quite lame with the tendency to bore after a while. Now we'll get a good idea without any Cyber-Christ-Goth-bullshit, but the music construction itself comes out that toothless like my grandma ' it misses toughness, plus I remember to have heard a higher technically state-of-art already presented on the debut. The vocalist sings in that kind, how you would have expected it from a Russian, not completely accent-free and more classic-influenced, but luckily without any distortion regarding vocal-processing. This band needs definitely to work to reach more maturity, although by spreading salt on some open socio-wounds as being the main theme, they are on the right way.

This Swedish Electropop-duo follows again their own tradition: year by year they are releasing an EP consisting of 4 - 5 tracks and mostly available on CD and 12' vinyl formats. I'm not that sure, if Christan Berg and Nicklas Stenemo always know what they are doing musically, well, sometimes that can be seen with doubts. However, to me they are one of the most original sounding duos, which this music genre has to offer. With an obvious dedication to the Pop/Wave-era of the 80s, they are producing Synth-/Electropop music, which isn't that sugar-sweet and easy-to-consumable one would expect. There is additionally featured a sense to produce also uncomfortable sounds and bizarre song structures, which gets even more strengthened through their charismatic vocal performance. Sometimes they seem to be driven by insanity thanks to their unorthodox kind to produce music and to perform their vocals, but they still create a mood to let you again and again giving them some rotations - until the Kite-virus gets you! 'IV' offers to me their best tracks so far, especially the more catchy tunes like 'Step Forward' and 'Stand Back' are pure masterpieces. More is required ' when comes out number 'V'?

Another Swedish Industrial-Metal band-project, from which I thought, it has been gone for good after only one release. The well recognized debut release 'Assorted Chaos and Broken Machinery' has seen the light of a release 6 years before, but in our rushing lifetime days filled with the consumption of thousands of other releases, one gets nearly forgotten. So H. Svegsjö, the one and only responsible protagonist behind Thirteenth Exile, starts nearly from scratch. Signed again under Prototyp, the sub-label of the legendary Memeto Materia-label, he presents us a raw, harsh pounding assault, which integrates deepest Dark Electronica with assaulting metal-guitar riffs, united through a powerful kick-and-snare rhythm-work. 'Into Nothing' is no stuff for the faint-hearted people, it is a drastic and ominous outfit, which offers a bombastic attitude. Not at all comparable to that childish Hellectro-bawling, this is real dramatic and angst-driven music filled with at times brutal lyrics. The good point is: it sounds authentic. This whole pain-driven sound-scenario gets additionally supported by the overall black cover artwork with that scythe in front of the cloudy horizon. If it needs to search for comparisons, I'd take harder :Wumpscut:, (check out 'A Perfect World'!!!) Little Sap Dungeon and Portishead ('Wandering Star' is a cover to tribute the idols'¦) to throw them into the soup-tureen. The thick and frightening atmosphere of this album needs to be pointed out as being the most impressive ability ' several tracks are slowing down the speed ('My Legacy', 'Into Nothing') and offer so much more than a wild dancefloor-action. Congratulations to all responsible participants to release one of the most intense produced albums of the last half year. Let's keep the fingers crossed, that we don't need to wait another 5 + years until Mr. Svegsjö decides again to start a comeback.

Formed by Brooklyn native Felix Feygin, Michael Banks and several friends, Chordashian just released their EP DON'T WAIT UP on Mullet Records. The digital EP contains three original tracks plus three remixes of the same tracks reworked by Downtown Party Network, Slow Hands and Sportloto. The first track of the lot is the "Don't Wait Up", has Michael Inge on lead vocals and he's perfect to give to the track the right funky soul touch that it needs as the band prepared for him a mix of synth arpeggios, bouncy bass lines, funky guitar riffs and spacey synth stabs. The following track is "Sea Crest", an instrumental tune characterized by analog synth pads, syncopated bass lines and funky guitar riffs. The instruments come and making it sounds like it was a nice remix and in this way they give to the track dynamic and space. The last original track is "The Jam", a sensual mid tempo with a nice synth work that prepare the field for guitar solos and piano chords. It would be nice used into a Miami Vice episode for its atmosphere. About the remixes, Downtown Party Network gave a touch of disco flavor to "Don't Wait Up" with 4/4 drum machine rhythms using handclaps and everything needed to make of it a party track. Slow Hands remixed "Sea Crest" making it turn into a atmospheric analog synth mid tempo keeping the guitar riffts and adding nice synth solos. Sportloto reworked "The Jam", which now sounds faster and a bit more disco.

This release is a downmixed registration of a multichannel performance of a piece constructed using only, as source material, the bells in the carillon of a church. This has a reason, apart from the organ, the bell is the most religiously recognizable sound and, so, this work start with the sound of the bell that is gradually buried by the trasformation made by the three players at the laptop: the composer, Herman Wilken and Roald von Dillewijn helped by Bernard Winsentius at the carillon that played the 26 minutes sequence "De Damiaatjes" that was processed for the creation of the piece. When the trasformation begin to use the natural resonances of the bells, the listener is immersed in a continuum drone juxtaposed with high pitch resonances and various small noises giving movement to all the musical structure. When the resonance begin to dominate the spectrum the bells return to be hearable and this piece start his final part ending with the sound a bell.
This piece is able to use a classic sound to reveal his underlying possibility to be used for avantgarde, resulting more interesting than most modern studio-constructed sound. A really fine release.