Be assured, that the New York-based Electro/Industrial-producer Frank Mokros won’t offer an album filled with outtakes or B-sides, even if the chosen title that may suggests. Or let’s better say it so: if these are seriously outtakes, which couldn’t made it onto his last years’ amazing album "Elekatota: The Other Side Of The Tracks", then these tracks are still light-years above the normal quality level an average Electro/Industrial act would be capable to produce. Frank’s programming abilities to compose his thick layered and thrilling Dark Electro/Sci-Fi-related ambience are outstanding. "Blade Runner" has to be reprised or completely new invented, and please let Frank produce the soundtrack for such a movie project – you’d be amazed already from the music without watching the movie! Main recognition of this another nearly 70 minutes trip into the deepest Dark Electro/Industrial exploration are based on the three different versions of the track "Left At The Station", chapters 1 to 3. This track impresses with its hypnotic bass line programming and of course the unbeatable mood. Chapter 3 of this track got remixed by the famous TERRORFAKT, and – as expected – it pushes forward the masses to the dancefloors, while it too hasn’t to much common things with the original composition. Two further remix works are available of the track "The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes", a track originally based on Frank’s upcoming next album, announced to be out in Spring this year, both provided by his dear Anchorage-based label colleague Jimmy Church with his both projects LUCIDSTATIC and PANDORA’S BLACK BOOK. As to remember his above named last years’ album masterpiece, here comes a different version of one of the most remarkable tunes, "Strangle(_d)" – another save club-friendly tune. Favorites of the new compositions I like to name with the opener "Cry For Help", "Jetee" with its dreamy layer programming and the diverse beating "Euthanasia". A lot of stuff to discover once again from the talented musician – can we say, that Frank is the most and best recognized artist signed to Tympanik Audio? Obama knows the answer: "Yes, we can!"

Sad, but true, this review can be seen as an official obituary for this three-men collective. FLEXKIKS, signed to the Russian Lagunamuch Record label, consists of Alex Matrosov (Alexandroid), Liam-Arthur Berent (yes, that multi-talented musician also responsible for ABSTRACT AVENUE) and Vladimir Muhlberg. Only a few days after I received this album, the sad news flash via the label website came in, that Alex Matrosov died under mysterious circumstances in Riga, Latvia. Our condolences to all involved, family, music colleagues and the label. Having this tragically event in mind, to review and describe the music style of this release seems to be the most unimportant thing someone can think of. On the other hand, "Freeland" is sort of a classic album, which balances extremely well out the boundaries between Electro/Industrial and IDM, that it would be a pity if you’d never heard of it. Tracks like "RedoBox" and "Find It" offer food to join the dancefloors, while both calm and melodic pieces "Portobello.Rd." and "Freeday 10AM" let the user sink into a spacey world. Thumbs up also for the hypnotic track "F1", while both German titled tunes "Zwischenraum" and "Lückenschluß" leave the most the discovered course of music by adding some acoustic guitar elements as well. "Freeland" is a well-done album, which offers the best elements out of those two styles and it has even more interesting stuff if it comes to talk on musically diversity. But I guess the initially mentioned tragic event destroys all hopes for an additional follow-up album.

Alif Tree is a seasoned and well established French composer, producer, engineer and sound designer. Based in Marseille but constantly traveling around the world he writes for film/TV, produces remixes, writes for classical dance ballets, plays gigs and at the same time magically finds the time to write great music, gets top musicians to record it in Nashville and then packages it into a beautiful and sophisticated melange of ambient, electronica, trip-hop, jazz, pop, blues and more. I don't think I heard his debut "The Observatory" back in 2000, but considering it took him 8 years to create the follow up to that you can imagine that this is indeed a great album, and he makes no qualms about proudly stating that himself. "Clockwork" is delicate and classy like french cusine but at the same time rough and live like some of the most well conceived and put together examples of live-music-based electronica. With male and female singers ranging in style from the Soprano-theme-ish deep blues tone to the chantouse-ish lounge/acid-jazz ethereal, "Clockwork" draws from influences and eras as disparate as every music lover's collection. Borrowing counter clock wise while attempting to look clockwise ahead, "Clockwork" is for the most part the result of live sessions with only minimal (if at all) sampling. Even so it manages to stand the test of time while challenging a unique temporal context. The album sounds fresh but rooted in the past, which is probably the best of both worlds today. Alif Tree draws a picture of depth and complexity that only the most eclectic and open-minded of producers can.

Seasonal music, id est a music that could be fitted to or associated with a particular season, has always been a good deal and that's quite notorious to a lot of music operators since centuries: Christmas-related marketing specialists launching cds fillep up with Xmas carols, pop stars, official and unofficial religious institutions and even ancient Celtic bards and Hindi gandharvas seems to know that! And there're some nice attempts even among electronic musicians (think for instance to Martin Jules' Herbstlaub or as well as well as more famous ones by classical old composers (from Vivaldi to Prokofiev) aware of the fact that each season of the year could arguably have its own sound. This intriguing album well-crafted by the Canadian musicians Aidan Beker and Jim DeJong (aka The Infant Cycle) issue by the juicy industrial and experimental Russian label Zhelezobeton seems to be another attempt of giving voice and grabbing sounds from the intimate spirit of the four seasons eternally cycling in a year (even if nowadays pollution is slightly changing the natural rules... ). Rural Sprawl '“ what an elegiac title! '“ contains four tracks, one for each season, four states of the soul, which seems to be the acousmatic harvest from a mindful haemorragia derived by the squeezing of perceptive spheres of the musicians by help of a respectable kit including tapes, a bass, some guitars, a feedback generator, a sampler, some playouts and a thumb piano. Four tracks partially reminding works by Strings of Consciousness or Origami Galaktica, mainly designed on powerfully hypnotic overstretched drones enriched with entrancing binaural pulses and nicely sequenced sounds, skewing the audio climax. This sprawl starts with the flat loopline saturated by a guadually eruptive infiltration of an atonal sound sustained by fluttering rhythms and a follicular guitar tune, wholly exudating the memory of those sneaking summer noons and its intimate sense of stunning stillness. My favourite track '“ and just by chance my favourite season '“ is the one dedicated to autumn: the sense of suffocating oppression is reduced and a more melodic and melancholic (and sometimes moaning) tone permeates through the drone surrounding the listener till the end, when it turns into a strangled lovely guitar solo... Both Summer and Temperature Drop were recorded in 2001 and already release on a very limited CD-R by the Italian label Blade Records. In order to complete the natural cycle of this album, Aidan and Jim recorded two others in 2005. The first one reflects the lethargic savour of winter throughout a silently murmourous set of subtones, an hardly dragging kit of electronic sounds and pure jems of isolationist drones, gradually preparing the ground for the more organic one of the final track, an enchanting anthem with tiny sounds on majestic sounds waves, summing up the reflowering of natural elements normally marking spring-time in a captivating way. Very good record, highly recommended for brain machine addicts!

Created by Vadim Gusis, already known for Chaos As Shelter and member of Agnivolok, Thunderwheel is a particular musical project. Helped out on some tracks by Igor Krutogolov (Kruzenstern & Parohod, Agnivolok, Igor Krutogolov's Carate Band) and Slava Smelovsky (Grundik + Slava, Crossfishes), Vadim created the eight tracks of CREDO having in mind Zen philosophy and, I think, the particular structure of Japanese/oriental music. The result is a sort of surreal soundtrack where dissonant melodies, whispered vocals, percussive sounds and theremin create an oneiric world made of slow rhythms and strident sounds. Like a nightmarish orchestra Thunderwheel painted their personal picture and it's all to be discovered...