This DCD is recommend by the DAC, the German Alternative Charts and was compiled in a collaboration between Hardbeat Promotion and Synthetic Symphony. You maybe get it already on this facts, you get here a compilation mainly including the currently big names of the Electro/Industrial scene. Luckily you get also some special versions, unreleased stuff, remixes or other goodies by 22 of the 32 tracks. Some pieces I have picked out here which are worth to get mentioned. The opener is well done with a longer than 7 minutes Extendet version of the track "Ascension" done by [:SITD:], which finds the right mix between known elements of their music and a good sequencing work. VNV NATION are giving a remix of "Chrome" done by the talented SOMAN, while I must admit that this remix work is more influenced by the original version of the track. The Swedish Neo-EBM band SPETSNAZ are more and more growing to a constant big name and the new "Apathy" is just another fine proof of this. A live gig of HOCICO is always a special event and their gig in Israel seemed to be a big success. Although their track "Spirits of Crime" is surely not their best piece, I am quite impressed by the quality and intensity of this piece here. GRENDEL are also present, unfortunately without a new or unreleased piece, but "Aspiration Feed" taken from their latest EP "Soilbleed" is still a remarkable track. THE PROMISE is a new project by the Ex-PHILTRON member Sven Enzelmann and musically based between Synth- and Futurepop, not surprising, but with a good quality.
The second CD starts with the new track "Bleed For Us All" done by SUICIDE COMMANDO which can be seen as a preview of the next full length release "Bind Torture Kill". Luckily Johan van Roy seems to remember the times before his last one "Axis Of Evil", because this new track reminds me more on the "Mindstrip" times and has a more aggressive feel. Belgium’s IMPLANT are next in a cooperation with the well-known icon Anne Clark. While Clark’s sound of her vocals is intense as usual, IMPLANT deliver a satisfying exploration in the Electro-/Trance fields, well done – respect! SOMAN is an act from Infacted-Recordings, combining Electro with some noisy and industrialized moods and their track shows some good ideas. AYRIA, Canadian sole project by Jennifer Parkin brings us her great "My Revenge on the World" in a special remix done by the legendary OUT OUT, a veteran US-Industrial act already active since more than 15 years. Closer to the end of this DCD set some more up and coming acts get the possibility to be on the highly acclaimed compilation, like the minimal Synthpop act FILE NOT FOUND, both Infacted bands HEIMATAERDE and REAPER or the German hard EBM attack PAINBASTARD with a good remix of one of the most skillful pieces "System Failed".
This DCD was mainly created not only to collect a compilation for the lazy or drunken DJ, it is designed to break boundaries in between electronic music genres which are maybe present. Target is the audience which is a bit open-minded to electronic music with the will to check out something new. So for them there might be a rich amount of diverse sounding tracks. For the experienced users of this music this comp is only interesting for its amount of alternative versions or unreleased remix stuff here. A special hint I would not left unspoken: people mostly would like to see something which can be called ART, something more special than an ordinary white cover with some blue plugs... So go and check for yourself.

CD 1
1. Ascension (Extended) - [:SITD:]
2. Giftraum (FMix) - Diary Of Dreams
3. Chrome (Soman RX Longer) - VNV Nation
4. Revolution Of The Pigs (Advanced Pigrevolution ...) -S.K.E.T.
5. Apathy - Spetsnaz
6. Nailed [V 2.0 Dance] - Diskonnekted
7. Heart Of Steel (Riot In Metropolis Mix) - Analogue Brain
8. Spirits Of Crime (Live In Israel) - Hocico
9. Fulfil My Rage - Individualdistanz
10. Aspiration Feed - Grendel
11. The Irreparable - Glis feat. J.-L. De Meyer
12. Mystic Places (Advanced Electronixx Version) -Les Anges de la Nuit
13. The Rebel - The Promise
14. Menschenfresser (Club Mix) - Melotron
15. Razorwire (Modified Mix) - Mesh
16. First Day (Radio Edit - Clean) - Timo Maas
17. We Are The Ones - Zombie Girl

CD 2

1. Bleed For Us All - Suicide Commando
2. Time Up Your Chips And Circuits (Electric ...) - Implant feat. Anne Clark
3. Pusher (US Remix) - Soman
4. You Want It (Dave Clarke Remix) - Fixmer & McCarthy
5. Killing Ground (AE4 Remix) - Funker Vogt
6. My Revenge On The World (Out Out Extended Remix) - Ayria
7. Exterminate Annihilate Destroy (Reclubbed) - Rotersand
8. Chant 64 - Replicant
9. Black Metal (Original) - Ascii.Disko
10. Walkman - Welle Erdball
11. No Nothing Never (6:30 AM Edit) - File Not Found
12. Musikerhaende (Uncut Version) - Heimataerde
13. Totengräber (Orthodox Version) - Reaper
14. Sytem Failed (SD-RAM Mix) - Painbastard
15. The Grudge (Gothminister Remix) - Mortiis

It's about time that Matt Waldron/Irr. App. (Ext.) got the recognition he deserves as one of the best experimental dronemakers currently around - the few discs of his available, after an ill-fated theory of unreleased works and failed signings, are all excellent, and the tenth ep in the Drone Works series obviously makes no exception. Beginning with a low-volume manipulation of unidentified popular music, it soon erupts in a powerful, exhilarating drone of bowed strings, which even reminds of historical minimalists like La Monte Young or Tony Conrad. It's close to the emotional outpouring of a masterpiece like "Ozeanische Gefuehle", but with an emphasis on static power rather than on changing layers. Another essential Drone Work!

As announced right from its start, noground offers here its first video release, a 3" dvd-r with an 11-minute video track by label-runner Dan Hopkins and music from the UK duo The Delelopment of Shape, aka Steve Little (guitar) and Elvis Beetham-Wallace (drums). The artists have had an ongoing collaboration for live sets, and eventually decided to try and make it available as a "studio" release. Visuals and sound merge in a very effective and fascinating way indeed: the duo's desertic slow-motion instrumentals (somewhere between Dirty Three and post-Slintian rock) are an effective sountrack for Hopkins' stills of flashing lights, blurred landscapes and urban spleen - watching the outside world from a car window. Both intimistic and mysteryous, this short is quite an engaging experience.

A while ago, I reviewed Michael Thieke's "Leuchten" on Creative Sources. Here the Berlin/Rome-based musician (playing clarinet, alto saxophone and zither) teams up with two Canadian performers now living in Berlin too, Dave Bennett (guitar) and Derek Shirley (bass). Thieke's solo cd was full of good ideas and developments, but definitely on the harsh and solipsistic side of things (not a bad things in itself, mind it); this trio, on the contrary, presents a kind of more humane and warm improvisation, which makes this one of the most enjoyable works in the field of free-form music that I've listened to lately. The trio's interaction is quite typically based on the juxtaposition of microscopic, pebble-like fragments and restrained gestures ("Kein stern", "Moto"), but also on a fuller, more droning mass of sound, thanks to the use of e-bows and sustained wind playing. This gives birth to remarkable pieces like "Wintermusik", "Shiny" or the tour-de-force of "Sleepy lady", easily the most captivating track of the cd, where a jangling guitar, a discreet bass and what sounds like (but is probably not) looped electronics, create a wonderful suspended soundscape. In its cohesiveness and variety of inputs, this is a cd to be listened to many times.

After two years from its first release, Rumpistol (a.k.a. Jens Berents Christiansen) is back with a new album titled MERE RUM. If the first Rumpistol album was a sort of lounge music of the future, MERE RUM expand the concept by dilating the atmosphere and focusing the tracks on the ambience created. Musically the eight tracks ("Teddy 114" is only on the CD version of the album) are always composed using a blend of i.d.m. rhythms, ambient sounds and dub solutions (see "Vintertog"). On this release Jens introduce in Rumpistol the use of acustic elements such as guitars, saxophones, glockenspiels and melodicas which give to the tracks a certain warmth and dreamy atmosphere. The last song of the CD, "Vuggelise" is about nine minutes and it is a sort of Danish folk song mixed with dub rhythms which stops, leaving the space to i.d.m. improvisations just to start again passing through ambient music. After a couple of minutes of silence there's also a one minute ghost track that, with its dark ambience, closes the album. MERE RUM isn't an easy listening album because it gathers a lot of intuitions and sounds but after some listening sessions you can find new sounds and rhythms that you weren't aware of. An album to explore little by little...