Being a personal project of a Toronto based musician Voytek Iwasiuk, Cysto saw the light in 2004. On his youth Voytek focused his efforts into the study of guitar and into hard rock, jazz and blues. When years after he felt that that way of creating music was kinda stagnating, he decided to convert his analog home studio into a PC based studio where he could create a kind of music more pumping, dancey and distorted. BUILT FOR YOU is the first Cysto album and offers to the electro lovers twelve sincere tracks. Cysto has got good skills about creating energetic tracks, but I think that Voytek should diversificate the vocals on the songs. The sound production is good enough to understand his style, but the sounds aren't always clear and the same kind of vocals isn't helping into the fruitiong of the song. The CD contains good tunes that would need a little more production. If you want to know how Cysto is sounding like, the first name that popped in my mind was Matrix (if you don't count the guitar riffs). Check the first five tracks on Cysto's website and write your impressions to Voytek.

Electro/Industrial music makes a step forwards to conquer Eastern European states and sets a mark in Tallinn, Estonia with the debut of CYCLONE B. They are not really unknown and have made some remarkable appearances on highly acclaimed compilations like "Cryonica Tanz Vol. 3" or the quadruple CD box "Endzeit Bunkertracks Act 1". The new Russian label Advoxya Records finally could get the deal with this 3 men outlet and so we have here a 11 track debut release which is – and I can take this realization in advance – one of my personal favorites of this year. CYCLONE B have produced a fine Dark Electro/EBM album which shows the listener with simple but effective means how to create and compose remarkable tracks which surely deal with several already known ingredients. I would qualify and compare this band with the recent works of PAIL and DEPRESSIVE DISORDER but of course without any clone syndrome. Tracks like "Reflection" or "Deathember" are playing skilful with decent melodic synth layers and also the almost distorted vocals show some progression to a more melodic content. Nice and remarkable done, but be sure that this band will not fall into any Futurepop cliche. "Agony" is more slow and filled with a depressive mood, while tracks like "Sputnik U.S.S.R.", "Nothing" or "Razor" will let the rivetheads invading any dancefloor in some dark clubs. Nice to hear are also the variations and progressions on the vocals. There is not the same singer at all, but CYCLONE B have also a fine taste to include some different effects like a vocoder or different kinds of distortion. Here is also no lack of ideas regarding the bass line sequencing, almost everything is filled with inspiration. And so we have a well done CD which can set some standards. This is a marvelous release of a promising band which seems to be soon a giant.

Brand new band held of the city and state of San Antonio, Texas will paved their way to the top with this more satisfying eight tracks self-titled debut album. Bizarre Musik Machine is a female/male duo who have the sound of Cocteau Twins and Bjork combined with their own. The band is more ethereal and darkwave. A passage of moody and upbeat feel music that reached the right equilibrium between synths and Gino's guitar melodies. Excellent tracks to get into are "Obvious", "IndustRealise", a talk song poetry like, the danceable upbeat "Silent Regrets", and "From The Heavens". Yayumi vocals is certainly defined very heavenly and smooth like an angel who can create the same exact atmosphere the music is set course on. BMM is a new band who is delivering something unique and very different. Fans of Cocteau Twins and Bjork should pick this cd up.

Black Rain in the last couple of years, along with its sister labels NoiTekk, Funk Welten and Ars Musica Diffundere, grew its rooster of bands as well the number of people who is interested into the mixture of industrial e.b.m. music of Noitekk, the goth electronic of Black Rain, the Ars Musica Diffundere apocaliptic folk of Novalis and Kutna Hora or the industrial martialism of Predella Avant and to the ambient electronic music of Funk Welten with Echorausch and Flint Glass. Into the DVD you can find seventeen band videos (most of them are live performances recorded at the Wave Gotik Treffen festival or at the Summer Darkness festival) where you can have a good idea of the music proposed by the labels. Sometimes the audio isn't the top notch (it seems recorded with a good digital camera as well the videos are) but you can have an idea about the music anyway. Along with the videos we have a good extra section where you can find images of the people at the 2004 Wave Gotik Treffen (this is for die hard fans of the festival or for the people who was there), excerpts of Aslan Faction, Grendel and Feindflug performances at the 2002 Maschinensturm festival, a video of Feindflug 2000 tour, the backstage of the same band at the 2000 Wave Gotik Treffen and different galleries of the band with audio tracks.

SIYANIE is the title of the third Fleur's album. Coming from Ukrainia, the band is formed mainly by female members and their dreamy pop music is really intriguing, not only because listening to Olga and Elena singing in their native language is particular, but also because the melody they create is deeply linked to their traditions but it sounds at the same time far from traditional folk music. Listen to "To fix the eternity" and you'll find echoes of jazz and of Cocteau Twins even if the final result is far from both. Most of the tracks are upbeat acoustic ballads with guitar and piano in evidence. For sure the two female vocals give to the music a particular touch but also the union of different acoustic intruments create a gentle atmosphere which isn't lacking of energy. This is the main thing: Fleur's music is dreamy and poetic but it is also pumping and light at the same time. The tracks' title are in English but as far I can understand all the lyrics are in Russian language, maybe the band wanted to give us a hint about the stories they sing about... Anyway: thumb's up!