The new and second full-length album of this French Electro/Industrial act is surely one of those events several fans out of the scene have been waiting for – at least for more than 3 years. Since their debut "Oscillations" has been reached euphoric reactions of both press and audience, the curiosity but also the high expectations on the quality of a second NCE release has been grown enormously.
Although "Oscillations" was only a debut release, the integrated musicians behind NCE could prove their unbreakable talents which they’d already reached with their different music projects in the past. NCE is mainly the surviving product out of the acts STIGMA (Daft Records/ant-zen) and AXONAL WARFARE (Celtic Circle Productions). Yes, the days of these bands have gone, though they’ve both produced a sort of special impressions with their early and now more than 10 years old releases on me personally. I still hold their debut demo tapes of both acts which have been produced, when no one was thinking on a CD-burner (not unavailable in 1995, but extremely expensive...), internet and mp3 files. STIGMA at least was the reason why I started to "like" the rougher forms of noise-driven Industrial, while the Dark-Electro-minded CD releases of AXONAL WARFARE have been the most underrated releases of CCP at all.
I could understand that AXONAL WARFARE had to call their quit out of the frustration about the unsatisfying situation, because they had that bad luck that their releases came out when CCP was about to close the doors – which means no serious promotional efforts at all from the label. The sudden and unexpected end of STIGMA is still mysterious and hard to accept – who would seriously give up a well recognized project with a deal of ant-zen in the hands??? Laurent Kistler, the leader behind STIGMA seemed to have some good reasons for this, so in 2003 STIGMA (Laurent Kistler) and AXONAL WARFARE (Nicolas Revil, Bruno Laborde) have united with the fourth member, Yoann Bourreau, to form NCE.
The further story has been told already, "Oscillations" came out, the band did some gigs and tours, some compilation appearances ("Endzeit Bunkertracks Vol. 1" for example...) came up – but at least they got a bit forgotten. Yes, some promising signs for new stuff have been switched to some rather underground-minded comp series, like La Chambre Froide’s "In This Cold Terrific Room 2" (track: "Breathing Cities") and Caustic Records’ "Electronic Manifesto" (track: "Memento"), but at least it may has taken a bit too long until this new album came out. This may belongs on the fact that the band seemed to think very long to change the label, because the small French label and mail order service Cortex Records has reached its boundaries to fulfill all requirements of an internationally renowned artist. In the meantime – and this is another unexpected loss for this project – Bruno Laborde, mainly responsible for programming and lyrics, has decided to leave the save NCE haven to concentrate on his solo effort NORMOTONE. So NCE will continue as a trio, though "Materials And Methods" has been produced as a quartet.
However, and if there are some negative-minded wankers complaining on the long pause, the wait is over now. "Materials And Methods" is that sort of an epic sounding Dark Electro-album which fulfills the highest expectations. The label info-sheet has stated some comparisons to some SKINNY PUPPY/HAUJOBB works, and I’ve seldom before agreed so much on this. I would add INTERLACE as a third reference, but finally this hits the same musically direction. Where "Oscillations" has offered diverse possible musically tendencies, this new album works out more coherent the structures to a complex and multiple-layered Dark Electro album as its best. Besides the sinister and thick synth layer sounds and the always tasteful and diverse produced rhythm constructions, the music of NCE earns a lot of depth thanks to the hypnotic vocal performance of Laurent Kistler. Human and mostly natural sounding, he offers his very best to sound authentic with needed doze of charisma.
13 tracks are available, plus a remix work on the track "Puppy" (originally available on "Oscillations") provided by HAUJOBB are resulting in nearly 80 minutes of an ominous sounding Dark-Electro masterpiece, on which it is a bit difficult to pick out the finest tunes. I would rate both "Hell’s Darker Chamber" for combining the best the typical NCE-athmosphere with gritty and experimental beats, and "Masquerade" because of ist catchy synth layer programming to be the outstanding works of a damned great album. Both "Breathing Cities" and "Forgiven Lies" are pushing the blood into the legs of some bodies for doing some Pogo-related dancefloor-action, but globally this albums relies on ist opulent layers and unforeseeable drum pattern programming.
An album rather more to get consumed as loud as possible on your home entertainment and although that the German promoter Hardbeat should work well to service the DJ’s in Europe, I finally fear that it won’t get played that much compared to the still straight-forward moving generic Hellectro stuff. Nevertheless, this album is musically that well balanced that it is a possible contender for the fictional "album-of-the-year" contest.

Position Parallele is a French duo which see Pierre Pi and Geoffroy D. (of Derniere Volonte) dealing with dark electronic pop tunes. Deeply influenced by 80's electro, Position Parallele on their self titled album propose eight minimalistic songs which mix cold wave atmospheres and electro pop attitude. Most of the tracks have a basic rhythm, a simple bass line and few other synths with Geoffroy singing his French lyrics (which unfortunately I don't understand. Only few things here and there but I can't say what they are about). Try to imagine Soft Cell playing Die Form and you'll have quite well the idea of what you'll find on this great album. At first it sounded strange to me to hear Geoffroy vocal style on electronic tunes because I'm used to hear it on neo-folk music so I allowed me to wait another day to listen to it the second time. The second listening I tried to focus on music without being distracted by a voice I already knew and I have to admit that the tracks are really great and they are able to create cold atmospheres without being too isolationistic. Try "Fortune" or the short "George - Arachnee" and you'll be instantaneously absorbed by a mixture of dark pop and melancholic electro. Try some songs on their Myspace and order your copy!

Damn the packaging is really rad, simple but really classy: tip of hat to this Czech label for having assembled it and having demonstrated again you can do an interesting packaging also without big amounts of money. Since it would be stupid to limit yourself judging a book just by the cover, let’s speak about the music. For what concern what I’ve heard I’ve a split sensation since it’s well done and interesting, sure, but not always focused. This cd features a weird bland of industrial electronic music, samples coming from movies (or sort of) and various mixed influences. The final result is quite strange, I mean it reminded me of some forgotten bands from the late eighties early nineties like Matanza/T.I.T., Nightmare Lodge or some other classics on label such as like Minus Habens but just a bit re-actualized according to a more modern aesthetics. Sensus offers with the apocalyptic cocktail many of you may appreciate and he works with cyclical loops following some industrial clichés but he’s also a strange rhythmical edge to complicate the whole thing. A work with ups and downs.

Formed in Florence, Italy in 2004 Hidden Place started immediately to work at their project by releasing the following year the CD-r album "Weather station". After that one they started composing and recording their debut album for HellektroEmpire titled FANTASIA MECCANICHE. Since the first listening their analog electro wave made me recall The Frozen Autumn atmospheres and when I read on the booklet that Diego Merletto mastered the album, did the graphics and took part to two tracks doing the remix of the opening "Spazio zero" and making also a vocal version of it (which sounds really like early Garbo), I realized that the connection was real. The Hidden Place sound is based on a solid electronic analog sound with upbeat rhythms (a bit dancey but never slave to that style), bass, guitar and catchy tunes with an overall dreamy atmosphere. Most of their tracks are deeply influenced by 80's sounds (sometimes I heard echoes of Visage and Clan Of Xymox) but the band is able to avoid the cliché showing personality and verve. The only weak point is that the lyrics aren't intelligible because of the massive reverb effect used on Sara Lux Vitelly sensual vocals. Anyway, I really dug their style and if you'll check the songs on their myspace you'll agree with me.

Yes, this is still a release of the German Dependent label, but surely one of last items until they close the doors. For me this is still a shock, because regarding the offered quality released through Stefan Herwig’s label, there’s currently no label available which could have that potential to rival with them. However, this release of Austria’s MIAB comes quite surprising. "What Used To Be" wasn’t to me that sort of a striking track taken from the still marvelous "Crossroads"-album. It seems that the responsible musicians behind MIAB have given this piece some months to grow in them, because the both new versions created by MIAB themselves ("Short Storm" and "Long Storm") are once again that catchy and breathtaking arranged, that MIAB should be able now to expect euphoric reaction from the dancefloors. More than ever before MIAB could work out a track, which features both, an unstoppable floor-filling attitude and decent consumption on your home entertainment. No boredom on here, but a catchy and nearly Futurepop-like tune with addictive synth textures. Add to this a rather average third version by Peter Rainman plus a new and unreleased "b-side"-track entitled "One Day", which can follow the stuff of the album "Crossroads". Even if this short SiCD is limited, it is a must-have for the fans - finally the recent happened position No. 1 at the German DAC charts are a proof for the quality. Regarding Dependent – somebody has to wake me up from this nightmare...