Strip In Midi Side is a band coming from Sarno, near Salerno, Italy. They just produced a demo CD with five tracks (you can check four of them on their myspace page): "A strip in your midi side", "Everyday like this", "The dreams", "Bring me down" and "Sweet bastard". They call their style neuro-pop and claim themselves influenced by Depeche Mode and Marilyn Manson. Well produced and mixed Strip In Midi Side's music is a a nice blend of electronic pop and guitar riffs. Personally I hear more Duran Duran than Depeche Mode or Marilyn Manson (check the refrain on "The dream") and this isn't a critique because I love the first two Duran Duran's album as well as the ones recorded with the original line-up reunited. Anyway, Giotto (vocals/synth), Amon (bass/vocals), Maks (guitar) and Akrid (synthesizer/programming/noises) are ready to get signed and they deserve it because their music is energetic, melodic and catchy. "Bring me down", for example, would fit well the alternative dance floors as it is a mix of goth, electro and new wave.

In 1998 Roberto Conforti recorded the first output of Pulcher Femina ("pretty woman" in Latin) which was released via the label Decadance Records same as all subsequent PF releases. A duo turned into a one-man-project later on but it did not stop Roberto from working on this project and developing its sound. "Darkness Prevails" is an electro popish sounding album, but not of a dull happy-chappy kind. The songs tell of personal and painful experiences or contemplations that do not give much reason for cheerfulness, while Roberto hints at love as the way out. Some may find the sound of "Darkness Prevails" too soft. Well, Roberto is does not write songs about dangerous viruses that would contain samples from catastrophe movies. Neither does he sing about bar-coded cyborgs and such. And by "sings" I mean singing with clear vocals and not shouting from the top of his lungs. Fans of Elegant Machinery may very well be interested to check this CD out. Most songs on this album fit probably better to be played at home than at a party with the exception of "Holy War" and "Face the Fear" that closes the album. Perhaps more energetic numbers would do no evil to the overall work. "Love you to Death" is a very beautiful song about the power of love and the strength it may give the sides involved. It also includes some oboe and piano passages (it is by keyboards actually).
"Darkness Prevails" is about people not seeing the light, as Roberto explains. It is not about one depressive guy sitting alone in darkness. The whole record is rather easy-light sounding and has lyrics worth listening to. Volker Lutz (Evil's Toy-T.O.Y.) is the co-producer of this album which was recorded, mixed and mastered in three different studios in three different countries in order to achieve best result possible. The effort was worthwhile from the technical point of view. From the artistic point of view this is probably best work by Roberto up to now. One thing is certain: Roberto has an unmistakable sound.

Personal project of Roberto Conforti, Pulcher Femina has released its first album on Decadance Records in 2000 having as musical references Wumpscut and VNV Nation. Ten years after, Roberto is releasing for the same label his newest and third album titled DARKNESS PREVAILS. About the title he says: "Often, this is how I perceive the world around me. In the absence of light, darkness prevails. An age isn't called 'dark' because the light fails to shine, it's because people refuse to see it". This is the main theme the thirteen songs are focused on, songs that musically are always influenced by Roberto's aforementioned loved bands (see for example how he used the punching rhythms and the synth leads arpeggios) but that are also packed with melancholic melodies and clean vocals. In this way he created a particular blend where 80's melodies meet 90's e.b.m. solutions. Try to imagine a Frozen Autumn/VNV Nation mix and you'll have pretty much an idea of how DARKNESS PREVAILS sounds. I'm listening to it for the third time in a row and I have to admit that I like how it sounds: now melodic/energetic and then melancholic. If you love e.b.m. and cold wave you have to check this one. You'll be pleasantly surprised...

"Same procedure as last year, Mr. Almgren?" He may would answer: "Same procedure as EVERY year, Mr. Tater". Well, how to start a new year even more attractive, as to hold a new album of Sweden’s Electronica-expert VOIDE a.k.a. David Almgren proudly in my hands? His fourth and follow-up album to his last years’ effort "Humachine" is his most matured and stylistically most diverse work so far. It draws perfectly the right balance between the modern sounding hi-tech tunes of "Humachine" with the slightly harder tracks presented on his masterpiece "Evolution". Even better than this, he at least offers slightly different arranged versions of his successful and free downloadable summer tunes like "Lazy" (David doing some relaxing speech-vocals – does the content really fit with the snowy weather we currently have to bear???) , "Traffic" and the breath-taking "Into The Sun", a collaborative effort with the Australian female vocalist Pixieguts (Marie Craven). Since "Into The Sun" has been that unexpected well recognized by the audience, David has invited Pixieguts to offer her well-sounding timbre for some additional tracks available on here. There’s at first to name the opener "The Beat Of You" and it really astonishes, how well the rather cold and Trance-driven Electronica music flirts with the warm vocals of Mrs. Pixieguts. Both artists may have never met personally because of the huge distance between Sweden and Australia, but this track comes out that perfectly arranged, as would both produce music together day by day. Another favorite – again with Pixieguts providing the lead vocals – has to be named with the rather slow and rhythmically different sounding title track. The talent to produce ambience through his complex synth-layer sounds is one of the strongest talents, which David has to offer – I would encourage him to produce more tracks focusing on this kind to balance between Lounge and Dark Electro music. Typical and expected stuff out of David’s skillful hands you’ll get with tracks like "When The Skies Are Grey" and "Beauty For The Wicked" – rhythmically straight arranged Electronica, which supports a top-notch synth-play – this is a feast for ears and legs. Also available is a new version of his first collaborative effort "Love", providing the German actress Suzi Electric doing the lead vocals. Comes then the word on a real music experiment, "Necropolis", with its gloomy mood and a sick vocal performance including a nasty fx manipulation by Pixieguts. This composition may is intended to satisfy the rather Goth-minded part of the audience, but I guess, that especially these clients will find the synth-arrangements chosen for this track too lovely and not thrilling enough. A decision to give out this tune via a remix-kit to some dark and sick projects out of the harder Electro-/EBM-related styles may could come up with quite interesting and intense sounding results. Lots of new stuff to discover from David, at least 14 tracks and of 1 hour of refreshing Electronica music. And even if some of you have already discovered one or another of his free available tunes, it is nevertheless worth enough, to pick up this album too, since all of the free tunes got revamped. Completely convincing once again, there’s no end of the rope for VOIDE.

Active since the fall 80's with Native Cry and then with Countzero, Octarine and Imo, Martin Philip already released two albums with his own name ("Decline" and "Metime") before this one I'm reviewing. FRAUDULENT is a particular title for a synthpop album and I might say that fortunately it is because Martin is a guy who's questioning himself about our culture and our modern times. If the music is a rich blend of upbeat rhythms, synthetic sounds and guitar riffs (a sort of dark early Pet Shop Boys version with some distorted rhythms), lyrics are focused on many themes: we start with "Fraudulent entertainment" which born from a Martin's friend comment about the X-Factor show (he found it humiliating and pop music it isn't about humiliation), then we have songs like "I run dry" (here a guy lose his willing to face a relationship) or "Pride In Your Pocket" and "Omni directional" born from a collaboration with Jon Russell, guy who collaborated on the One Two album (the first song talks about a picky professor who's putting every student on hold focusing himself on his pride while his books and work is quite questionable), "Telharmonic Hall" is about a musician who is getting unemployed because of the invention of Telharmonic, the commercial idea was to wire the music from the instrument to the subscribers, often the fashionable hotels in the New York area, using the telephone cables. "Focus on Figures" behind its light pop melancholy talks about an employee who's like a trained chimpanzee. Here Martin sings: "All through the day I keep my focus on figures. They are dependable, so very reliable. All through the day I keep my focus on figures. I’m emotionally detached. Objectively getting them matched." Available on CD-r and through iTunes FRAUDULENT is a multifaceted album you'll enjoy for sure if you are into the genre.