After his 2008 debut album "A Thousand Nights" Gregor Tresher has been really busy. He founded his own label Break New Soil (always part of the Great Stuff roster) and prepared his second album THE LIFE WIRE. Known by most of the audience for his fine techno style, Gregor decided to widen the spectrum of his music including vocals and giving to different tracks a certain electro touch that mix really well with his kind of techno sounds (his first album had already seeds of what had to come on "Full range madness") . Since from the opening "Ghosts" you realize that something interesting is going to happen: it opens with a mysterious atmosphere and a fat bass line that sounds so good mixed with the syncopated drum rhythm. On the second tune "The very end" we start the dances thanks to great deep vocals, riding bass lines and drums plus a bit of electro house touch. Electro, house and techno are the main elements of this thirteen tracks album and you won't find any filler. Tracks with vocals and catchy melodies alternate techno/house instrumentals giving to the album a feeling of freshness. On all the CD there's an overall nightly atmosphere that I appreciated. Check on the Great Stuff player at http://www.greatstuffmusic.eu/1998/01/bnscd001.html "Ghosts", "1982", "Awaking life inside" and "The very end" first and you'll realize that I was right... this album has so much to offer!

Welcome back at the front-line, Stefan, and fire free for the new and 8th edition of Dependent’s legendary "Septic"-compilation series. Germany’s label giant Dependent is back for good after they’ve decided two years ago to stop all business activities due to the ongoing stagnation of sales and illegal file piracy. But it is still a dangerous situation – the awful situation of illegal file-sharing is still imminent and a promising tool against this hasn’t been invented so far, and to run a label in professional structures requires fully attention and a lot of right decisions regarding the label roster. On the other side – and I say this out of deepest conviction – it does so good to have back a rivaling pendant to the too-big-too-arrogant operating Out Of Line giant. Coming to this release, the name "Septic" and to participate with a track still has still a lot of meaning for an Electro/Industrial project. And so Stefan could easily collect again some cool and promising newcomer acts to offer them a free slot to publish their talent to a widely interested audience. Some veteran and well-sounding global players of course needed to be added too, as they get the possibility to promote upcoming stuff. The winner is for the most part the listener, who receives always a wide ranging diversity between the styles. As for a point of criticism, "Septic VIII" acts a bit too obviously as a pure label collection, more than half of the participants have been collaborated in some or another way with Dependent before. Although MySpace and consorts offer for the most part uninspired mediocrity - the point which Stefan often picks up and argues - there’s out there quality music, you only have to search for it a bit better. And the listener even nowadays doesn’t understand the drama of label politics, so the pleasant return of Dependent would have been also a chance to bury some old hatchets.
Now turning the attention to the music, the good things are starting with Sweden’s legitimate answer on SKINNY PUPPY, the duo of NECRO FACILITY, which offers an energetic new track. "Do You Feel The Same" draws a fine balance between aggression and melodic calmness with typical Ogre-like vocals, some guitar riffs and tasteful Dark-Electro synth arrangements. INFORMATIK’s "Temporary", in this case remixed by THE SYTHETIC DREAM FOUNDATION, is one of the winners of their self-arranged remix contest following their last studio album "Beyond". This cool interpretation gets not only rewarded with a free slot on here, it will be too available on INFORMATIK’s new album "Arena". Back for good also for South-Africa’s ACRETONGUE with a musically demanding Dark-Electro tune – just try to sing along to that tricky rhythm programming! No surprise, but still a breathtaking quality – as usual – from MESH ("Who Says" sounds rather edgy like their earlier recordings... ), EDGE OF DAWN and BIOMEKKANIK (solo project of Sweden’s Christer Hermodsson, who been part of S.P.O.C.K and producer of among others AND ONE or CAT RAPES DOG), as they all can be thrown into the lesser dark, but modern and refreshing sounding Futurepop-genre. Denmark’s ARZT + PFUSCH and their Lo-Fi - Electro/Industrial-sound is something, I’ve missed through the years – unfortunately they seem to have no interest to reach again their best days with notorious hits like "Boneloc" or "Skumfuck" – their new one "Constipated Disembowelment" is a quite uninspired tedious piece of Dark Electro music, which does nothing else but boring. And how can Stefan explain us the sense to prostitute himself and to offer free slots for those toxic brownfields like AERODRONE (a demo version??? I as a listener of this self-entitled highly anticipated compilation would feel of being fooled - yes, it’s the new project of Gary Zon/DISMANTLED) and VELVET ACID CHRIST (a whiny Goth-like acoustic tune with "real" vocals? Can that be called "back to the very early roots", Bryan?). But luckily this compilation turns back on track by offering convincing appearances of GHOST & WRITER (an interesting new collaborative effort by J.-M. Lederman/The WEATHERMEN and Frank M. Spinath/SEABOUND, EDGE OF DAWN), ENCEPHALON (yes, they’ve also been known guests on an earlier issue of "Septic"), and Germany’s personified Dark Electro god FIX8:SED8. Also not to be missed is a musically trip to the pure Coldwave-related genre with appearances of KMFDM vs. SKOLD and WE GOT THIS FAR.
"Septic VIII" is another tireless appetizer, which works well to introduce talented newcomer acts asides already discovered and renowned global players. What’s good on this has been said – what’s bad and doesn’t satisfy has been mentioned too. As much as I enjoy the wide-ranging diversity of the presented styles and the big effort Stefan has once again invested to collect this compilation, I personally miss a bit of his often proved pioneering sense. By collecting this album to celebrate the return of Dependent, he has missed a really big chance to break with some inner boundaries and to search for valuable contacts – collaboration and the exchange of ideas of how to promote this still sort of niche-music can safe the medium CD with better sales for a longer time. Some labels out of IDM/Electronica-scene seemingly have recognized this already. Therefore "Septic VIII" entertains in a similar kind as all other parts out of this compilation series too. But it looks a bit, that nothing has changed too much...

1. Necro Facility - Do you feel the same
2. Informatik - Temporary (Synthetic Dream Foundation Mix)
3. Acretongue - Dragonfly (nymph)
4. Mesh - Who Says? (Rough Mix)
5. Apparat - Arcadia (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix Edit)
6. Edge Of Dawn - Stage Fright
7. Biomekkanik - Pitch Black Ocean
8. Arzt+Pfusch - Constipated Disembowelment
9. acid.milch&honig - Was ich seh
10. Non Plus Ultra - Free Falling
11. Aerodrone - Ready To Love (Demo Version)
12. Velvet Acid Christ - Black Rainbow
13. Ghost & Writer - Nightshift
14. Encephalon - Scar On Scar
15. KMFDM vs. Skold - Bloodsport
16. FÏX8:SËD8 - Dormicum
17. We Got This Far - Sedona

Every year I receive from Jill one of his demos and every year I notice that he improves his skills into creating smooth sounds and chill out atmospheres. This year's demo is titled ONE SMALL STEP and contains six new tunes. We start with "Landscape" a slow atmospheric tune with reverbered flutes, minimal vocals samples and a trumpet that put in evidence the bass line. "My own time" has an upfront bass line as well and has an upbeat rhythm that will make you move along with the soothing piano sounds. "One small step" remember me one of the hit singles of Phoenix if it had catchy vocals. Jill should try to collaborate with someone and try to have an hit single out. "Polyester", "Summer light" and "Blessed" are mid tempos with deal with that sound that mix Miami house and chill out sounds with jazz vocal and sound samples.

After debuting on the second volume of "Some tunes", music producers Peter Rutten and Sanne Groeneveld finally produced their first official release. THE HORN contains six tunes and is available only as digital download. The opening self titled tune sees on vocals as guest Erik Walet and his deep vocals give a mysterious touch to the song which is a curious blend of Spanish melodies/guitars and blasting distorted bass lines with different stops and go. Great song indeed. For the following two tracks, "Pinky stinky" and "Sweaty stinky", we have Aischa on vocals and on these the music is more syncopated and influenced by dub reggae atmospheres and electro. The following "Come on" is a perfect electro dance tune with 4/4 rhythms, fat synth bass lines and catchy vocals. Next we have "Timpaner" an instrumental that sounds nice but doesn't really add something more to what we already listened. The last track is "The brick is in the air", an Aux Raus song remixed by Bronstibock. I don't know the original version but this one sounds like an 8bit electro pumping tune with the add of distorted guitars here and there. Nice and funny... You can check many of these songs at Bronstibock's myspace page.

There are VERY FEW people pushing the envelope today. Moldover is undoubtedly one of them, big time! He doesn't just do it musically, but he even builds his own instruments and delivers his music in probably the most original artwork/CD cover I have ever seen.
A few years back this guy pretty much single-handedly launched a new underground phenomenon known as "controllerism" (the art of manipulating sounds and creating or remashing music live using computer controllers and software) which then turned into a whole scene of people doing similar things. He then went on to build the Octamasher (an interactive music installation made up of eight unique keyboard controllers connected to one computer that allows anyone to get in on the fun and jam with any 7 other people). His first album (reviewed on these pages) was a masterpiece of live-remashing of famous rock, pop, electronic tunes, but Moldover wanted to move beyond that and create something that was all original and so this album slowly started to take shape. He's been working on it for years and it sounds fantastic!
Musically you can hear that he has a rock background and in this record he takes his previously instrumental-only/digital-only electronic music to the next level and adds live drums, live guitars and even does some signing. It's hard to say what's in his iPod... There's a broad range of influences at work here, probably things like Squarepusher, Tool, Linkin Park, Aphex Twin/AFX, Frank Zappa, Clay People, Venetian Snares, Boards of Canada etc... Moldover's music is as fresh, eclectic and original as it gets, with influences ranging from funk to nu jazz, from prog rock to metal, from glitch electronica to ambient, from drum'n'bass to dance, from darker dronier stuff to bright solar things. Generally it's safe to say that it is a very uptempo CD and except for the last tune of the record (sort of a Michael Manring guitar-only manipulation) and one other tune, it's a very hype and hip fast-paced piece of work. You just will have to hear it and you'll know how cool it is.
The entire record is made using Ableton + Reaktor and a self-built midi controller made of a bunch of ribbon controllers, knobs, faders, switches and arcade video game type buttons which you can see him play if you are lucky enough to catch one of his very cool live sets (you should!).
You can download all of the tracks from a bunch of different places online or buy a cheap $10 CD from his website, but if you want something unique you've got to get yourself the "awesome edition" (remember when I mentioned the most original CD artwork of all times?). If you thought that the David Lynch/Sparklehorse/Danger Mouse was original, Moldover tops that by housing a real circuit board inside a regular jewel case. The PCB traces create a maze artwork around the word Moldover and on the back they actually outline the titles of the songs. As if this were not cool enough to just look at, Moldover made this circuit board into an actual working instrument that he calls a "light theremin", made up of two light sensors, a trigger button, a blue LED light a speaker AND a headphone jack! So not only can you impress people by literally "playing" the art work of this CD, but you can even plug it in and rock out with it for real like Moldover does at some of his shows! I don't usually post links to youtube videos but this time is different: you've got to do yourself a favor and check this out for yourself so you know what I am talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8UzSVFUIc0&feature=player_embedded
Friggin' awesome! Obviously the dude is from another planet.