MAGNA CHARTA ILLUSORUM is the second album for Ad Ombra and on this one George D. Stanciulescu mixed industrial sounds, neo-classical structures/instruments and some modern classical music intuitions. Helped by Alexandra Damian (mezzo-soprano), linca Olteanu (soprano) and Andrei Apostol (additional male voices) he composed twelve suites where the initial martial orchestrations of "Templum Stygialis" and "Disquiet Opera" slowly blend into dramatic semi opera tunes. If on tracks like "... a coeur posthume" melodic chants are the main element on "Uranogeea" or the following "Mimes of the Occult" melody become an hidden element between the orchestra explosion of strings and the dissonant chants. On these moments it seems that George opted for a score born from improvisations where we have sudden changes of melody and atmosphere. "Heritages de l'Angoisse" is the track where the different influences are well represented because it starts with a harpsichord then we have a female/strings duet that after a while turns into a piano/samples industrial moment just to end like an industrial wave track with filtered male vocals and martial rhythms. The atmosphere convinced me but an occasional listener could be confused by the dissonant rumbles that take a hold on many moments, so check some track first.

Kim Larsen is best known for his :Of The Wand & The Moon: project where he gives life to dark neo-folk ballads. With Solanaceae, instead, he explored a different side of folk. Helped by Chelsea Robb (Arrowwood), Pythagumus Marshall (Novemthree), Michael Laird (Unto Ashes), John van der Lieth (Sonne Hagal), Fenella Overgaard (:Of The Wand & The Moon:), Vincent Farrow (Solblot) and Anne Eltard (who also appeared on the first :Of The Wand & The Moon: album), Kim created thirteen new songs influenced by traditional folk and English psychedelia (see the beautiful "Nihil sum", "O deep woods" or "The blood of my lady II") without losing his characteristic sound. Even if on Solanaceae's self titled album you can't find the tension of classic tunes of the likes of "Lieblos Hin Zur Dunkelheit", "I shall feast" or "Black moth", lyrics talk about horned ones who wants to to reach inside maidens, circles of blood, people who see the blood of their ladies everywhere or dead men that carried by the waters have brought back to their loved ones. Acoustic guitars, flutes and violins play ballads that gently talk of tragedies... A black album for dark ages.

Reissuing all the back catalog Attrition is now printing live albums. They are sold separately but being released on the same period I'm reviewing them together. Anyway... ACROSS THE DIVIDE is a live album of a concert held in Holland in 1984 during the Attrition/Legendary Pink Dots tour (the first Attrition tour outside UK) and it has never been released before. On this one Attrition were Martin Bowes, Julia Waller and Ashley Niblock and it contains tracks coming from "The attrition of reason" and "Voice of God" EP. It has been recorded directly from the mixer and even if the tapes were twenty five years old there's only a minor flaw during the opening "Pendulum turns". If you like minimal electronic wave with post industrial attitude this one is for you. HERETIC ANGELS, instead, have been released already for Trisol in 2000 but it have been unavailable for long time. It contains ten songs recorded in 1999 during the band's USA tour. Christine Reid replaced Julia Waller on vocals and that was the period when Attrition collaborated with Franck Dematteis (he played violins and viola and he came from the Paris Opera) at the "Jeopardy maze"/"Etude" albums. Here the sound see the caractheristic Martin/Christine vocal duets and the tracks turned from minimal electronics to dark electronics influenced by early e.b.m. The tracklisting have songs coming from "3 Arms And A Dead Cert" ("Prelude" and "Acid tongue"), "The Hidden Agenda" ("Lip sync", "Interference" and "The mercy machine"), "The Jeopardy Maze" ("Atomizer - custom mother"), 'A tricky business" ("A girl called harmony", "Right Hand Man" and "The second hand"), "The Eternity EP" ("I am eternity"). Both the CDs have a remastered sound and are representative of a different period and if you are a fan for sure you'd be interested...

We've noticed a great publishing effort behind the fourth studio album by one of the most unpretentious and underrated Dark electro project, the young but hyper-prolific German (from Chemnitz, a town sited in the ex-East Germany nearby the Czech borders, formerly known as Karl-Marx Stadt) band Wynardtage, supported by a lot of meaningful trademarks of the scene and co-released by Equinoxe (release number 66) and Rupal Records (release with the magical number 23... ), entitled The Grey Line, maybe referring to the homonymous one, which people studying earth sciences know very well, referring to the band which separates daylight from darkness. Following his previous album Praise The Fallen, widely acclaimed by specialized press as well as by EBM-dark djs, we're almost sure that this brand new album will obtain a comparable acclamation mainly for an aspect which should not be underrated by electro dances, often called "danceability". Even if Wynardtage declares "The world is still the same '“ only I have changed... ", the listener which knows Kai Arnold's (the mastermind unraveling the threads of Wynardtage) past albums easily recognizes that the themes are more or less the same of the previous works, mainly rooted in ferocious critics to social matters and false morality mixed up with personal statements, fears and wishes, even if it seems that the (strictly darkish!) canvas enwrapping this lyrics all over the 11 tracks of the album is more intended for dancers wearing obscure spectacles (or gas masks!)... Harsh sounds combined with suffocating ones, martial 4/4 sequenced beats, epic atmospheres and great vocals will kick your ass and perfectly fits this nervous times! A song like Cutting Down is what we imagine is "silently" resonating in the minds of managers on the point of announcing an imminent cut of work forces (sometimes suicide inducing..), while the title track is one of the best episodes of the whole album: the guest singer Melanie G. from the band advantage perfectly interpretes the depressively foggy breeze of this sybilline song inviting the listener to create a vision to (re)create a personal delight. And the whispering and suggestive dialogue introducing If There Is No Tomorrow seems to be tragically predictive, don't despair and dances on the corrugated front-row beats shaking that song. We like the recurring habit of interweaving spoken parts and smashing beats with swampy electronic sequences and rusty vocals tumbling down on rhythms which sometimes reminds to us slushing wheels, especially in tracks like Crash Of A Star '“ a song which seems an angry reflection on the delicate matter of young people suicidal pulsations, nicely contrasting with the following track, Now We Are Alive, a song which will arguably echoe in unhappy existences... especially the Painbastard's remix '“, My Life or The Frozen Point (paradoxically one of the highest point of the whole album according to our ears and tip-tapping feet... ). The European version of the limited edition includes three remixes: the above-mentioned one by Painbastard, a more "elastic" crushed version of Mask by ESC and a disengaged techno rush by X-Fusion remixing Tragic Hero, but we know that American and Russian tracklists are slightly different as they include other remixes. After you listened to the album you could ask to yourself if Wynardtage chose a similar title '“ The Grey Line '“ just to preannounce a forthcoming transition from dark to light or arguably to make a present to people afflicte by split personality, but it's possible that you'll formalute similar silly question panting and panting after dancing... So... keep on dancing on the grey line, folks!

Partially available on the limited edition vinyl album released by Anna Logue Records back in 2007 (see my article into the interviews section) and on the Vinyl On Demand double vinyl compilation (with different recordings of few songs), ENORMOUS SAVAGES sees a reissue on CD format of those recordings thanks to Klang Galerie and does it carrying some bonus tracks. The first ten tracks have been recorded during the 1981-1983 period of the band and the first nine have been issued on the vinyl and show very well their industrial post punk attitude (see my article and my "Press my hungry button" review for more informations about that period). What I'd like to examine here are the five songs of the second period of the band. Partially available into the limited 3" "Little savages" (that one had "syst.admin") and on line at the band's website (there I found "Contains", Theme from Cultural Amnesia" and "syst.admin" again) the tracks composed after year 2000 find a band still full of ideas and able to use new sounds. "It's coming" mixes driving distorted guitars, piano, synths and drums to form a semi spoken word that sounds like a roller coaster ride (with stops and go and that sensation of having your chest pushed). "Contains" it's a beautiful electro experimental tune where voice is used again like a semi spoken word. The sound is rich and the catchy acoustic guitar lines sounds perfect with all those electronics sounds that come and go. "I heard it on the radio" recalls a little the 80's atmosphere with a sort of electronic ballad with guitars that sounds like razors. In this way this sound is in opposition to the melancholy vocals. "Syst.admin" starts with a dissonant guitar that recalled me The Fall or A Witness while vocals sound like a sermon of a possessed priest. Everything is sustained by a syncopated drum. The Birthday Party on acid? "Theme from cultural amnesia" starts like a dissonant post rock track filtered by a broken radio just to lose the filter after one minute and developing into a mysterious instrumental track with a theremin like synth. The track slowly fades into a creepy noise synth experimental tune. This album prove that this band has so much to tell and we need that so badly...