Staalplaat & Extrapool's Brombron joint venture has Stilluppsteypa-member Heimir Bjorgulfsson and Jonas Ohlsson signing the fourth chapter. The project consists in locking up two musicians in Nijmegen's Extrapool recording studio to see what they come up with and then release it in a jewel-case-size carton-only package that sets new standards in recycling. "Brombron 04: Unspoken World Tour" is a very eclectic assembling of 23 tracks that range from experimental glitch music to edgy electronic music. Definitely more tending to the throbbing, pulsing and pounding, as opposed to the weird, unconventional and noisy, but keeping a very well balanced and still uncompromised approach. The two educated Nordic Amsterdam residents put together a really pleasing collection of tunes distancing from their individual productions (I guess it's true that with union comes strength) and offering you a taste of what they conceive a combustion of modern hi-tech digital electronics and vintage analog sonics to be.

The elusive Manchester-based Steve Gears has been around for a while as B-Dum B-Dum Sound and 7% Solution (perhaps you may have heard about him from collaborations with the In The Nursery brothers' Les Jumeaux side-project and Wire's Colin Newman) and "Dip" is probably the sum of all these experiences and the exteriorising of all the sensations he gathered. A deeply emotional album that has the loaded tenseness of 80's post, the otherworldly floatation of dub, the artsy atmospherics of some mainstream-outsiders, the architecture of a electronics, the liberty of experimentalism and the mysteriousness of dark. The beautiful and entrancing peace of "Dip" is shared and contended by a lush feeling of loneliness and a tasty aesthetic of romanticism. In no specific order a list of influences may include David Byrne, Daniel Lanois, David Bowie, Gary Neuman, Brian Eno, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Mick Harris, Deadbeat, Minimal Compact, Wire and many (and I mean MANY) others but, then again, it is all vague and mystified, restrained and evened out. Smoothing the edges and straightening the surface to allow for the softest ride along the waves of stringed arpeggios, the intimacy of a small orchestration, the coagulation of ethereal loops, the laid back and shy beats and the visionary vocals (his very own warm and lyrical interpretations occasionally caressed by female background), who are really the focus of this modernized-retro'-beauty compositional effort.

I know the Venus Fly Trap since the early days as Alex Novak has been a member of Attrition and my older brother was into them. I listened only to their live album and few other things but this time I had the possibility to span through their whole discography as this five CDs gather almost all the songs the band produced during the 1987/1997 period.
Let's get into the details:

- MARS contains "Morphine", "Desolation Railway" and the MLP "Mars". Listening to these releases I heard echoes of Teardrop Explodes, Three Jones and various influences that go from post punk to psychobilly. This CD contains also the original versions of "Morphine", "Catalyst", "Desolation Railway" and a live version of "Step Inside"

- TOTEM (like the following PANDORAS BOX) has got the tracks coming from the Danceteria label period and includes "Rocket USA" 12" (1989), "Totem" (1990) and "Europa" 12" (1990) along with the "Europa" remix and the live versions of "Shadowplay" and "Rocket USA" plus the "Rocket USA" video clip. With this the atmosphere goes darker with echoes of Bauhaus and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. If you thought that "Rocket USA" is a cover of the Suicide song, you got it... Last note: on production we have got Kevin Haskins

- PANDORAS BOX contains "Pandoras Box" LP and selections from "Achilles Heel" 12" and the live album "Jewel". Always with Haskins on production the single and the album sligtly move away from the previous one leaving goth influences and starting exploring psychedelic rock with punk/funk tiny influences (as Gang Of Four did) but without missing their dark vein. Here you can also find the video of "Europa"

- LUNA TIDE includes "Shedding Another Skin" (1992) and the "Luna Tide" album (1994). To be precise I don't see any tracks from the first one as being a compilation of singles all the tracks are already on the other releases. Anyway, with this the new Venus Fly Trap's sound comes out and we can say that the dark period is definitively over. The tracks have got mainly rock and punk influences and the songs are guitar oriented. Sometimes (like on "Urban Sprawl Pt.1) the old influences come out. To be honest this is the album I enjoyed less

- DARK AMOUR is the last one and contains the album with the same title along with a song titled "13 o'clock". Luckily dark atmospheres are back along with some electronic arrangements and a sort of dark tension is noticeable. Songs like "Passport To Dark Amour" and "Pulp Sister" are direct and catchy and I prefer the band to sound this way: less rock or psychedelic and more direct and twisted

Wow... it has been difficult but I hope you got the picture. If you want my advice, I'd pick up TOTEM and DARK AMOUR... Enough said. ;-)

This is the latest CD from Girls Under Glass, with, you guessed it, a cover of the Madonna song "Frozen" and some other goodies, working out more as an EP than a single. I hate the original Madonna song, as it marks a period where she gave up daring music and style and gave in to corporate radio-friendly music safe for her aging yuppy fanbase of the 80’s. But this seems to breathe life into a otherwise pointless song. My favorite on this would be "Wings" with it’s ethereal vocals and gliding whistles and dance tracks. Also the Das Ich remix of "The Bitter End" and Peter Heppner on "Grey On Grey" (he’s everywhere nowadays!) definitely don’t hurt either. This one got a few rotations in my CD player. Rating: 10.

This one is kind of odd to me, having a lot of swagger for a Projekt band, who usually carry more an air of laid-back melancholy. At points it reminds me of old school Mission UK with it’s goth-ballad swagger, sometimes like a poppier Love Like Blood. Grrrr, and I hate the fact they covered Leonard Cohen’s "Dance Me To The End Of Love", I wanted to cover that song for a while now! Oh well, plenty of other songs to cover. I could easily see this played on the radio or on VH1, in a good way. Projekt, with it’s newfound dabblings in dark pop like LowSunday (think Travis with powerchords), has paid off. But at times the swagger of Human Drama catches me, yet on other times that same song makes me wonder how much pop-rock I can stomach. But eh, on the same hand I have an uneasy relationship with pop in general. Choice cuts are "I am Not Here", "Lonely", and " Imitation of... .". "Lonely" esp., with it’s Schubert-style piano musings, catches my ear. Rating: 9.