Latex Records

01. Televised
02. Reminders
03. Slow Cascade
04. Forgiven
05. The Debate
06. Ruin
07. Sentinel
08. Stand Up
09. Hindsight
10. Delete

Light it Up features guest appearances from Frank Spinath of Seabound and Victoria Lloyd of HMB, Monochrome and Claire Voyant. Founded by J. Ned Kirby in the early 1990′s, Stromkern (including Kelly Shaffer) have created a unique sound in the Electro-Industrial genre by combining hip-hop vocals and ryhthms with classical compositions and post-industrial rock.

One of the things that really stand out to me personally on this album is not just the danceable rhythms combined with the hard electro-industrial themes and styles, but also the addition of piano to this mix. As a fan of keyboard music in general, be it electronic or acoustic, I absolutely love the way Ned combines these elements. I’ve been looking at various tracks by several artists who have used piano in unexpected ways with music styles that it might not normally be associated with traditionally and find Ned’s to be one of the most appealing combination to me personally. There are not many in the Industrial genre who have done this and the first you might think of is Trent Reznor. However, Ned’s work does not become so melodramatic and instead is a smooth combination where the piano accompanies the Electro rather than taking over the mood of it. I hope he continues this with future releases as I’m a huge fan of it. The most melodramatic track, and also a great standout, is probably “Hindsight” featuring Victoria Lloyd of Claire Voyant. However, the softer side of the female vocals and piano is contrasted by heavy rock guitar. Love this track!!

This album is by far my favorite so far by Stromkern and is the one that turned me onto the band to begin with causing me to buy all his previous releases. However, this one stands out far and above his previous releases and I believe he will only get better. As for his use of hip-hop vocals, do not let this confuse you into thinking this is anything but pure hard electro-industrial because it is not some candy-coated hip-hip BS at all. Instead, think of Uberbyte as an example maybe. Though Stromkern’s “Stand Up” came first! Don’t forget it!

This is an excellent album for the Electro, Industrial, and EBM genres and is not only my favorite by Stromkern but is actually one of my favorite releases in the genre overall. This will likely go down as an all-time fave!! Definitely worth checking out!!! This is very well put together and the contrasting elements cleanly combined while maintaining a hard edge.

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01. The Gathering Storm
02. The Prowler
03. Voices in My Head
04. Discipline
05. The Garden of Earthly Delights*
06. Barbican
07. Pleasure Seekers
08. Days of Future Past
09. Invincible Force of the Power Source
10. One Life

Bonus Track
11. Waste ‘Em With My Crossbow!

Serious Black is the solo effort of Steve Mecca who works to test the boundaries of old-school goth/industrial utilizing many 80′s influenced sound structures with his own unique creative blend of dark musings. One thing Steve is good at is making an album of tracks which is incomparable, meaning there are no two tracks on this disc that sound alike. However, he does succeed at creating an identifying sound which is ‘Serious Black’ at the same time. Combining ‘light’ and ‘dark’ tonalities in a unifying blended whole Serious Black is sometimes cinematic while at other times very retro wave sounding. If you are a lover of retro 80′s music, especially goth and industrial, but want something new that still has that ‘old’ sound then you should definitely check out Serious Black. One of my favorite tracks on the release is the title track which is the lone instrumental and was also used as the dark ambient background to the PBS Television documentary “The Flood of ’35″. It captures the ominous feel of dark thunderclouds and the foreboding of the coming storm about to break when you know lives are at stake. The CD’s introduction to “The Gathering Storm” carries much of a similar ominous foreboding. However the rest of the track is very ‘digitalia’ industrial in a style similar to Clock DVA. This album also features a remake of “Garden of Earthly Delights” which also includes female vocals and a heavy retro Wave feel. “Pleasure Seekers” has a certain dimentia to it that I like a lot. You can hear some influences bordering on Electric Hellfire Club in parts of this one. “Days of Future Past” sounds like a David E. Williams track complete with harpsichord while “Invincible Force of the Power Source” is heavily vocoded and has some techno influences as well. Amusingly “Waste ‘Em With My Crossbow!” is a metal parody and completely off the scale from the rest of the album. One thing you get from Serious Black is variance and unpredictability. While the vocals are weak at times I think the longer Steve does this the better he’ll get and this release is not bad for a good start. There is much on this album that you will likely love and hate as there is such a range of musical combinations in this project. I’m sure future releases will be even more interesting.

© Copyright 2/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Black Water
02. Plastik Hed
03. Lost Lands
04. Fusion
05. Splitter
06. Optic View
07. Isolation
08. New Energy
09. Negative Man
10. Fracture

S.E.M:I is a project by Mikæl Orgillon and Jason Bagley started in 1999 and is currently part of the Syncromesh family. The project is a heavy Noise and Drum-n-Bass influenced project that has the overall effect of practically creating altered mental states while at the same time rocking your body and pounding your head. The Syncromesh site describes the project as recreating subatomic music, “that primordial dance of particles and electrons, the hyper-kinetic waltz of nuclei”. With all the thrashing, bleeping, droning, and many other more subtle things going on in these multi-layered, multi-dimensional tracks that perspective is quite visible. They have been compared to Download, the side-project of ex-Skinny Puppy member cEvin Key and with good reasons. S.E.M:I gives all new meaning to the term ‘abstract’ while maintaining highly kinetic dance rhythms. S.E.M:I is more of a scientific formula than a genre of music. It’s an alchemical blend of technology and consciousness. While most of the tracks on this disc just instantly grab you and pull you in like a Death Star tractor beam “Negative Man” takes it’s time building layer upon layer of strategically controlled chaos and is one of the few vocal tracks on the release. S.E.M:I is chaos theory redefined!

© Copyright 2/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. Void
02. Subside
03. Kill Me
04. Eva’s Lullaby
05. Say You’re Mine
06. Whores
07. Casket Romantic
08. Slow Death
09. Secrets
10. Trash
11. Kill Me (demo)
12. She (demo)

Suture Seven was founded in 1998 by ex-Advent Sleep (featured on Cleopatra Record’s “Goth Box”) member Elton Nestler. SS (now that’s an abbreviation dying for a fascist logo) combines industrial-rock with gothic elements and various experimental elements to create a sound similar to bands like KMFDM, SMP, and Chaos Engine. From that list alone you can see that the different range of sound suggests that Suture Seven has ‘elements’ of these sounds but does not sound like any band. Sometimes a noisy electronic grind, other times a dark dirge, and yet others a metal guitar industrial thrash fest – Suture Seven build onto the the Industrial-Rock genre expanding it even further into a realm of chaos control and dark agression. There’s is sound not easily pinned down and tagged for sure. Hell, catching them would be difficult enough. If you’re into the whole heavy rock-industrial thing and you’re looking for something new this band is worth checking out – lot’s of noise, guitars, heavy percussive beats, and dark vocals all colliding into a rather strange mixture of sound. My main criticism of this band, while the vocals are not bad – I don’t see what the ‘rave’ is about on their website – I don’t find them anything extreme and actually a bit week at times but overall, for an experimental and aggressive mix, this is not bad at all. One of my favorite tracks on this disc though is not in the band’s normal range of sound and is the track “Eva’s Lullaby” which befitting the abbreviation I mentioned has samples of what sounds like Hitler (or at least some German passionate about what he’s saying) over some circus-like ooompha horn bits and orchestrated synth with dance and industrial rhythms – strange to say the least!

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01. ENCOUNTER Awaiting the Other
02. CRAFT Dimensional Release
03. THE BEACON Those Who Have Gone Before
04. ON THE WAY Space Caravan
05. DIMENSIONAL SHIFT Across the Threshold
06. WITHIN Choir of the Ascending Spirit
07. DISTANT THUNDER Solitary Witness
08. ALIEN SHORE Starlight Bay
09. PROCESSION Sacred Ceremony
10. STAR DREAMS Peace Eternal

Michael Stearns is acredited for the creation of the Space Music genre in the 1970′s. I was introduced to it in the mid-80′s thanks to local college radio and the Hearts of Space radio program. This album was probably the first I’d heard in the genre and is responsible for getting me hooked on it from the start. Stearns has various film credits like many of the HOS label artists and is responsible for the IMAX slitscan logos as well. He records in his own six channel surround and post-production studio called Earth Turtle Studio and he designed his own version of The Beam instrument which is a 12 foot long instrument strung with 24 piano strings, that he has since used in many of his solo albums, live performances, and in his film scores. In his career he has worked with such renouned filmscore artists as Maurice Jarre and at the end of the year 2000 Michael scored a 3-D web presentation for DDD (Dynamic Digital Depth, www.DDD.com).

Encounter is a unique synthesizer album based on an alien encounter in which the listener is ‘abducted’ and transported to other worlds far outside our galaxy. Stearns utilizes various ambient and atmospheric textures and sounds including sounds of nature at night and the human voice along with what would seem to the an alien space ship to cite the most obvious examples. His soft ambient textures create a soothing and relaxing environment in which the listener is easily ‘moved’ from one soundscape to another. It is music like this that has created a habit of listening to music laying down with eyes closed and headphones on to relieve daily stress and escape our mundane world into the realm of imagination guided only by auditory influences created by the artist. This habit has made music as much of an escape as cinema as the greatest cinema one can have is the one that lies behind your own eyes. Space Music is a more advanced form of New Age in which synthesizers are the main control panel which teleports the listener into the mind’s eye to experience fantasies contrived by musicians which are no less rich than the best fantasy and science-fiction books and no less stimulating than the the cinematic experience. Music transports, elevates, and transforms.

© Copyright 1/2003 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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THE SOIL BLEEDS BLACK
01. Kyrie Eleison (21st Century Mix)
02. Palastinalied (21st Century Mix)

BUTTERFLY MESSIAH
03. Serpentine
04. It’s Time

MEPHISTO WALZ
05. Nightingale

DJ Program.01 is a limited edition CDR presentation specifically geared towards club promotion. Primarily marketed towards DJs and radio programs, this release is also available, in very limited quantity, to the public. This CDR features two club edition tracks from The Soil Bleeds Black, “Mirror of the Middle Ages” LP, mixing ancient elements with the modern. The release also features the new Butterfly Messiah club track, “It’s Time,” as well as the acclaimed track “Serpentine” from their “Priestess” CD. In closing, this CDR also features the remarkable track “Nightingale” from Mephisto Walz, certain to gather ‘old schoolers’ to the dancefloor.

The first track by The Soil Bleeds Black contains digital electronic rhythms and drum machine for percussion combined with ethereal overtones and vocals, medieval flute, and deep bass. Vocally it is female vocals in a classical, nearly madrigal, style. Musically it’s very mixed and not easy to pin down but basically it’s very danceable with a slight stomp and Delerium-like touches to it. A new form of Darkwave! It combines modern electronic dance textures with medieval instrumentation and vocals. “Palastinalied” follows a similar music structural format except that guitar takes part of the lead with medieveal flute and the percussive beats are a bit heavier. The vocals are male and have more of a bawdy sound. The vocals are in another language but I am unsure which. The drum rhythms have a slight carribean texture to them. The flute takes on a bit more of a Middle-Eastern feel. These two tracks alone are enough to peak interest in The Soil Bleeds Black. Both tracks can be found in their original version on the Mirror of the Middle Ages 12″.

Butterfly Messiah begins with “Serpentine” which I’ve heard from their Priestess album except that it has been remixed for this release adding extra effects to the vocals and a bit more body and clamour to the heavy percussive industrial rhythms. Shannon’s voice is smooth yet cuts like a knife. The lead vocals are very in-your-face sharp while the backing vocals are very soft and ethereal. A band that has already created a rather intense mixture of Ethereal, Darkwave, and Industrial this track hits harder than anything before. The next track “It’s Time” actually picks up the pace even further with it’s strong EBM influence. This is the most technological I’ve heard Butterfly Messiah sound as this new (previously unreleased) track drives home their previously well thought out sound bringing it up several notches to be more befitting for club airplay. The EBM textures and trance-like soundscapes are on the line with many of the bands you’ve all heard come out of labels like Metropolis Records. With this one track alone Butterfly Messiah have moved themselves to a new level and I think if they continue releasing similar pieces they will see the returns they’ve already earned and truly deserve from a wider audience. I anxiously look forward to more on this level from them in the future!

The last track is by Mephisto Walz, a band already hailed in Gothic/Darkwave circles. This track has a nearly Cocteau Twins gone darker sound to it as well as a bit of shoegazer rock influence. A bit different than what I’ve previously heard from Mephisto Walz although I’m not quite sure exactly what they are doing on this compilation except for their well-known name as the track is not very ‘club oriented’ in my mind. However, I do think this will have strong appeal to old Cocteau and maybe even Bauhaus fans more than anything as there is a little bit of Love & Rockets rock style in it too.

Overall I was very pleasantly surprised by this release and very excited to hear the new Butterfly Messiah track bumped up into EBM and remixed. The Soil Bleeds Black tracks are strongly appealing as well and will likely confuse many with their unique combination of styles. They are extremely original and enjoyable. The least favorite, by surprise, is the one band I was the most anxious to hear what new items they were producing, Mephisto Walz.

© Copyright 12/2002 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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01 Re-align (Seabound mix)
02 Re-align (cut.rate.box remix)
03 Perfect Sunrise (La Floa Maldita remix)
04 Armageddon (Infrastructure remix)
05 Re-align (Echo Virus remix)
06 No Release (Battery Cage remix)
07 Terrorist (Haujobb remix)
08 Anthrax

The first stand alone EP and second single from the highly acclaimed Armageddon album. Featuring remixes from Seabound, Haujobb, and cut.rate.box, Stromkern once again takes things to a higher level. This North American only EP contains 7 club friendly tracks and their own take on the Gang of Four’s track “Anthrax”.

The mastermind behind this elaborate project is the classically trained Ned Kirby (vocals and programming). Ned’s early experimentation with a 4 track and a sampler has laid the foundation for what Stromkern has become today. In its current form Ned has enlisted the help of long time friend and fellow musician Kelly Shafer (programming) to continue the bands progression.

Stromkern is a band that has their own style of EBM and Ned’s vocal style is quite unique in itself. He has a very distinct voice and singing style which combines smoothness with the strength of industrial. This EP has got some great club mixes by some great and rapidly rising EBM artists. The thump and pump of Stromkern’s sound is heavily addictive in itself. When combined with the talents of other great artists you get one awesome EP/single. However, to be honest I do not like what cut.rate.box did to the vocals on part of their mix. It seems to detract from Stromkern’s addictive pumping sound. The Seabound mix emphasizes the band’s sound and brings it even more to life instead. There is a lot to be said for interpretation though. You will find quite a bit of varied musical interpretations in the mixes here like the heavier guitar additives on “Perfect Sunrise” which takes it much further into a rock-n-roll zone instead of the usual EBM/Industrial arena. Reminds me of when even Skinny Puppy went rock for awhile. It also shows that this type of music can rock just as hard if not harder than typical rock-n-roll as well. The remix of “Armegeddon” is quite bizarre and nearly indescribable. Bleeps, blips, pipes and factory sounds mix in atmospheric tonality on this one. The Echo Virus remix is a far cry from the original as well and has quite a bit of a Synthpop feel to it and some twistd piano sound structures. It is not without Stromkern’s natural aggression and angst though and the pump of the beats remain with additives. “No Release” is a track I’m not familiar with but you can totally hear Haujobb all over this one and it has a sort of Techno-House overtone with a bleepy body and some almost Trance elements as well as some ‘noise’ samples – a bizarre mix for sure. Next is “Terrorist”. The beats here, while remaining rather Industrial-ish, have a ‘beat box’ element to their form. I never realized how Ned practically ‘raps’ much of his lyrics but in his own bizarre style so that it almost doesn’t sound like rap but this track makes it a bit more evident. This track, while containing mostly hard beats and noisey samples also has a bit of metal guitar and creates an odd assortment of chaos. Finally is the Gang of Four cover “Anthrax”. Combining heavy synths with rock rhythms Stromkern proves again that they are not just a synth band but that they can totally rock too.

© Copyright 12/2002 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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Swarf
01. Drown
02. Sorrow

Dust
03.Mind
04.Wraith

Katscan
05.Stutter-Cut
06.008 Biology

Psychophile
07.Vice Girl
08. Illumination

Freudstein
09.Robots
10.Looking for Answers’ (Alternate mix)

Spray
11.I am Gothic
12.Child of the 80s

Interlock
13.Birdman
14.The Hold

Seventh
15.Icarus

Harmonic
16.Chains

Wasp Factory- Working with Children & Animals Vol.2 compilation is a must for those hungry for new sounds. All 8 bands appearing in Vol.2 are brand new acts with mind-blowing styles and sounds. The styles range from Electro Punk, Angry Industrial (Sabbath’s musical term: Loud, Fast and Angry), and Goth with heavy loud beats, not your average mellow Gothic sounds. All bands have contributed two songs each to the compilation that I think is unique since most compilations only provide listeners with one song per artist, even if the artist is not a well-known act. I am a huge fan of compilations because it exposes people to different bands and styles. A percent of all the bands I am personally listening to now have been bands that I have heard through compilations. Not all compilations are a must. I would strongly recommend Vol. 1&2 of this compilation to anyone looking to add new bands to their music collection.

© Copyright 11/2002 Sabbatha Black. All Rights Reserved

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01. ology
02. evilation
03. consummate saturnine
04. step child
05. aggro culture
06. rancor
07. i blame you
08. skinned
09. fear in justice
10. tri-polar

This Salt Lake City project, Symbiont, offers one powerful debut release with “ology”. This is hard elektro, heavy aggression, dark venting without real violence. As many have said who have heard this CD so far they are a welcome refreshment of a dying breed in todays underground Goth/Industrial scene dominated by Future/Synth-pop and EBM. This is a harsh return to the dark agression of early goth/industrial and brooding violent moods. However, Symbiont is not one of those copycat sound-alike bands. EVERYTHING on this disc is highly original, well thought out, and masterfully produced. Every layer of every track and every sample is masterfully contrived.

From the very first track, “ology” the title cut, this release lets you know what you’re in for with some hard EBM styled beats, unique sampling, and very harsh/dark vocals. Symbiont is in my mind the culmination of what the DSBP Records sound has always been about in the first place. Symbiont just does it better than all the rest with a much more modern texture to it. Heavy club beats, harsh distorted vocals, and dark brooding moods. This is a must hear! I haven’t been this excited about a hard/dark industrial project in quite awhile.

The second track “Evilation” adds a tiny bit of techno influence that is subtly utilized amidst hard metallic beats and clean cyber sound structures. Symbiont mixes quite a few styles and lots of their own experimentation in this one release. The third track “Consummate Saturnine” for instance begins on a more somber and melodramatic tone of dark ambient. This moves gradually into a more classical sounding piece composed in an industrial style with vocal samples and screams for overall effect. “Step Child” goes back into a nearly Hocico styled harsh industrial-EBM with some hard driving quicker paced Noise rhythms that drop into a very harsh industrial body rock. What follows is one of my favorite tracks that will be of high interest to vampire fans and Anne Rice afficianados as well.

“Aggro Culture” begins with a female vocal sample, a whimpering individual fearing death. This is followed by a male speaking about Death being no respector of age, etc…. Vampire fans will recognize this as the Theatre of the Vampyre scene from “Interview With A Vampire” in which the woman is killed on stage by hungry vampires. The samples used mix perfectly with the heavy EBM-Industrial styles and heavily distorted lead vocals. The overall track gives these samples the forefront of the attention. My favorite part of this is the attention to detail that the band uses in the second sample segment where the woman’s voice is looped saying “I don’t want to die” with various sighs, screams, and gasps in between. This is done in such a way that it avoids repetition of a single sample looped but instead creates a structure of it’s own which matches the rhythm of the music in perfect sync as well. I was wondering when somebody was going to finally sample that part of that movie.

After this is a hard Noisey ballad called “Rancor” with some more interesting samples in which we discuss the contemplation of death. Following this is “I Blame You” which begins with lots of noise and builds into another hard club hit. “Skinned” comes next and drops the pace considerably. This is where the album takes a unique dark turn. With an almost trance-like feel to it while maintaining the heavy rhythms the vocals are highly synthesized here. This later builds into another danceable track. “Fear In Justice” follows this overall mood with a few quieter interludes while “Tri-polar” begins with a few ambient industrial textures and a sound which constantly pans left and right in a trancelike manner. Also, soft ambient synth is used, like something you’d expect of Robert Rich or Steve Roach except that there is a certain brokeness to it that gives you an ‘altered-state’ perspective. This is followed by piano and vocal samples (I won’t give away all the details here) but then the track builds into a driving EBM rhythm. Now this gets real interesting! The percussion beats used are all stomps like a drill team doing a routine to some kick-ass EBM-Industrial. This is a technique that many thought of doing in the 90′s when Ministy, FLA, and Skinny Puppy were still the rage and militant dark industrial was the key to many new local industrial bands. Symbiont have actually achieved it! They have reached the state of harsh darkness akin to Electric Hellfire Club, Velvet Acid Christ, and Skinny Puppy with the harshness of bands like Hocico, Marilyn Manson, but all the wonderful EBM club beats we love that fits the modern age. The samples used are very selectly picked and oftentimes drive the track’s theme and are an integral part of the track like the way TKK use to do it. At the same time other samples like screams, grunts, moans, etc.. are used like the ‘impact’ samples used by Front Line Assembly. Still yet others are used for sheer ambience, texture, or sound techniques like the marching rhythms and others. Symbiont not only have mastered creating an extremely dark album but also one that is both moody and very club oriented at the same time while utilizing practically all industrial sampling techniques in unique and masterful form. If this is a debut I can’t wait to hear more! The entire album is lovable and each track for it’s own reasons.

© Copyright 11/2002 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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SPACEWALKERS:
01. Tres Metal Star
02. Moon Rave
03. Blue Shift
04. Space Mix
05. Rewinder
06. Aussie Mind Mess
07. SP-Scotty

CYNYC
08. Junk
09. Gentlemen
10. Patient
11. Magdolin
12. Simplicity
13. Sixteen
14. Speck

This split CD features two bands from Orange Peal in the techno/electronic music genres. Unfortunately I could not find any specific information regarding the band Spacewalkers and assume they are associated with SpaceWalkers Entertainment. Their music is classified as trance/house. Cynyc founder Michael Peaslee has been producing electronic music in the San Francisco Bay Area since ’98 and is listed as a Zero Magazine writer of the electronic music column “Polyvinyl!”. Cync is said to dabble with Drum-n-Bass, Trip Hop, Techno, and Industrial music styles in his own experimental fashion. It is my understanding that both bands are often played at West Coast raves and that the track “Space Mix” is featured in the Extreme Sports video/dvd WHACK!. Both bands hail from the SF Bay area as well.

Spacewalkers definitely begin this disc with some hard pumpin’ techno/house just as promised. It’s nice to see how techno has evolved over the years and it’s too bad so many people still think it sounds like it did in the 90′s. For those people I’d suggest checking out Spacewalkers as they drive their half of the disc with some great body rockin’ rhythm-n-rave with a bit of house flavor to it. I’ve always loved this type of house music! If you are looking for a comparison I’d say it’s similar to what little I’ve heard of U96 (the Replugged album). Unfortunately I’ve not heard much of this style of techno/house though I’ve always loved it. The only problem I have is that sometimes they ‘cheese out’ a melody by running it a bit too much and that nearly happens in “Moon Rave” but the next track takes over. This music always seems to have a very upbeat and shiny/happy feel too it but it’s great for high energy dancing for extended periods (like raves, duh, lol). “Space Mix” has a bit more of the ‘underground’ driving trance beat with a bit more experimentation to it and breaks the trend of the previous three tracks and is less house and techno than it is hardbeat trance with ambient elements and driving rhythms. I can see why this might be a favorite track. The next track has even more of a hardbeat pump to it with ‘Orb-like’ interludes and very Sven Väth-ian backing ambient textures. I like this one even more than “Space Mix” as “Rewinder” has a lot more variance and experimentation which continues to build the track. It would have been easy to create this as a nearly endless track like some of the Orb’s 40 minute ones but this one breaks at only about 4 minutes. “Aussie Mind Mess” is not one of my favorites as it seems a bit dry and repititious but I do notice some elements which remind me of the band Fuse. The last one for Spacewalkers is “SP-Scotty” which takes us back a bit to the cheery house elements.

Now, from the beginning Cync is quite different and utilizes some hip-hop elements and vinyl record (static) sampling mixed with digital bleeps and some drum-n-bass rhythms; a highly eclectic mix to start. However, Cync is in no hurry to get you where he wants to take you and he obviously lets the mood flow where it wants to. The second tack reminds me of something for a dream sequence; bizarre broken vocals with a nearly whispery quality, strange ambient loops and partially chaotic rhythms. “Patient” takes a drastic difference in tone however with guitar loops, orchestral backing sounds and some digital tones with more pure vocals but with an edge that reminds me overall of something like Alan Wilder’s Recoil project. In fact I guess that’s really the only comparison for this project except that Cync is much more eclectic, dark, moody, and ethereal in comparison. The vocals have all the emotion of NIN’s Trent Reznor with the gravel of Tom Waits but with a much quieter tonality if you can imagine that. Cync is never ‘harsh’. In fact it reminds me slightly of Wolfgang Press. Cync is definitely a bizarre mesh of Drum-n-Bass, Trip-hop, and Industrial elements – in that order. I love hearing music this original and experimental. Definitely NOT pop and well worth the listen! I especially love “Magdolin” & “Speck”.

© Copyright 11/2002 TG Mondalf. All Rights Reserved

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