release date : October 27, 2009 released by : Metropolis info : 5th album . 11 tracks . 54:46 run time genre : EBM reviewed by : Aaron Andrews
In color psychology, “rot” (red) is associated with energy, heat, blood, and strong emotions like: aggression, passion, and love. Furthermore “rot” represents revolutionary movements and symbolizes wrath, one of the seven deadly sins.
After reading that statement I have to say Rot is aptly titled in a few ways. There is a certain intensity and energy throughout the album. It’s not exactly revolutionary but it is carefully crafted and an enjoyable listen.
My familiarity with [:SITD:] before listening to this album was through their remixing, where I found the songs they touched always came out excellently. The band understands dance music and has put together an album that proves that in all of its faster tracks. The song structures are created with the steady movement forward and intelligent use of both breaks and build ups. Soaring string synthlines are anchored by the even, low vocals and a strong bed of intense rhythm. The compositions are focused on the music and there’s little misplaced loyalty to the lyrical content. Vocals aren’t always the focus but when they are added they make a positive contribution.
The dance songs are really where it’s at for me on this album and with most of the album being made up of these, it is kind of disappointing hearing the slower stuff like “Destination”. With such a firm grasp on making thrilling dance music the shift to more vocal focused ballad-like songs at several points was disappointing. Those pieces came up feeling a little forced and didn’t have the emotional energy that the album’s name implies.
[:SITD:] do so many things right that I have a great time listening to this album, it was worth investing the time for repeated listening and quite a few of these songs are welcome to my ears at the club.
recommended tracks : Catharsis (Heal Me, Control Me), Rot v1.0, Pride, Pharmakon if you like you may like : Rotersand, Project Pitchfork, VNV Nation overall 7 . lyrics 6 . music 7 . recording quality 8
On March 30th Metropolis Records releases four digital singles; Combichrist’s Scared, Mind.In.A.Box’s 8 Bits, System Syn’s Here’s To You, and Mesh’s How Long. There will be a physical release of the Combichrist single on May 11th, but I am unsure on any of the others.
Combichrist’s Scarred is their third single of their highly successful album Today We Are All Demons, featuring five remixes, the original, and an extra song “Parental Content”. I did enjoy the “Pull Out Kings Remix”, but overall I felt that the remixes were somewhat unimpressive. The new track “Parental Content” starts off kicking like a good old techno track, with some random samples, and it keeps going that way. Not your typical Combichrist song, but hey it’s a single and there should be something different on it.
Mind.In.A.Box’s 8-Bits comes off their R.E.T.R.O. album and features three remixes of “8-Bits” and the new track “Last Ninja 2”, which fills the gap of the two tracks on the album, “The Last Ninja III” and “The Last Ninja”. All four tracks are great and the club mix is essentially the track on the album just extended, which as a DJ I felt the album version was too short.
System Syn’s Here’s To You is a single off their forthcoming album Strangers. This seven track single is packed with greatness, you get “Here’s To You” and three remixes of it, a Imperative Reaction remix of “The Inconvenient”, a track called “Lead” and a cover of REM’s “Losing My Religion”. The single is a strong track with catchy lyrics and just screams play me. This wetted my appetite for the full LP.
Mesh’s How Long, is the second single from their album A Perfect Solution. This features a club mix for the dance floor, a radio cut for the people suffering with ADD, and an extended version for those with OCD. In addition to this there is an alternate version of “Hold and Restrain” and a new track, “Save Everyone”.
In 1982 Essex boys Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy formed Nitzer Ebb with a focus on vocals, bass, and beats. Through simple teenage rage and the influence of punk rock they formed their own sound in the developing EBM scene. After several acclaimed singles, the band signed with Mute Records in 1986. With Mute they released the major body of their work and became friends with label mates, Depeche Mode, with whom they’ve toured and occasionally collaborated. 1995 saw the release of the bands fifth studio album, Big Hit, followed by them splitting up to walk different paths. After time involved in their own projects, they came together for a reunion tour in 2006 which lead to new Nitzer Ebb material. The result is a new album, Industrial Complex, which the band is now on the road promoting with shows both as headliners and as the supporting act for Depeche Mode’s “Tour of the Universe”.
interview by Aaron Andrews
You both went off to do your own things with various projects after 1995’s Big Hit. Why the decision to get back to making music as Nitzer Ebb?
Douglas McCarthy : It came about after we re-united for what was initially just a few festival shows in Europe. That actually turned into a world tour of not just Europe, but North and South America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand! During that time we had a few breaks in LA and we thought it would be interesting to see where we were at creatively with the band. As it turned out we were in great shape and we went on to write over thirty songs!
Bon Harris : There was a demand for it. Doug had been doing shows with FM, and the were a lot of fans asking for a return. So we came back.
What do you think you’ve each brought back to the band that’s new and/or exciting?
DM : I think we actually brought back a lot of what was there in the very start of the band, mixed with our own personal and creative development as individuals.
BH : Years of individual experience. We all went off and learned new things. We grew and developed as individuals. It makes for a much richer experience working in NE now.
Warning : This CD may get you beat up just for listening to it.
Dragging back out of the shadows uber-nerdy cold synths and icy drum machines fed through a ring modulator, the folks at Minimal Wave have brought back a sound lost over the decades as better technology shadowed its predecessors. Presented here are not classic recordings, but ultra-rare items from the early 80s industrial/synth/post-punk era such as limited edition cassettes and small press vinyl that were probably never meant to be heard by anyone other than die-hard fans and friends. Minimal and lo-fi, it’s the kind of music only geeks, freaks, and Germans in black turtlenecks with monkeys on their shoulders could love, created by art-school drop outs and/or kids that could manage to plunk down the cash for top of the line electronics but had no idea what to do with it. The end result is an amazing time capsule which seems to explain the missing links between the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Numan, Joy Division, Devo, Kraftwerk and modern EBM/industrial. Highly recommended as both a history lesson for newbies and a surprisingly obscure collection for seasoned veterans.
I am getting very excited for the upcoming release by Mind.In.A.Box due out March 9th. Mind.In.A.Box is one of my favorites (as it is for some of the other Auxiliary editors as well) and I can’t wait to hear some new music from them! This album will be a little different…
As it says on Metropolis Record’s website…
Mind.In.A.Box’s previous three albums garnered them a lot of respect with fans and critics alike with their hard to categorize style of electronic music. For 2010, their newest album, R.E.T.R.O., takes a slightly different approach to their songwriting. An homage to the era of the Commodore 64 and 1980s video games, the album even includes a few cover versions of cult classics – all done in MIAB’s signature style. However, do not take these adaptations lightly. This is not just another cut and paste cover album. This is Mind.In.A.Box re-inventing the past for an advanced future.
Since Rasc, Gun, and Krischan formed Rotersand in 2002, they have become a very well respected and highly popular band, known for their catchy melodies, great basslines, and intelligent vocals. With the release of their new album Random Is Resistance, Rotersand prove they can and will continue to make albums that can dominate the clubs and alternative charts but also remain true to their unique sound and artistic vision.
How does a Rotersand album come into existence? How long did Random Is Resistance take to create, where did you work on it, and how did it vary, if at all, in process from past albums?
It starts with a first sketch of a bassline or a vocal line or an inspiring chord progression, or sometimes just a slogan or one word. And from there we shape it step by step, note by note, beat by beat, as long as it still gives us that kind of unmistakable Rotersand feeling we need to keep going. All three of us have some sort of personal studio equipment to record guitars or vocals and do some programming with. For the final production we mostly meet in Krischan´s Studio 600.
You have stated before that Rotersand draws off many different styles of music. And each band member has a different background in electronic music. What styles in particular did you draw from for Random Is Resistance?
In a German review somebody described our new album, Random Is Resistance, as a kind of time travel through different music styles of the last decade, and we can definitely relate to that. That is owed a great deal to the fact that all three of us draw from different musical backgrounds. In collaborating as a band, we are privileged to be able to combine ideas and influences from a large pool of rather diverse personal taste and know how. It is that combination of musical personalities that shapes our sound; much more than certain styles we could be trying to implement. It goes from Pink Floyd and Queen to contemporary techno music (mainly Detroit provenience), has audible roots in EBM and a bit of euro-trance, but than again also in 70s glamrock and classical and pop music. That’s us.
This is the sound test that goes along with my article, WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC… WTF? The original audio file I used was is a song name “How I Learned to Love the Bomb” from one of my favorite Buffalo punk bands, To Be Announced, off of their Posthumous album.
The first thing I would like to compare is the difference between MP3 and AAC. To keep things fair I used LameXP, which has the best MP3 converter, for the MP3s and iTunes for the AACs. Both programs have the most recent updates. At the higher bit rates both programs seem to have about the same audio quality, if there is a difference it must be subtle because I don’t hear it. As you move down to the lower bit rates, the AAC files have a brighter cleaner sound and the MP3s have a dullness to them. Even though AAC files have a better quality about them, MP3s are the industry norm, so if you want your files to play on everything stick with them.
Industrial/EBM musicians Gary Dassing and Dwayne Dassing better known as Mentello & the Fixer are offering up parts of their back catalog for free. Along with their side projects Mainesthai and Benestrophe. Their website says that more are to come… let’s hope so.
Mainesthai – Out to Lunch – 1994
Mainesthai – Mentallo & The Fixer Meets Mainesthai – 1994
Mentallo & The Fixer – Revelations 23 – 1993
Mentallo & The Fixer – Where Angels Fear to Tread – 1994
Benestrophe – Sensory Deprivation – 1994
Benestrophe – Auric Fires – 1997
release date : October 27, 2009
