Gangleri – musicreviews

The new ORE is not released on CMI?? For the rest it is ORE like we know them. This mcd opens with two versions of the title track and it sounds like… ORE. Then there are two new versions of old songs. “Reaping The Fallen, The Second Harvest” lets us hear what happened in in the style since 1995 and “Who Stole The Song” is a new version of a more recent track. As always, nice, but nothing too special.
Links: Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, Out Of Line

The two new tracks on this mcd are like the cover: more minimalistic. There are almost no samples anymore and the two melancholic songs are again more singer/songwriter-like than previous releases. There are some nice string arrangements which also ‘upgraded’ two old songs “Der Brandtaucher” and “Der Erscheinungen Flucht”. The songs are nice, but not as ‘gripping’ as on earlier releases (safe for the strings). Rome might evolve out of the spectre of my musical taste, but first let us see what the future brings.
Links: Rome, Trisol

I saw Ianva at this years WGT, never having heard of the band. However I did not like most music too much, I liked their show. Many good musicians on stage, uncommon elements such as trumpets, several guitars, drums and male and female vocals. I mostly enjoyed the cabaretesk songs with the female vocalist. Curious about their recordings I got Ianva’s latest album with the strange cover. The music is well-done, nicely layered and of a nice atypical (for our scene) Southern sound and here and there some martial influences. Point is that listening to this album, my conclusion is the same as when I saw them live: not really my cup of tea. I do not really like the Italian vocals and the music does not really do anything for me. Again the songs with the female vocalist (which have a different style) are the better, but there is one great song called “Bora”. It is good to hear that the scene is still moving, but my musical preferences do not allways move with the scene it seems.
Links: Ianva, Antica Fonografia Il Levriero

Starting as the new hope for martial industrial and military pop, the new label advertises for Rome with comparison to Leonard Cohen. You do not have to fear for a bluesy folk sound (nothing bad said about Cohen of course), but indeed, Rome seems to continue to move towards more of a singer/songwriter approach. I was not immediately impressed by the previous release, which Jérôme himself calls a “single”, but I do happen to like to play it. “Flowers From Exile” has blown me away from the first play, just like the earlier releases. Rome has officially turned into a duo, but that does not change much about the sound. As a matter of fact, the sound reminds more of the earlier material than I expected from “To Die Among Strangers”. Like I said, the music is more “singer/songwriter”, mostly just guitar and singing and a bit of drumming, but there are still things going on on the background and Rome does keep a ‘martial’ edge in the use of samples. The songs are great, better than when I heard them at the performance in Leipzig. Just as before, Rome manages to work on my mood (the fact that the music is pretty damn melancholic is a reason that I do not play it all that often). There are nice melodies, good ideas and, like I said before, that ‘full’ sound with things on the background, the details that I have loved Rome for since the beginning. “Flowers From Exile” is the first full length on the German label Trisol, which is Rome’s way of reaching new audiences and they definately deserve that, since they have again proven that they are the better songwriters of our scene. Finally a masterpiece has come from our scene again.
And I almost forget to mention that their finally is a proper website too (see link below).
Links: Rome, Trisol

So the new Rome is a mcd, a “teaser” for the new album? Because of the new label perhaps? Four tracks of which two are rerecorded old tracks. Three times poppy neofolk and an ambient/industrial sound collage. Not bad, but I prefered a new full-length. I guess I will have to wait.
Links: Rome, Trisol

I like the idea behind this album: after having played them live hundreds of times, thought them over, etc., Matt Howden decided to rerecord some songs “as they should sound”. The album contains some songs that I already had, some not, but all are the better tracks and indeed, they sound better too. Some sort of ‘best of’ for old and new fans and with nice artwork.
Links: Sieben / Redroom

I heard that the new Ostara would be ‘back to basics’. I heard a few Myspace tracks and was not really convinced. It is the old minimalistic neofolk style. The album as a whole is a bit better than expected. Most songs are the minimalistic neofolk style, some of them are nice, some are just alright. There are a few more poppy songs and some songs have some nice additions in violin (Matt Howden) or other instruments. I guess this cd is for people who long for the days of “Secret Homeland” (not not Strength Through Joy, the ‘wayback machine’ did not go that far). I like those early albums mostly because they were surprising at the time of release, but “The Only Solace” does not bring anything really new and not all songs are great, so… just a nice album I guess.
Links: Ostara, Trisol

First released as a 12″, then as a picture 12″ and upcoming on cd and cd+dvd comes the new album of ORE. This album immediately sounds a bit different from earlier achievements. The sound is softer, more melancholic, the guitar loops are almost gone (or with effects). After a few listenings, the album still does not really work for me. It is a bit too soft and the crazy, bombastic, industrial, martial, etc. elements all seem to be lost and we are left with atmospheric music with male and female vocals. Perhaps musically “Onani” is a step forward. There are no longer the obvious looped samples and repetitions, but it seems that this had to give away to the atmosphere somewhat. Maybe I have to listen to this album some more before things start to fall in their place.
Links: Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, Cold Meat Industry

With each new release of ACOH I ask myself whether or not I have to buy it. Most of the older material did not survive the years and most newer material is not too good. I am afraid that for “No Way Out” the same goes. Steinklang says that this release presents a new side of the project “the album would be best described as a pure Neo(Pop)Folk album with many Neoclassical and some Martial elements”. Well, the sound has changed a bit indeed. There seem to be some wave influences and more poppy drumming, but “many neoclassical and some martial elements”? I am afraid that I have to describe the sound and softly poppy and slighly cheesy and however I admire Peter for again leaving the obvious path, his musical taste (or efforts) drift away from mine.
Links: ACOH, Steinklang

This is almost a joke! For more than the price of a cd you get a large single with two tracks (45 rpm). The title track should have been released under the monicker Position Parallele and the other is just a replay of “Tout a Disparu”, but halfway it switches to disco mode with a rather boring sound. Of course it is not totally unexpected that Dernière continues its development in sound, but I hoped that with the (not really bad) disco sideproject Position Parallele, Dernière would at least have remained some kind of military pop sound. Rather it seems that both projects mingle. Of course I had to get used to earlier sound development of this French project, but “La Nuit Revient” is a lot worse than I feared on initial listening.