Atomine Elektrine * Nebulous (cd 2007 essence music)
Wow, I didn’t know that this Raison d’Être side-project was still alive! In my Raison d’Être period, I bought everything that Peter Andersson released, including tapes of side projects and the first Atomine Elektrine cd (“Elemental Severance” 1995 CMI). I really loved the album with its great ‘trance ambient’ style. Quite a few years later there was another album (“Archimetrical Universe” 1999 yantra atmospheres) which is not bad, but nothing like the debut. Apparently there was also an album in 2004 (“Binomial Fusion” Essence) and now a new one. The music still can be called “trance ambient”, with which I mean ambient soundscapes with rhythical elements, but not sounding like the debut. The music is soft and soothing, sometimes soundscapish, sometimes ‘trancy’, but always nice and well structured. This may not be music that I will play a lot, but it is a nice album to have if I feel like playing something different.
Links: Atomine Elektrine, Essence Music
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In recent years some more traditional sounding bands appeared in the neofolk scene. I believe that this Portugese Sangre Cavallum was discovered by Michael Moynihan and we have for example Sturmpercht with their “Alpine folk music”. Sangre Cavallum supposedly makes “barbaric folk music” which may be because of their debut album called “Barbara Carmina” (2004), but their sound could be the reason too! I must say that this is not entirely my music, but both bands sure have a unique sound and their music is nice to play once in a while. For those who never heard Sangre Cavallum, they make folk music with bagpipe, lots of drumming, flutes and deep male vocals. I don’t know if they play traditional music or write it themselves, but I don’t recognise any songs, so it is either Portugese or self-written. In any case, nice music when you are in the mood for something folky.
I already listened to a few tracks on the band’s Myspace when I reviewed the Cold Fusion album. The review of that album just as well applies to “Elegy”. Regardless of the development in the scene, ATR just made a bombastic, orchestral, martial industrial album as if we were five years back in time. Just like with Cold Fusion, the sound is not brilliant or original, but really not bad at all and certainly not boring. I guess these two albums are for people who still long for this sound and I must say, it doesn’t hurt to play an album like this once in a while and when new ones are released every now and then, I don’t have to play the same albums all the time.
I didn’t really know this band when I saw them at last year’s Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig. They sounded to me like a rather typical new band from the scene, mixing different styles (neofolk, industrial, martial, orchestral). The show wasn’t too great and I never really tried to get their music. Also I didn’t know that this band was signed on CMI. This is no longer really a guarantee that a release is good, but I have to admit that it does still is an argument for me to try an album. So I skipped the first four releases and got myself “Tales Of Transgression And Sacrifice”. The album opens with ambient, continues with neofolk, ritualistic industrial and atmospheric music. It is not bad at all, but it seems to not ‘work’ for me. Maybe I have to get used to the style, but the harder tracks sound quite nice already, they remember a little of Parca Pace. I think I have to play the album a few times more, at the moment my conclusion is: good try, not bad, not great.
When I bought the “The Ritez Of Higher Communication” lp (2003) I was quite impressed by the minimalistic ritual ambient of this project. Later I bought the “…And Outside Glows The Red Dawn” cd (2005), which sounds quite the same; nice but nothing really special. The same I can say about this new album. Ritual soundscapes that are minimalistic and monotous. Maybe the sound becomes even more minimalistic with every new album, because “A Broken Union” seems to appeal to me even less than the other albums that I have…
I was sure that I had the debut mcd from Somnambulant Corpse, but I can’t find it. For the rest I missed this project save for a compilation from the same label. Bestia Centauri makes strange dark ambient which surely isn’t the same all the time, but still too trudging on to keep my attention. “Soundscapes” is a good term for this release. Not bad, but not completely my thing I’m afraid.
Allerseelen is not my favourite band. I find Gehard’s music a bit too simple and repetative. I used to own “Gotos=Kalanda” (1995), but for the rest I have some smaller releases and a track here and there. Because I was curious if the style remained the same, I got myself a copy of “Hallstatt”. Unfortunately I have to conclude that nothing happened at all. The music is tranquil (though rhythmical), very repetative and quite boring with most variation in the vocals. I suppose there are people who do like the sound of this Austrian project, because dozens of releases in a period of over a decade is quite a feat.
I obviously missed most releases of this French industrial project. I only had the “Forever War” cd from 1999. I don’t like that cd too much, so that may be the reason, just like the fact that this new (but not latest!) album has been released by CMI was a reason to give “Septentrion” a change. Of course there is a big gap between the two albums that I now have and I have no idea how D&DE developed in this period, but “Septentrion” sounds quite different from the martial dark ambient album that I already had. This new cd is much more martial, much more industrial, much darker and in most tracks, also better. Some tracks have singing, others have a nice industrial sound, but there still are parts that remind a bit too much of the monotous sound of ‘that other album’. There are five tracks making a 44 minute album, which is not very long. In total, “Septentrion” is not at all a bad album, but also not a masterpiece.
Position Parallèle are Geoffry D. and Pierre Pi. The first is of course better known as Dernière Volonté, the second seems to have been involved in the same project in the earlier days. It is not totally unexpected that Geoffry D. took his accessible sound a step further and leave the “military” sound behind. Position Parallèle became a disco cd, or better said: a synthypop cd, because some songs remind of New Order or Soft Cell and I can promise you, the sound is as ‘faulty’ as the cover! Very recognisable are Geoffry’s vocals, but the sound differs a lot from DV as you can imagine. The cd turned out nice. It is not as good as ‘that other recent disco cd’ “Magic” of November Növelet, but it is a nice listening. A bit of a short one though, 35 minutes.
I have never been very fond of this project. This classic power electronics project makes too much power electronics for me. An extreme sound with earcracking noises, screamed vocals and too little structure for my liking. I would have liked to see them in Antwerpen a few months back, but I could not go to the Luchtbal the second day of the festival. At that festival the “Remember” vinyl set and shirts were available, the 2cd followed a little later. I decided to get a copy, because I have known GO for about as long as they are around, but I didn’t have anything of them. Knowing their sound, I bought this cd more for archival reasons than to play. “Remember” is filled with live recordings from 1989 (when the band started) to 2000 and have been reworked by Jérôme Nougaillon (Propergol/Hermetique) for this release. Here and there you will find a more industrial and rhythmical track, but most of the cds are filled with the most brutal kind of music imaginable. Since the band is not only extreme in sound, but also in lyrics and artwork, there is a nice text of Richard Stevenson who tells a bit of art and provocation.
I used to follow ACOH quite fanatically, but recently I miss most of Peter’s releases. What I do hear does not always sound too great. Of Der Feuerkreiner I have the first “La ‘Nvidia” vinyl and the first cd. It is a nice band with an original sound and some nice tracks here and there. When I saw this split I decided to get it and find out what these two projects are upto nowadays. ACOH opens with a statement against the occupation of Tibet (very good) and continues with “Arabian Tradition”, a rather easy-to-listen track. The next track comes from the “Verdun 1916″ album which I don’t have and has the older ACOH sound with orchestral samples and a slightly military touch. The next track comes from “Monuments” which I do have, but I don’t recognise the track. It is also more accessible, but quite minimalistic and not too good.