Gangleri – music reviews

Well well, D-Passion released a cd! Looking at the cover, I see quite a typical gabber face. D-Passion is one of the classic Third Movement artists enlightening their compilations with great industrial techno. D-Passion balances on the border between gabber and tekno, but does not lean towards the wrong direction. His style is fairly dark, pretty agressive, has a lot of samples and loud beats; not the the-faster-the-better ideology of the gabber or speedcore style, but always in a nice danceble pace. The music is minimalistic enough and does not have too many breaks and changes in speed, which makes it very enjoyable. Great heavy techno!
Links: D-Passion, The Third Movement

I mostly know Peaky Pounder from his label’s compilations, but I also heard some of his vinyls. Peaky often makes the quite popular techno (minimalistic, regular beats and with minimal sound on the background), but then in a heavy, industrial fashion. Great stuff. Now there is a cd. I like the fact that within a DJ culture vinyls are still released to play at parties, but I personally prefer to buy cds to play at home, so I was happy to hear about a Peaky cd. Our Dutchman thinks that things to not have to be too dark and wanted to create something lighter with disco samples and stuff like that. However the tracks presented are obviously Peaky, most tracks are not as hard as I like them, but there sure are nice tracks here too. Here and there I find the tone a bit too light though and it seems that the speed has gone a bit down too. Overall the album is not as good as I hoped and it seems that Peaky gets about as crazy as for example Kid 606 here and there. At least the sound is not very typical (not even for Peaky Pounder) and some tracks are still good.
Links: Peaky Pounder, The Third Movement

The Dutch label The Third Movement releases what I call “post-gabber”. “Gabber” was the biggest Dutch subculture a decade or two ago, but it got too big and exploded and some of the people from that scene continued a bit more underground and with a heavier sound. In 2004 I discovered the superb compilation “Audio Output 3“. Where the first “Audio Output” (2002) proved to be mostly a gabber compilation (hardstyle techno, but too cheerfull for me), part 2 (2004) containing both gabber and “tekno” and therefor much more interesting, part 3 was a complete tekno / industrial techno compilation with some great extreme dance music. Still waiting for “Audio Output 4″, I now discover that another compilation series is put out by The Third Movement, a series that started between the first and second “Audio Output”! In any case, “Demolition part 10″ is a 10 euro double cd with great Third Movement artists such as Promo, Peaky Pounder, N-Vitral, D-Passion and The DJ Producer, but also my favourite extreme techno artist Hellfish. Promising! To my big disappointment I hear a step back to the times of “Audio Output 2″ with horrible gabber tracks with those awfull ravy melodies and cheesy samples. Other tracks are great industrial tekno, but the Hellfish tracks are not all that good (neither is his last 12″), the highlights are definately the two DJ Producer tracks. It is funny how thin the line between good tekno and awfull gabber is. There are two tracks of “3 Steps Ahead” that start of in a promising way, but after an ‘announcement’ of gabber elements both tracks because simply horrific, awfull enough to give me a bad temper! I am afraid that the same ‘gabbery feeling’ is to be found in tracks of projects that I normally do enjoy, so do we witness a step back to the times in which hard techno sounded like shit? I hope not and there sure are great tracks here, but I guess I should make my own compilation out of this compilation…
Link: The Third Movement

I got this completely black 12″ that is released without cover or anything for my birthday. There is not more information on it than the text “T3rdM-00046 www.thirdmovement.nl” scratched on the extension groove (?). Third Movement is a Dutch techno label that releases serious industrial techno and that is exactly what N-Vitral makes. This is a Dutch artist used to make music on the early “gabber”-compilations “Thunderdome” but now makes more “intelligent dance music”. “Smocgh” sometimes reminds of industrialists such as Ah Cama Sotz, but at other times the sound is much like Hellfish (DJ Producer also has a cd on Third Movement). I suppose you will get the idea: heavy, but danceble industrial techno; and interesting too. This makes me wonder what more is released on progressive techno labels. And more, would fairly similar music be made in two different scenes without these two knowing this from eachother? <8/11/04><4>

I have two cds of Hellfish and Producer and one cd of Hellfish alone. None of Producer alone though, so I was delighted when I found out that I could just walk into a local recordstore and listen to one of them. “Doomsday Mechaniks” opens extremely loud, like the louder parts of the Hellfish/Producer cds so to say. At times Producer is so extreme that I get a grin on my face. It is a bit like listening to extremely brutal metal that is so aggressive that it becomes funny again. After a few tracks there is also room for less heavy tracks and some experimental things that bring back memories to the cooperation with Hellfish. Towards the end the beats-per-minute become more regular and faster again. Overall there is much more straightforward tekno on this cd than on any of the Hellfish/Producer cds which makes this the perfect addition to my tekno disco. A few points of comment are that the samples are sometimes a bit too obvious. I am not a walking techno catalogue by far, but I recognise samples from Moving Shadow releases (old drum ‘n’ bass / rave). Further there is one Dead Can Dance sample that I am not happy with. For the rest: great! <26/12/04><4>

I know this Dutch label from a 12″ that I got for my birthday (see N-Vitral review). N-Vitral makes industrial techno and the label appeared to be a post-gabber thing. I also noticed that The DJ Producer has a cd out on this label and when I walked to our local Midtown Recordstore (a chain of recordstore from one of the most famous gabbers of the past) I noticed that The Third Movement not only has vinyl, but also some cds and even two compilations. Last week I wanted to have a listen to one of these compilations. Audio Output 2 contains fairly heavy techno, but is sometimes a bit too much in the gabber-direction, with its “rave” sound. When I was looking if the shop also had the The DJ Producer cd, I noticed that Audio Output 3 just came in. So, here I have a cd with Peaky Pounder, Armageddon Project, N-Vitral, Promo, Micron, D-Passion, Moleculez, Xaphan and Daisy. Also for me not the most common names. If I remember correctly, the other compilations also had Venetian Square and Producer on. Anyway, Audio Output 3 is less ‘gabberish’. It is not all extremely loud techno, there is room for more ‘tranquil stuff’ (relatively speaking of course) and especially more experimental. Some tracks are very heavy and there sure are some marvelous tracks to be heard. All in all this makes this cd a very nice compilation for those of you who are also looking for the better “tekno”. <26/12/04><4>