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Der Blutharsch And The Infinite Church Of The Leading Hand / Aluk Todolo * s/t (cd 2011)

This release was first made available as a 12″, but by the time I decided to buy it, the vinyl version was sold out and a cd version available. In line with previous Der Blutharsch releases (and cooperations) what we have here is a dirty, slow (mostly) instrumental rock album. How should I describe it? Stoner, sludge, Krautrock? When you have heard the latest attempts of Herr Julius, this new album will not come as a total surprise. A slow-paced album in the beginning, more midtempo halfway and some minor rock-eruptions towards the end. Perhaps not entirely my kind of music, but I like the fact that Julius just keeps doing his own thing.
Links: Der Blutharsch/WKN, Aluk Todolo

Bain Wolfkind * Music For Lovers & Gangsters (cd 2005)

It took a while before I also got the first cd of Bain Wolfkind. I should not wait too long with buying cds, because they get harder and harder to find. Going Underground apparantly have copies left of this album. Under his own name, Wolfkind makes a slow and dirty mix between blues, wave and some industrial. With his low voice and dirty lyrics the result is nicely sleezy. A large part of the music comes from keyboards, but there is also some guitar and “harmonica” to be heard. “Music For Lovers…” contains classics such as “Pimp Stick”, “My Name Is Poison” and “I’m Bad Baby”. Wolfkind is quite unlike other bands from the scene. It is nice to have him around. I will have to try to buy classic albums a bit earlier that 6 years after their release.
Links: Bain Wolfkind, Hau Ruck!

Tying Tiffany * Peoples Temple (2010)

I was surprised when I got a “confirmed artists” email of the Wave Gotik Treffen of this year that contained Tying Tiffany. I knew Tying Tiffany from when I listen to electropop or electropunk on Last.fm. Tying Tiffany is one of the many of such bands that does not really stand out (well, the photo’s are usually nice). It is just straightforward, nothing-special electropop sometimes with a slightly ‘punky’ edge. Because I wondered why an electropop band would be booked for the WGT, I listened to their Myspace and indeed, the songs there seem to be much more ‘wavey’, sometimes almost ‘batcave’ in sound. I guessed that perhaps the first two albums would be boring, while the last one spells a new direction. Indeed, “Peoples Temple” opens with a pretty gothic sounding tracks called “3 Circle” and the first seconds of the second track can also still be called “gothic” in a way. Several tracks bring memories of 80’ies wave with screaming guitars and drumcomputers, but “Peoples Temple” still is a not-too-good electropop album.
I just noticed that it is Trisol who released this album, so that may be the connection to the ‘black scene’.
Links: Tying Tiffany, Trisol

Hunting The Robot * Our Ocean Is Illuminated (ep 2010)

Hunting The Robot is a new local (i.e. from Eindhoven, Netherlands) band that I read about is some free, local newspaper, for some reason the bandname already rang a bell then. Yesterday we were in Den Bosch to see “Black Swan” and in some activities leaflet I noticed that HTR was playing that same night. We decided to go and see HTR and went to a small cellar venue that I had never been to (Plein 79). HTR is a band of four young men (they give their own average age as 16) making catchy poprock with a lot of electronics. There are thick layers of wave with screaming guitars and electronic rhythms, but this eccentric band mixes many styles to some punky kind of pop music. I was happily surprised by the lengthy jamsessions in which the youngsters proved to be skilled and varried musicians, the technical 14-year-old drummer giving away a great solo and the nice songs with unexpected changes and great ideas. More than once I was reminded of the great Bang Bang Eche. Not all songs were great, but many were very nice. Last friday the band released their debut, an ep that can be bought, but also downloaded for free. The ep sounds soft, slick, too polished, but worse of all, it contains four slightly boring tracks, while they have an hour of good ones. Good that I did not hear the ep before hearing about the show! Based on the show I find this band promising, but the ep I can rate no higher than:

Link: Hunting The Robot

Spiritual Front * Rotten Roma Casino (cd 2010)

The previous version of the review was based on the music alone. Today I finally got the CD/DVD release. It comes in a luxery double digipack (fourfold) with a double-sided poster and a ‘booklet’. In the artwork the band obviously presents itself as a boyband with photos of pretty boy Salvatori. The DVD contains an interview, two short films with Italian poetry (I think) and two videos. In the latter, the boyband-attitude is worked out even more. Homo-erotic imaginary, a dreamy looking Salvatori, but on the other hand, exposing his many (weird) tattoos (and of others). Indeed, Spiritual Front remains a band with a twitch. Now that “FSK ab 16 freigegeben” (in Germany they think this is suitable for 16+ only) is a bit overfanatic, but still. Meanwhile I got a bit used to the music. It is much more poppy than older material (yes that is possible) mixes a variety of styles and the sound is much cleaner too (which is not necessarily a good thing). The songs are catchy singalongs (lyrics of course included), sometimes more melancholic. RRC is a nice album, but I still prefer the previous “Armageddon Gigolo”.
Links: Spiritual Front, Trisol

v/a * DruckEmpfindeN-festival (cd 2009)

Man I wanted to be at this festival, but the night was impossible for me. I should have seen Geneviéve Pasquier much earlier than yesterday and however I did see Propergol already, it would not have hurt (perhaps the ears, but who cares) to see him life again. Now I see some pictures…… Fortunately for all those who were or were not present, there is this compilation. It is supposedly limited to 250 copies, about 100 of which get an addition flyer and card. I got my copy from Pasquier and my copy says “Geneviéve Pasquier limited edition 02/17” which seems to imply that each artist got a few copies to sell as well. In a nice foldout cover and with the nice artwork of the flyer comes an 8 track cd with with three tracks of Pasquier, three of Propergol and two of Bad Sector. These are not recordings of the performances by the way. Pasquier opens moody with a trance-ambient song, but continues with her catchy industrial electropop including the title track of her new album. Propergol seems to have stepped off the ambient soundscapes path (for a moment) and comes with great harsch industrial noise. Bad sector contributed an ambient track and a ‘club remix’. In total spanning only 35 minutes, this compilation may be a bit short, but very nice, especially regarding the fact that most tracks are exclusive.
Link: Chamber Music

Von Thronstahl * Conscriptvm (2cd 2010)

Another album with rare songs and alternative versions of Von Thronstahl. I feared I would have most of them, since I have most material of the band and quite a few compilations with Von Thronstahl on them. The nice thing about “Conscriptvm” is that there are songs that were recorded, but eventually did not make it to albums because they did not fit. Therefor there are not only different versions of tracks that I already had, but also new songs. Good news for the people who prefer the early style of the band is that most tracks of the first cd in the old style, there is even a version of “Sturmzeit”. Not that there is much of the dark orchestral industrial style, but the music for the larger part is not of the rocky kind of nowadays. The second cd has more ‘neofolky’ songs. All in all I can say that “Conscriptvm” might not contain the best material of the band, but as usual it is a very nice album to listen to.
Links: Von Thronstahl, Cold Spring

Rome * Nos Chants Perdus (cd 2010)

Rome continues in the direction which has been apparent since the earlier albums. “Nos Chants Perdus” is almost purely a “singer/songwriter” album, again more minimalistic in sound. Unfortunately for the first time, there are songs that do not really appeal to me, but there are also again very nice songs. Towards the end of this 43 minute album come a few unexpected sounds, such as the slightly ‘cabaretesk’ “La Rose et la Hache”. Reuter remains a gifted song-writer, but I am afraid he is drifting in a direction away from my musical taste. This album is already a bit too much popmusic. If this continues, I might not like a possible next album any longer. But of course musicians should not take much heed to that!
Links: Rome, Trisol

Bang Bang Eche * Sonic Death Cunttt (ep 2009)

Not all good electopunk comes from Canada! Bang Bang Eche is a young group from New Zealand and currently have two ep’s available, the great and nameless 2008 debut and this second 4 track. The music of Bang Bang Eche is catchy electropunk music with a lot of energy. The band seems to have a considerable following and since their ep’s are sold online, they seem to spread easily. I really enjoy some electropunk such as Duchess Says or Motormark, but I rarely run into anything that I enjoy as much as these two bands. Bang Bang Eche might not be as weird as Duchess Says, but it is good and I hope they will go on a little more, since the better bands in the genre seem to pass away after some time.
Link: Bang Bang Eche