v/a * Digital Penetration vol. 2 (cd 2008)
Damn, there is so much crazy music out there! A while ago I ran into a digital compilation with 64 tracks varying from electropop to electropunk to experimental punk and all kinds of weird stuff: “Modern Mutants handbook” it seems to be a compilation of a music lover going around on P2P networks. A great pile of mostly new music. “Digital Penetration” is a real compilation from a real label, released on a real cd. The music is a crazy and varried as on the illegal compilation. You get to hear Duchess Says with a rather typical electropop song, but already the opener of Kap Bambino is weirder than some Cock Rock Disco stuff. I guess in a way most music can fall under the banner of electropop(/-punk), but this is as varried as it can get. From trance-techno-like songs, to more breakcore sounds to even digital poprock and who-knows-what. By far not all tracks are brilliant here, but some of it is worth digging through that scene more.
Alt Delete Recordings
Crystal Castles supposedly are one of the earlier electropop groups, but it seems that the releases do not go back before 2006. This album with no title is the only full-length so far. I knew the name, but not the music. Crystal Castles has some of the more typical soft electropop tracks, but some tracks have weird, distorted female vocals that I hear with more electropunk oriented bands. Other tracks are completely over-the-top Atari-sounds tracks with strange rhythms. I guess I only knew the more accessible tracks (which are the most on this album) and therefor never really paid attention, but the band has a weird side too. Not my favourite from this corner, but not all that bad either.
I decided to review two albums of a disbanded project. I just discovered this great band while digging through the genre and this is probably my favourite band in this vein so far. Too bad they are no longer around, but that does not prevent me from reviewing their music.
“Pop:Up” opens brilliantly with a fast punky track. Next up are digital rhythms with guitar and crazy (distorted) vocals. Not all tracks are explosive, but all are great. Electropop and electropunk. I wish I had heard of this Scottish band before they quit.
The latest effort of Der Blutharsch is not a very good one. Their track is instrumental and not very interesting and what is worse, the other band is some kind of boring metal/rock thing (“sludge doom” in their own words) with an awfull track. I guess the text on the single itself (“I Will Not Obey”) means that Herr Julius just keeps doing what he wants. I suppose I cannot always like it. The package is nice though.
Five years after the previous album I had expected some more attention to the new album of the Prodigy. In fact, I had to search to find a copy in one of the local cd-shops. “Invaders Must Die” is worth the effort though. Continueing the development in style, but this time with many references the earliest material, the new album contains nicely explosive “electro punk”. On Youtube you can already watch two of the videos that come on the DVD, “Invaders Must Die” and “Omen”, the first two tracks. When you like these two, you can savely buy the rest of the album. “Invaders Must Die” might for the first time not put all the previous releases in its shadow, but it is a great album. A bit short though, 45 minutes.
However I have the debut 10″ of 
The five last albums (or so) were all the last release of Der Blutharsch, but new releases kept coming. “Everything Is Alright” is just like “Rest On Your Arms Reversed”, the last cd of The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, a cd with collected rare tracks from limited vinyls and compilations, so who knows. “Rest On Your Arms Reversed” is the best cd of TMLHBAC. The same is not the case for “Everything Is Alright” for Der Blutharsch, but I must say that this collection is very, very enjoyable. I have quite a few of the limited vinyls, so I already had several of the tracks presented here, but I seldom play 7″s, so it is nice to be able to play them easily now. “Everything Is Alright” goes from about “Time Is Thee Enemy” to the present day, so do not expect the martial industrial old style Der Blutharsch, but the catchy poprock side of later days. Many people may think that Der Blutharsch has “lost its magic” when it stepped away from the popular martial style, I must say that I play the later ‘rocky’ albums much more often than the older material and “Everything Is Alright” may not be a “best of” compilation, it is an album that listens easily and can be played even when you have visitors. A nice collection of poprock songs.
Don’t worry! I am not planning on changing the focus of this music reviews section, but I do think that any style of music can be featured here if it is worth mentioning.
Because I don’t listen to popmusic, for a long time I only knew Amy Winehouse from hearing that she is a troubled teenager that drinks too much and uses too much drugs. A while ago I heard “Rehab” played in the gym where they only play hiphop and cheap dance music and I wondered what would make such a weird and wonderfull song being popular enough to be played in the gym, when I noticed that it was sung by Amy Winehouse. Later I heard to other songs of Winehouse which I also liked, so I decided to have a better listen to the young woman. I think I downloaded her first and not too good album and left Winehouse for what it was. Now there is another nice song on the radio, so I figured she must have a good and new album, only to find out that she has made only two cds yet. “Rehab” is on the 2006 album “Back To Black” which has now been rereleased with an extra cd with some other tracks. For the better too, since the album itself is below 35 minutes! Anyway, I don’t suppose I would have to review this album for listeners of popmusic, because if you know the hits like “Rehab” or “You Know I’m No Good”, you know the style of Winehouse well enough to know if you like it. But my normal audience may -like me- have ignored Winehouse for being a popstar, so just a few things. The music goes from soul to jazz and blues with a little triphop (or whatever), ballads and crazy cheerfull songs. Most songs are rather melancholic or relatively dark in concept for popmusic at least. I still don’t know what makes Winehouse so popular under the larger audience that only wants simple music, but I can only say that I love her weird style and concept and this album is surely something else that I can put in the player when I don’t feel like playing my usual kind of music.