Dead.Circuit * Comatose Working Institution (mcdr 2009)
What a nice surprice, a new Dead.Circuit cd fell on the doorstep today! Limited to only 97 copies comes this 26 minutes cdr with 3 tracks that the label describes with the very nice term “cinematic noisescapes”. Inspite of the variety of styles that this Dutch project uses on its flyers, the sound of this “industrial tribute to the routine of working class society” has the style of the previous release that I reviewed. This is great, since Dead.Circuit knows how to make dark noisescapes. This is not a piece of chaotic noise, but nicely structured, with many samples, just think about Propergol or Sistrenatus and about as good as these two too! I hope a label like Hermetique will pick up this project soon.
Links: Dead.Circuit, Alampo Records
This compilation is not as good as the “Erotic Morgue” compilation of the same label that I reviewed recently. “Moon Patrol” is not as dark and not as noisy, more dark ambient soundscapes and drones. Not that this cd is boring, but you will have to be more into soundscapes than into noise with this one.
In the past I have tried some smaller (industrial) labels without much succes. In the end the good projects usually end up on a larger label and consequentally on the regular mailorders. For quite a few years I haven’t taken much effort to find interesting smaller labels, so I had to run into a few to show me that this can actually be quite interesting. For a mere 8 euros I bought this Alampo compilation of a little over an hour and it is actually very nice! The music can be described as dark ambient and soundscapes with an industrial and noisy edge. Most tracks are pretty dark and nice to listen to. There is (of course) also a not too good track (of Akronia) and a superb track comes from Machinamentum Victum Tortusve (too bad about the whip sample). Indeed, this is a nice sampler if you like the darker side of electronics and when you do not fear a healthy bit of noise. I guess I have to look into the label and the projects a bit more, since these small labels release small labels seem to have a high release-speed.
I don’t spend much time looking for projects that I do not know, but I am glad that I ran into this Dutch project. Dead.Circuit does not mind much about keeping one style, but on “Repressed Memory Therapy” the style is dark noisy soundscapes with total noise moments. The sound reminds quite a bit of Propergol at times (a bit too much sometimes), which is a good thing since Propergol has not released much recently and his sound seems to become less extreme. The people who like the older works of Propergol should definately try to get one of the 97 copies of this Dead.Circuit album. “Repressed Memory Therapy” might not always be as good as Propergol or Sistrenatus, but our Dutchman surely knows how to create a dark and filthy atmosphere with echoing film samples, distorted/noisy edges and here and there going completely loose with an almost power electronics track. Of course it is also a debut and small release, so who knows what the future will bring. A cheap 70 minutes album for lovers of “noisescapes”.