What a nice surprise. When I wanted to take out the 7″, a cd fell out of the sleeve. This then must be the very limited edition of the 7″ (100 copies). A 25 minute cd with noise and rhythmical industrial, since Wiener Aktivisten is the noise project of Sven and Maria of Wappenbund and Anna. Noise with rhythms and a lot of disortion. Very nice. A nice picture 7″ too by the way. Be quick, or at least try to get only the 7″.
To close the line of the previous reviews, Wiener Aktivisten is again Sven Bussler and Maria, this time accompanied by someone named Anna. “Wir Reiten” comes in a similar box as the Sigrun Heid cd, but with more cards and some kind of bracelet.
The cd is longer than the Sigrun Heid cd (38 min) and also in the line of the previous two reviews, again harder than Sigrun Heid and Wappenbund. As a matter of fact, Wiener Aktivisten make quite harsch noise, that is usually quite rhythmical and sometimes fairly chaotic. Also this time I can only conclude that I like it!
To be honest, initially I wasn’t planning on buying the new Wappenbund. Not that I don’t like this German project, but I already got three of the cd’s, they are not too easy to get (very limited and not available from my normal mailorder) and however at times very, very good, Wappenbund tends to sound the same too often. Also the cd’s come in special packages and are very short, which are reasons that I don’t play them too often. So I just figured that I wouldn’t take the effort of trying to find “Kinder Des Lichtes”. But then I read that this was going to be the last cd and since I have everything but the “Zurück In Der Heimat” 7″, it would be a shame if I didn’t complete my collection! So then the trouble of laying my hands on a copy started. I had the brilliant idea that I wanted to get this cd and the new Propergol from the same distro, but this showed a strange combination! Only one (Equilibrium Music) has both titles, but there were some problems with getting the new Propergol from the States into “fortress Europe”. But the cds came afterall.
So then, onto the music. The last Wappenbund proves to be a more tranquil, orchestral cd with hardly any of the bombastic militant sounds that I like this band for left. Some electro/technoish things in the beginning, but mostly orchestrations for the rest doesn’t make this cd the best Wappenbund by far. Quite a pitty. All in all this cd doesn’t bore me stiff, but I had hoped for something better as final album.
The new Wappenbund is a box with two cds and very nice extras. One cd is “Preußen”, which is about the independent state of the federal state (of in better translation ‘part of the state’) with the same name. Of course this was a few hundred years ago and nowadays Preußen is a part of Germany. The cd contains the wellknow Wappenbund sound, bombastic, slightly militant and noisy industrial with a lot of samples Busslers distorted vocals. The cd opens very good, overall the cd has great tracks and alright tracks and lasts for 45 minutes.
In the box also comes the long anounced “Schlacht The Final Chapter” album (of 30 minutes). This one is a bit more noisy.
Anyway, if you like Wappenbund this one won’t let you down. 494 Copies, so you you may want to be quick. <15/10/03><3>
An unknown band, an unknown label, at least, to me. It seems that Wappenbund has been around for a while, but they don’t have too many different releases out. The releases that they do have, come in different versions. This cd comes in a very nice envelope. It has for about 45 minutes of music. Greyland Records also seems to have been around for a while, but recently became part of Esola.de. This last wants to become a label/distro for electronica, techno and industrial, but only the industrial (Greyland) part is really up and running when I write this. Greyland on the other hand appears to be the personal label of a guy named Sven Bussler who is also behind most of the Greyland bands, and also behind Wappenbund.
As the bandname slightly suggests, Wappenbund makes bombastic industrial with militant and orchestral touches. The music goes from pretty harsch to fairly soft and has quite a lot of samples. I really like this and Wappenbund doesn’t sound too much like bands making similar music. So, if you also enjoy this kind of stuff, be sure so go to the Esola page and have a listen to the Wappenbund (and other) mp3’s and I am quite sure you will want to order this or other cds. <6/4/02><4>
This is the second Wappenbund release that I review and I think it is older than the “Zeitenwende” cd. It certainly isn’t as good as the cd. This mcd has five tracks. It opens very noisy and nicely militaristic. The second track can be downloaded as mp3 from the labels website and is a nice bombastic track. Then we get a rather boring track with singing, a not too great track with a distorted beat and a tranquil track that I also already had as mp3. If you don’t know Wappenbund yet, first download some mp3s and then get the “Zeitenwende” cd. In the coming months there should be a new cd called “Schlacht – The Final Part”, I can’t wait to hear it, since Wappenbund sure is an interesting project. <29/5/02><3>
Another project of Sven Bussler, but this time with a certain Maria. “Werkmeister” comes in a handmade box that doesn’t look too great, but the idea is nice. Iron wire around the cardboard containing a black cd(r), put in a silver cardboardbox and wrapped with a black band. The box also has two cards and a little surprise.
Musically Sigrun Heid is quite a bit harder than Wappenbund. Much more industrial, with noise influences and more rhythm. Also here samples are used, but not as many as in Wappenbund. Also Sigrun Heid is very well done and I like “Werkmeister” a lot. Rather short though, 30 minutes. You can get this one as a cd or a 10″. <6/4/02><4>
In a superb package comes the first cd of the new German three-man-formation on the label of the legendary Wappenbund. The triangular box is wrapped in iron-wire and when this is removed, you can pull out a part which contains the cd. “Operation Gomorrha” is a 48 minute cd with music going from old school industrial to noise and power electronics. Some tracks are dark and tranquil, other more militant of sound while there are also some true ear-crackers on the disc. There is enough variety and the tracks are mostly interesting enough to conclude that this is a good industrial album which is recommended for lovers of the harder kinds of electronic music.
Ophir is of course the pre-Wappenbund and listing to “Saat & Ernte” it may just as well have been released under that name. It seems to be older material re-released. This 10″ contains fairly tranquil music, slightly martial and slightly bombastic. Also you will hear some of Bussler’s vocals in the Wappenbund manner. Quite nice. This is a 10″ in the well-known envelope. Limited to 288 copies, there is a cd-version of 333 copies. <30/8/03><3>