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State-Art

v/a * Collapse (mcd 2000 state art / ars macabre)

On 18 and 19 august 2000 State Art and Ars Macabre organised the first Collapse festival with a whole bunch of dark industrial and noise acts. A special gift to the visitors was a cd with exclusive material of the bands that played. because of the gigantic request for the cd of people who haven’t been to the festival, the cd is also made available for the rest of the world.
7 Bands with one track each making a cd of 35 minutes in a cd-single box makes a compilation-mcd. The opening act is Ultra United with a very tranquil ambient track. Next up is MZ.412 vs Folkstorm which is of course noise, but rhythmical and quite industrial. The next track is of Heid a dark ambient track. Predominance is an act that I knew as a dark industrial band, but their “God Of Wolves” is total noise. Nocturne just released an lp on State Art and if that one is in the same style as their “6.VI.1994” this cd contains very tranquil ambient, soundscapes even. Ex.Order made a noise track old style, which screetching sounds and screamed vocals. The last track is to me by far the best. It is of Axon Neuron/Vagwa and it is a very strange and dark industrial track with strange deformed orchestrations.
Actually I had hope for a better cd. The only track that I really like is the last one. Most other tracks are alright and one is truely none of my taste. Still, if you want some introduction into dark electronics, I guess this is a cheap option.

Ultra United * Ultra Audience (cd 2002 stateart)

The German label State Art has made a fresh new start. The idea is to release new and progressive industrial with a high aesthetic value. If I am right the first releases with this idea are this one and the new Cyclotimia cd. If you have the Collapse festival compilation cd on State Art, you already know Ultra United. I believe there is some vinyl release on an Italian label before this cd, but I am not sure. Anyway, I don’t find Ultra United very fresh or progressive! The cd opens with a short noisy track and most of the rest of the 45 minutes cd consists of monotous soundscapes or atmospheric ambient things. Here and there some more industrial / noise influences, but always very tranquil. I think that if you like Nocturne (also on Stateart), you will also like this one. Personally I think this (and Nocturne) is alright, but not too brilliant.

Nocturne * Kapitulation (cd 2000 state art)

After 10”’s on Tesco and Old Europe Cafe, State Art from Germany presents the first full-length of this French industrial act. “Kapitulation” comes in a very nice digipack and has 6, mostly long, tracks making a cd of almost an hour.
The music is sometimes a bit hard to describe. As often with State Art releases, the music can be quite strange and abstract, but at other times there is great dark industrial, ambient or noise.
The quality of the tracks is a little varying, some are good, others are quite boring. All in all this makes an average cd in my opinion.

Lamia Is * Flesharvest (10″ 1999 state-art)

This is the first official release of the Dutch Lamia Is. If you like extremely dark industrial/ambient in the vein of Megaptera’s “Disease” this one is for you. Deep drones, devastating beats and lots of samples from movies to bring you the severest nightmares.

Genitor Lvminis * Deam Adessa (10″ 1999 state-art)

When I finally got this 10″ it was long sold out. This review is therefor more for informative reasons than to tell you to buy it. Genitor Luminis is a Swedish act that released a demo called “Heliokrator” in an edition of 50 copies. On it you find some Puissance kind of apocalyptic orchestral industrial, not very good. This 10″ was supposed to be brilliant, but I’m not too crazy about it myself. There’re four tracks,which are all -more or less- in the vein of tranquil tracks of industrial acts like Der Blutharsch and Turbund Sturmwerk, but not as good. Sometimes I hear similarities with Swartalf and Elhaz. The music is very monotous and repetative. In the beginning I quite enjoy all the tracks, but after a few minutes I’d liked to hear some change in it.
The German label State-Art is now frequently launcing releases, read reviews of other 10″s from this label elsewhere.

Cyclotimia * New Death Order (mcd 2000 stateart)

After some nice tunes and a sample that was already used by Morthond 8 or 9 years ago, this mcd displays some nice dark ambient and then a brilliant dark industrial second track with ambient interludes and strange sounds and samples. After this the tracks are best described as strange soundscapes with a lot of samples and weird sounds and almost no ‘industrial’ influences anymore.
I like the first two tracks and the rest sounds… alright.