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Review by HEATHEN HARVEST.
01 Bleiburg - Guilty by association
02 Triton 83 - Tanzteufel
03 TT - Tauschung
04 Shift 69 - Im Kreis
05 Manmaschine - Covered in Blood
06 Bleiburg - Lament of Irish Immigrant
07 Triton 83 - Kindstod
08 TT - Start-Sequence
09 Shift 69 - I Love It
10 Manmaschine - A Peace of Life
11 Bleiburg - Cthulu Rising
12 TT - Biggi
13 TT - Leichenliebe [slow]
01. has pounding dance floor beat. Loud buzzy synth riffs. Then with the pounding is some industrial factory machine percussion. The bass synths are also very dance floor oriented. Then it all halts as the drum does a brief hip hop type beat interlude for variety, and then all the previous blasts through again. There is quite a bit of noise and distortion in the synths as it proceeds through its looped sequences. Then it is clear this is fuzzy.
02. is a very interesting polyrhythm with beats that are ala various pitch registers of various guns and their gun fires, and quite abstracted upon. In comes some more ”electronica”sounds ala synthetik alien terrorism and Instinct records 90´s era chill room type sounds. Perhaps this is ala Panzer Division as well. At least they do come to mind here in this mix of elements and aesthetics. A buzzy synth comes in that almost sounds vocal controlled like Industrialized Laurie Anderson´s vocoder?. A good deal of residual distortion noise is produced as the song proceeds. Some notes come in that are like the soundtrack to the movie Liquid Sky. More dark and airy synths come in hovering over the mix and they denote the sort of 80´s horror movie theme sort of aesthetik idea. And that then gets more entwining and psychedelik. Beat start to get faster and fragmented below it to propel the mix forth out of any abyss images. A most acoustic event briefly enters that is very ala Test Department banging on factory pipes. Synth enters in that sounds like a fog horn whilst another shoots in and out like gun fire that is so altered and processed that it it´s clear it is temporal land now with brain synapses firing off rather than guns. And this gets more like Coil´s ”Windowpane” Wax Trax era tripout chill-floor musick. Then the synths get really cheesy quickly and the song ends at 12 minutes. good job on this track!
03. immediately begins with very chilly dark ambient synth drones ala the end of a David Lynch episodic nightmare. And this cloudy apocalypto-sunset hovers and shrouds for a while. Being There with it are many hues on the dark spectrum even as some are bright or primary within like some Rothko paintings. Large timpani type orchestral drum rumblings enter in with balmy reverb. A guy comes in and the words ”guilty by association” are heard a number of times within an angsty story.
04. A propelling industrio-disko dance mix ala Frontline Assembly or Front 242. A voice sings in that style with much distortion on his voice. The synths are kind of beepy and some are chimey and buzzy. There is alot going on in this mix with many tracks competing for singulairty of attention which makes it rather chaosmotik. Although the arrangement does redeem itself when tracks cut out after their exhausting playing out.
05. This song opens with that type of treated voice of that menacing computer game demon as heard in the movie, Tron. Under that is some fragments of pounding beats which then peter off into some lovely sine wave or overtone action amounting to some trippy effects with the voice and beats. This sort of halts and then the beats do a ”morse code” type rhythm. The synths are fat, buzzy, and beepy simultaneously. Nice patch! Then the Tron voice comes in again. I think it says ”STOP IT!!” and then a very chill-room synthetik ambient patch comes in and pulsates arpeggiatically around a drone. It ends and then it is very cheeky Italo-disko type fun with distortion shrouding it ala Casioish organ riff patch and bossonova beat play. Another fragment breaks that line of thought and goes into drum and base with a sort of Nitzer Ebb motif thru flanger, and this is started and stopped as a sort of sampled long idea a few times, and then the Tron man is brought back again with his ”Stop It!” and other mublings. It becomes very broken up as a mix, and intentionally non-cohesive, but what does weave a thread in its pauses of breaks is its ambiguous nod to ”break-beat” or distractive aesthetics known in electronica culture as various sub-genres including, or even excluding ”glitch”? I am not an expert at the dance and electronica culture by the way, so don´t book on my authority...
06. This really sounds like Douglas Pierce of Death in June reading this story. I think it is! The background is a wonderful dark ambient multi-tracking of dark keyboard and synth drones which then introduces some fragmentedly simple ritualistic martial drumming. The narration performance is very tender and sensitive, and it is very clear, so one can really focus on it if they were eager to through the very murky nokturnal mix. I even must go back and listen to it again to grock the passionately sad story. I mean I feel compelled to do so at least. I will let you discover this for yourself! This track is a real treat! ”...The place where Mary lies...”.
07. This begins with a German female sample and some more of that previous gun-fire type sampled industrial propelling drums. The synth base is bouncy and fat as it supports some drum and bass type percussion utop ala Aphex Twin or what not. The German female come in and out with her quite lovely and sensual vocal timbre. All these elements are arranged to come in out and play with each other as more percussive timbres are collected ala Test Department rave-ism perhaps.
08. This begins with a drone that is very much like inside a tube or cave ala Lustmord and sounds like some synthetic processing of large pagan horns, and then a blast of whistling air blowing intensity that explodes with a large beating dance-floor drum under a submarine type blurping noise which then is distorted and brought under an industrial factory labour type percussion again ala Test Department perhaps. This assemblage of drum and bass elements sustains itself well for a while, and then the blurps come back in utop some stuff that is fragmented or pointisllistically introduced ala radio frequency knobs during war accumulations on the front-line. The images are of radar screens and old radio tuners even. Then a riff ala Black Sun Productions recent ”Chemism” album even comes in and moves up and down a vertical spectrum. This is some great modulation and plug-in technique on the part of the creator! A wise usage of analog wave analysis. Even though I am by no means specialist at that type new media software, but I can surely tell the difference when it is used, if I am even hitting the target at all in my interpretation of the sounds.
09. A sort of Derniere Volonte type synth bass line. Clean and crisp samples/patches with some kute playful riffage above ala Japan´s Yellow Magic Orchestra perhaps. An abstract voice through vocoder or flanger. Sounds put through plugins so they so like they are dripping mercury. Maybe you could call this ”cold-wave” or ”electro-wave” ala Wierd Records in Brooklyn but more pounding beat dance-floor oriented than ”cold-wave” perhaps. dunno really.
10. Brief pounding drum. An adamently spoken German segment. Samples here sound more dated towards Italo-disco as it fades in and out, and the German man comes back in speaking English, but the musik is distracting in its gestures to really focus on his meaning. The pounding beat comes in alone again with some nifty delayed percussion jetting out of it like a black sun eclipse photograph. The beat also sounds claustrophobic like it is canned in side a room which is strange. Distant delayed voices that sound Asian almost, enter in and out as well below. This is sort of ala Plastikman I think as it carries along with just minimal beat in a very strange artifice-inducing assemblage of processing. Then below again is some cyber synth riffage as fragment. The beat environment basically grows larger and larger and I have to turn the prior volume setting down a bit as it is throbbing in bass yet not distorting. But my ear drums start to feel numbed out from it. I keep having to turn the volume lower and lower as it proceeds lower and lower into negative bass frequencies getting colder and colder as it sinks. Trying to stay above ground here with this as an objektive listner. This then all fades out gradually as it reaches its ten minute plus mark. What a trip!... huh.
11. This is dark ambient right away with bowed vibraphone or church-like atmosphere type sounds coming towards you and away simultaneous so that one feels like they are in the tunnel approaching/approached things like in a celestial dream of death. Then some military snare drum playing is brought in very straight-forwardly in this thick cosmic mix. Another mumbling male voice below all this. Actually the way someone sounds when they mumble in their sleep. The snares enter in and out as the church-like apocalyptic sunset shifting dream mode proceeds even more in the listner´s face. All these these elements with the voice interweave with each other some more. The man´s voice sort of growls and it ends at six plus minutes.
12. This song supposedly says ”biggy” over and over again, but it sounds like ”piggy”. He speaks asking simple questions with a big beat through lots of flanger with a buzzing sound coming in to mark a downbeat with the upbeat. There is some reverbed laughter in the background as recorded live somewhere which is sort of sadistik in tone. A synth bell sound simple in construction comes in and maybe this is also ”cold-wave” ala The Normal´s ”warm leatherette” era meets Plastikman and Death in June´s ”All Pigs Must Die” album that has all the songs about piggies.
13. This one is immediately ala early Einsturzende Neubauten with the same prior cold-wave electro aesthetics in sound experiment and Liquid Sky type beats. Some more of the laughter from the previous track also is in there somewhere in the background. It ends jokingly and abruptly.
Review by OBLIVEON.
Anlässlich der “Dokumenta” in Kassel veröffentlicht Skullline einen auf einhundert Stück limitierten Sampler mit unveröffentlichten Stücken aus dem Labelkatalog des rührigen deutschen Underground-Labels. Wer das Label kennt weiss, dass die Veröffentlichungen verschiene Sparten elektronischer Musik abdecken, von düsteren Ambient-Flächen über Minimal Electro bis hin zu harschen Industrialgewittern. Bleiburg eröffnen “Document A” mit einem für sie ungewöhnlich düsterem Ambient-Stück, das seine Bestätigung in den später nachfolgenden “Lament Of Irish Immigrant” und “Cthulu Rising” erfährt, bevor Triton 83 mit “Tanzteufel” und “Kindstod” alle Xotox- und Winterkälte-Fans erfreuen dürfte. Die nachfolgenden TT gehen bei ähnlich aggressiver Ausrichtung bei ihren vier vertretenen Stücken deutlich experimenteller zu Werk bevor Shift69 mit “Im Kreis” einen ihrer bislang besten Tracks veröffentlichen. Manmachine, ein Bleiburg Nebenprojekt, bieten mit “Covered In Blood” und “A Peace Of Life” dann gemässigte, düster eindringliche Industrialklänge. Wer sich einen guten Überblick über das Labelprogramm Skulllines verschaffen möchte, der ist hier vollkommen richtig und sollte sich bei der geringen Stückzahl mit seiner Bestellung beeilen. Kontakt: http://www.skullline.de.
Review by CHAIN DLK.
Another new output of the German SkullLine Mailorder, this time a compilation which features all current label artists providing new, unreleased or hard-to-find tracks. For all of you who still have resisted to buy one or another of the amazing and extremely limited label releases, this compilation offers the welcome doze to get some deeper entrance and introduction to the roster. Both projects, TT and TRITON 83 are heavily dedicated to the rhythmically Powernoise genre and can service here the full range between Minimal, Noise and Experimental styles. ”Tanzteufel” by TRITON 83 can be named as possible favorite for some Pogo movements on the dancefloors, while the track ”Kindstod” with its tragic voice samples rather makes you think on the subject. Another favorite out of the label roster is SHIFT 69 offering a refreshing mixture of Electro/EBM and 80ies-inspired Pop/Wave attitudes. ”Alles dreht sich im Kreis”, well, it’s fantastic to see and hear how many different ideas especially regarding the used effects on the vocals the track ”Im Kreis” has to offer – what a fine old-school inspired work! BLEIBURG – partly amazing if drifting into Experimental/Ambient/Noise drones, partly ridiculous if falling into minimal pre-80ies Kraut-Electronica, can convince here too, simply because Stefan Rukavina’s tracks here are returning to paths of Experimental/Ambient and Ritual-Industrial music – definitively his better side. So we have at least MANMACHINE, a German solo project which still can’t look on an own release for SkullLine, this project has only co-produced the BLEIBURG DCD ”History In Flames”. So it’s a bit to describe the provided music style – Minimal/Experimental/80ies/Electronica maybe? I guess there’s more to come. Ah, and wanna hear a really sick piece? Check out TT’s ”Leichenliebe”, which concludes this compilation... As usual for SkullLine release, also this compilation comes out extremely limited to 100 pieces and with an extravagant package. If this compilation draws a real dedication to the world-wide renowned art exhibition Documenta, which takes place all 5 years in Kassel/Germany, and in this year again, is rather questionable. Nevertheless label/mail order chief Harald Jarosch has picked up some quality recordings out his stable and this comp is a perfect invitation to grow deeper in the often harder to discover music stuff of the SkullLine label. More than 77 minutes of some fine and not to underestimating music rather based in experimental genres, get it!
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