Adalbert: Can you tell me why you started to create music and how Device Noise begun? I guess your first record was “Nimfomania” from 2012.
Device Noize: I don’t know, I do not remember, it think it was just my fate to make music, it’s something that’s in your life, you can call it a destiny.
Adalbert: The title “Tabues” (recently re-released by Halotan Records) means “Taboo” in English. What taboos are you describing in your music?
Device Noize: The track “Para siempre” talks about a prostitute, which for society is a taboo, the track “Eutanasia” speaks of a person who wants to die because he has a terminal illness, and someone wants to help her to die by injection, and that for people it’s also a taboo. The title of the album was chosen especially because of those tracks.
Adalbert: For me the whole record is very strong, but my favourites are “Para siempre”, “Olividados”, and “Sangre por vida”. Which track are your favourite ones?
Device Noize: “Trasendiste”, “Eutanasia” and “Elevate”.
Adalbert: On latest Halotan sampler we can listen to your new song called “I’ll kill you” – this composition is slightly different from your effort from “Tabues” – more “automatic” feeling, even more dance oriented than previous songs, and… it’s in English. Is this direction in which Device Noise music will go?
Device Noize: Those are songs that are simply created at the certain moment as I do not plan anything. The music goes first, I write lyrics afterwards. Everything depends on my mood.
O wydarzeniu było już głośno od dłuższego czasu – trudno, żeby było inaczej – Covenant, Mesh, Haujobb, SITD i inni – składy tego kalibru to znaki rozpoznawcze niektórych niemieckich indoorowych festiwali, ale rzadko zdarza się, żeby takie wydarzanie pojawiło się gdzieś poza granicami naszych zachodnich sąsiadów, nie licząc brytyjskiego Infestu i paru innych mniej lub bardziej efemerycznych inicjatyw. Tak więc brawa dla organizatorów (agencji HQ44), że im się chciało i do tego udało.
Na pierwszy ogień poszedł niemiecki Klangstabil, który niestety udało się mi zobaczyć tylko w części. Żałuję, bo szczególnie zakończenie koncertu (podniosły “Schattentanz”) robiło bardzo duże wrażenie. Jest w muzyce Klangstabil duża doza eksperymentu i przestrzeni, która sprawiła, że grupa ta odstaje nieco od w sumie dość homogenicznej sceny niemieckiej.
Zaraz po nich zaprezentował się Solar Fake (który ja osobiście widziałbym właśnie w roli zupełnego otwieracza). Cóż można o nich napisać? Tyle, że niestety zespół nie rozwinął się za bardzo odkąd promowali swoją pierwszą płytę na Castle Party.
Sven z kolegą poskakali do podkładów, powciskali trzy klawisze na krzyż i rzewnie śpiewali o rozterkach człowieczych. Najlepiej zaprezentowały się kawałki z pierwszych dwóch krążków, co ostrzejsze numery z właśnie opublikowanego “Another Manic Episode” też dawały radę, ale ogólnie występ był kwintesencją smętnego dark karaoke. Niemniej – Solar Fake sprzedaje się nieźle, swoich fanów ma, więc nic dziwnego, że na takim festiwalu zagrali.
Potem pojawili się starzy wyjadacze z SITD, niestety tym razem jako duet, z powodu zdrowotnej niedyspozycji drugiego klawiszowca. Było parę numerów z ostatniego “Dunkelziffer” (tytułowy plus “Purgatorium”), było parę numerów z “Icon:Koru”, oraz reprezentacja moich ulubionych albumów zespołu: “Rot” (min. tytułowy) oraz “Bestie:Mesnsh” (apokaliptyczny “Kreuzgang”).
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To wszystko okraszone było oczywiście starszymi klasykami, takimi jak “Snuff Machinery”, “Laughingstock”, “Suffering in solitude” czy “Richtfest”. Cóż można więcej powiedzieć? Nie był to na pewno występ wybitny, ale też SITD nigdy poniżej pewnego poziomu nie schodzi, w dodatku był to najcięższy i najbardziej posępny akcent tego wieczoru. Chociaż cała impreza nosiła nazwę “Dark Electro Festival”, to jeśli jakaś kapela grała tego wieczoru “mroczną elektronikę”, to był to przede wszystkim SITD.
Chwilę później na scenie zainstalował się Daniel Myer i Dejan Samardzić wraz z dodatkowymi muzykami, czyli Haujobb. Dla wielu z przybyłych na festiwal to właśnie Haujobb był gwiazdą wieczoru. Występ zespołu na pewno zadowolił zwolenników scenicznej wirtuozerii, której – jeśli chodzi o elektronikę – bardzo często brakuje.
Muzycy dwoili się i troili za syntezatorami i perkusją, która jak zwykle na koncertach Haujobb idealnie współgrała z resztą dźwięków, a nie tylko pojawiła się jako usprawiedliwienie dla pojawienia się na scenie artystów puszczających podkłady z laptopa – co jest niestety częstą praktyką. Co istotne, muzyka grupy satysfakcjonuje nie tylko koneserów elektronicznej wirtuozerii, ale również (a może przede wszystkim) wszystkich spragnionych energetycznej j zabawy. Sam Daniel Myer oświadczył ze sceny, że “Lets drop bombs” to ich odpowiedź na EBM. Również “Crossfire”, czy premierowy utwór z przygotowywanej właśnie płyty rozruszały publiczność. Co oprócz tego? Między innymi “Anti/matter”, “Dead market” i “Eye over you”. Haujobb zagrał wyśmienity koncert.
Chwila przerwy i na scenie zainstalował się Mesh, czyli Mark Hockings i Richard Silverthorn z zespołem. Nie ukrywam – był to dla mnie najbardziej wyczekiwany moment wieczoru.
Różnie się muzykę Brytyjczyków w kręgach dark independent ocenia, szczególnie jeśli ktoś nad porządnie napisane piosenki (zwrotka-refren-zwrotka-refren) ceni artyzm (?) rzężeń muzyki konkretnej, albo prymitywizm neoflków. Fakt faktem – Mesh nie jest wcale “dark”, jest może “electro” – ale w bardzo popowym i mainstreamowym wydaniu. Pytanie, czy coś w tym złego. Wiele bym dał, żeby takie melodie, podane w tak dopracowanych aranżacjach gościły w jakichkolwiek mediach komercyjnych.
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Istniał wszakże jeszcze jeden powód, dla którego można było koncertu MESH wyczekiwać – ich ostatnia płyta “Automation baby” to bezsprzecznie jeden z ich najlepszych krążków. To właśnie od “Flawless” pochodzący ze wspomnianego albumu rozpoczął setlistę tego wieczoru, ale właściwie cały wieczór stał pod znakiem ostatniego krążka: “Adjust Your Set”, “Never Meet Your Heroes”, “Just Leave Us Alone”, “Born To Lie”, “Automation baby”, “You Want What’s Owed to You” i “Taken For Granted”, który w niezwykle wyjątkowy sposób zakończył właściwą część koncertu (chóralne “Take me far away” wybrzmiewało przez parę minut). Jest czymś wyjątkowym, że zespół już w sumie pełnoletni (Meshowi 18tka stuknęła już chyba z dwa lata temu) wciąż jest w stanie proponować utwory, które z miejsca stają się klasykami.
Na koncercie została również zaprezentowana absolutna nowość, numer “Last One Standing”, który publiczność odśpiewała razem z zespołem, mimo tego, że nikt go wcześniej nie słyszał (ot przebojowość numerów Mesh). Co oprócz tego? Niestety jedyny reprezentant albumu “Perfect solution”, czyli “Everything I made”, rewelacyjne “Crash” i “Petrified” z “We collide”, a także starsze numery “People Like Me”, “I Don’t Think They Know”, czy zagrany na bis “From this height”. Setlista prezentowała się więc rewelacyjnie, dla piszącego te słowa zabrakło chyba tylko “Only better”, oraza “My hands are tied”. Wykonawczo było również bez zarzutu – ale czego innego oczekiwać od starych wyjadaczy z Mesh.
Główną gwiazdą wieczoru była legenda futurepop, szwedzki Covenant. Zespół wystąpił w składzie Andreas Catjar, Eskil Simonsson i (wyjątkowo) Daniel Myer. Po intrze zespół przeszedł do jednego ze swoich żelaznych hitów (“Bullet”) i publiczność była kupiona. Później “Thy Kingdom Come”, które z ostatniego krążka (w rzeczywistości utwór miał się pojawić już na “Modern Ruin”) i… niespodzianka, czyli “Figurehead“ – jeden z najbardziej klimatycznych numerów szwedzkiego zespołu, pochodzący z kultowego „Sequencera”, a zaraz po tym – apokaliptycznym “Wasteland” z debiutanckiego “Dreams of a cryotank”. Posępny nastrój tych utworów bardzo szybko ustąpił natchnionemu liryzmowi „Ignorance and bliss”, z ostatniego krążka Szwedów. Bardzo solidne numery z „Leaving Babylon” pojawiły się jeszcze parokrotnie – „Prime Movers”, czy (pod koniec występu) „Last dance”. Silnej reprezentacji dorobił się również „Modern Ruin” za sprawą „The beauty and the grace”, czy „Lightbbringer” – w którym Daniem Myer zastąpił na wokalach Eskila.
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Dla mnie osobiście najjaśniejszymi punktami wieczoru były utwory z fenomenalnego „Skyshapera” – “20 Hz”, “Brave new world” czy „Ritual noise”. Dwa utwory z tej płyty „Happy man” i „The men” posłużyły jako podstawę do kolażu różnych kompozycji w czasie bisów, w skład którego weszły jeszcze „Dead Stars” oraz cytaty z „Tension” i „Go Film” z trochę zapominanej „Europy” (szkoda, że nie zagrali tych kawałków w całości!). Pojawiły się też perełki znane i lubiane (by nie powiedzieć – grane do oporu przez polskich DJów) – „Call the ships to port”, „Like tears in the rain” i „ We stand alone”.
Koniec końców – świetny, długi koncert (miałem niedosyt po koncercie na CP sprzed paru lat), który fanów Covenanta powinien usatysfakcjonować. Chociaż moim zdaniem to MESH był tego wieczoru bezkonkurencyjny jeśli chodzi o rozkręcenie dobrej zabawy, to Covenant pokazał (szczególnie w trakcie bisowej improwizacji) jak łączyć dobre piosenki z ambitną elektroniką. A zatem, w tym starciu gigantów mamy remis.
Czy Warsaw Dark Electro Fesitwal będzie imprezą cykliczną? Na to się zanosi i na to mam nadzieję. Organizatorzy wspominają już coś o… wiośnie (!) 2016 i nie ukrywam, że byłaby to rewelacja, bo całe wydarzenie było niezwykle udane – nie tylko muzycznie, ale też organizacyjnie. Bez większych opóźnień, z bardzo dobrym brzmieniem i w świetnie do tego nadającej się przestrzeni – bo nowa Progresja (w której już zakończył się remont) to miejsce na takie eventy wymarzone. W dodatku bar dysponował pokaźnym arsenałem ciekawych piw (głównie z browaru Perun). Niby nic wielkiego, a różnica jest. A zatem – miejmy nadzieję – do zobaczenia ponownie!
Opening track of the album, “Siente” is already known to evryone who listened to Halotan sampler. This song is rather representative for the whole record – fast, floor-oriented, with distorted vocals – yet it’s catchy, and it’s lead synths create an athmosphere that could be described as… melancholic, and it all fits perfectly. “Del cartel” and “La ceguera” – the second and third tracks on the album – folow that path, but are even more agressive. “Extraños en la Oscuridad”, which comes after those three is one of my fauvorite songs on the album. A little bit slower tempo, pounding bass and militaristuc samples (which may recall a little bit Grendel’s “Soilbleed”) make this song a perfect dark electro march.
In “Necessary words” lead singer, Stan, shows that he is opened fore some other forms of articulations than distortion pushed to maximum, and Baltazar (responsable for music) delivers some atmosperical breaks in the wall of noise.
The title track, “Luna” continues this path, adding some interesting mid-tempo dubstep-pike rythms (however without wobbling bass) and great lead synths which recall a little bit some sort of haunted female voice. Those experiments go even further in instrumental dance strack “Christus”, that is one of the most interesting dark electro instrumental which I’ve heard since some time.
The last few songs on the album keep the high quality of songwriting. I enjoyed especially heavy basslines of apocaliptic “Todo esta más cerca” and dense and dark ambiance of the closing track “Amante del Demonio”.
Lets summarize: the album consists of 10 well-crafted dark electro tracks (+ interesting remix done by Stahlnebel & Black Selket). No revolution here, just pure aggrotech, but it’s done very well. Although there are some influecnes of new electronic trends, the majority of music that you will hear on “Luna” stays faithful to the golden times of the genre (second half of the 90s).
Most of the songs are sung in Spanish which in my opinion is a very good decision, since it adds some originaility to the album. And speaking about originality one thing is sure – you cannot mistake Devilsight with any of the german dark electro acts. The Mexicans are composing their tunes smoothly, and while listening to “Luna” you don’t have an impression of listening of programmed sound cubes, but you fell some coherency and fluidity in this stuff. Don’t hesitate and listen or buy this great album from their bandcamp or Advoxya shop.
We are happy to announce the release of the 9th instalment of our Sampler compilations. It is the third Sampler consisting exclusively of dark electro music. The new more focused formula appears to be working quite well. Instead of trying to be all things to all men we just focussed on music we truly love and stand behind.
Please listen, download for free or buy a CD here.
Sampler 09 can be described as a premade DJ set that will take every dark dancefloor by storm without any further effort. We have hits, we have sold pieces for in between the hits and some mood changers to let the people re-sensitise before the next onslaught of beats.
The mix of the bands featuring on Sampler 09 is extremely strong. Most of the music come from our own outreach so we can easily say that the playlist is handpicked by Halotan Records.
The response from the bands was absolutely phenomenal – about 90% of the bands we contacted did participate in the compilation.
We are truly proud of this release and we understand how high the bar is set now. All we can say is that we will try very hard to do equally well or even better on the upcoming Sampler 10.
The work on Sampler 09 took us just a little over a month from start to finish. Thanks to this very fast turnaround the music contained on this release is mostly very fresh. Some songs come from albums released this month, some have never been released at all.
Compilations are a great way to both discover (for fans) and promote (for bands) new music. To be a fresh and reliable medium connecting artists and fans we need to offer music that is up to date. Thus, we are committed to rapid production cycle for Samplers as they are now our flagship release.
We hope you enjoy Sampler 09 – and if you are a real dark electro fan you really should. Stay tuned to Halotan Records for more music.
We would like to thank all the bands who took part in this release.
We would also like to thank the people whose work made this release possible, namely:
Daniel Cichowski – Zowa Studio – mastering
Marilyn Rosa – Alternative Model featuring on CD artwork photos
Katarzyna Jabłońska, Tomasz Krampikowski – photographers whose photos we used to design CD artwork.
Adalbert: My first question is about the name “Guit Trip”. This term is used when someone is trying to make you feel guilty for something. Can you tell me more about the meaning of the band’s name?
Magnus: Our name is “Guit Trip” because we try to put people on guit trip, we are trying to make them think differently about certain things. Hopefully… So then you will think ‘Oh! I didn’t know, I didn’t realised that I was thinking like that, bad me!’
Adalbert: All right… You will make them guilty and…
Magnus: And that trip will make them eventually aware…
Karl: Of themselves actually. And we think the lyrics actually reflect that notion, so to speak.
Adalbert: What can you tell me about the beginnings of the band? I read something about that, and I found out, that you’ve been active since many, many years, since nineties, I think, and it begun with a band Chirurgie Esthetique, what can you tell me about that?
Karl: We had a lot of different names, and we’ve actually started in 1989 I think. We had a different singer, Magnus was on keyboards, I was on keyboards, we’ve been fooling around in our boy room, just being a fans of electronic music. We had Steinberg Pro24, we heard that actually Front 242 had used it, so we also got it, the Atari stuff, and we were on the way.
Magnus: And the reason we changed the name from Chirurgie Esthetique to Guil Trip was, first of all, people couldn’t pronounce it, and the music had changed. So we thought that it is a new beginning. We’ve made and album “Reborn”, because that’s what it was – rebirth – new music, new name.
Karl: And new musical style. We introduced guitars, we’ve experimented a lot. And then we made three albums.
Magnus: And lyrics are changed. With Chirurgie Esthetique it was almost “hippie”, with Guilt Trip its harsher lyrics, more “into your face”…
Adalbert: More socially engaged?
Magnus: More socially engaged, yes… And hopefully also more psychologically engaged. And hopefully one of our gigs will end with a riot.
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Adalbert: At Castle Party is your third gig in Poland?
Magnus: No…Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan, Castle Party… it’s second time at Castle Party now.
Adalbert: What do you think about Polish audience?
Karl: We love them, we hope that more and more Polish people, and also people around the world will engage and get the message of Guit Trip.
Adalbert: What are your musical inspirations? Your last album “Brap:tism” is very diversisifed…
Karl: I don’t know where to start…
Magnus: At the beginning it was Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and… don’t mention the “S” word. Yes, Skinny Puppy was the name that was following us since the beginning. But now we listen to everythong. We listen to grindcore, heavy metal, pop music and even disco. Obviously that affects the music.
Karl: When we make a new album it’s like a mosaic. You can see it if you will take a step back and watch it from the distance. Just like Jackson Pollock actually. We keep the inspiration with the “S” word and so on, but we try to keep our own style, and make the next step.
Adalbert: Do you reallytake care about what is going now on the dark electro scene, because I’ve got an impression, that your path isn’t very common, that everything now is more techno oriented and simple.
Karl: Yes, we noticed that, that in a substream we found mainstream. It’s the evolution, even in a substream something is becoming more popular and fatter and fatter branch. We see it as pop actually, and we try to avoid that thing. We try not to fall into those traps. Sometimes, when we creating music we use some elements of this “pop vein” but we’re making it our own. You can hear it on the new album in some of the songs.
dalbert: Yes, it’s not like you listen this record twice, and you will catch all of the elements, it’s more complex, I think. And another question I want to ask… What is “BRAP”? When I saw it for the first time I thought about rap, hip hop, and so on.
Magnus: Skinny Puppy used this word to describe how they create music. We interpret it as “do whatever you want”. When you make music you’re just “brapping” – you’re making what you want, if you like it it’s ok, if you don’t – do something else. It’s just jamming, just as the jazz musicians do…
Adalbert: I didn’t know about it. It means that the title of album “BRAP:tism” referes directly to Skinny Puppy.
Magnus: Yes, because we knew that the people will going to mention it. So we decided to put it on the front cover, to let everybody know – “we know that, we’re inspired by Skinny Puppy” to shut the discussion. Unfortunately it had different effect…
Adalbert: What can you tell me about the electronic scene from Sweden. I know many bands from this country, and in my opinion Sweden was always into oldschool EBM stuff plus some big names like Covenant. How do you fell as aa part of this scene?
Magnus: We don’t really think we are a part of the scene, it’s much of oldschool EBM…
Karl: Well, our label is EK Product, and they do a lot of oldschool.
Magnus: Yes, they do, but we don’t. It’s like you said – it’s Covenant and EBM.
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Adalbert: I mean, do you interfere with other bands, it’s harder to create music, while you’re all alone.
Karl: Let’s put it simply, as I said in the beginning. We listen pretty much to everything, and sometimes take an inspiration from it.
Magnus: We do some collaborations, I did guest vocals for a band called Emu Bomb, we had also some collaboration with a band Pain Machinery.
Karl: Our former album (“Feed the fire-remixed”) is only with re-mixes done by other artists, you can find it on Spotify. We like to collaborate with other artists.
Adalbert: Your music is experimental, but it makes you move – it’s very energetic.
Magnus: We want people to react and understand what I’m saying – sometimes I say very provocative things.
Adalbert: Do you think people really care about the lyrics?
Magnus: I hope so, the lyrics are printed in the booklet.
Adalbert: You should write something about sex and drugs.
Magnus: It’s so common…
Karl: It’s banal… Sorry, anal…
Magnus: Like Motley Crue. You can always sing “yesterday I f*cked pope in the ass, how you feel about that”.
Adalbert: So many bands are just putting the words without any meaning, because you can always say it’s about fun.
Magnus: Provocation just for provocation is meaningless, you’ve got to have a point. Why I am saing this, what I want to achieve, is there a point.
Adalbert: What makes you angry, so you want to write about it?
Magnus: Non-solidarity, and the people who don’t think what makes them think in a specific way. Why do I think in a specific way? Because I took this from my parents or society, or because I really believe it. Recently one think that really pisses me off is nationalism, so maybe I will write about it in the future. Who knows?
Adalbert: Hello! Hydroxie is quite a new band, however some of the band members are already known to dark independent scene (especially Kayfabe LaNoise from Wynardtage). Can you tell us why you’ve decided to begin the new band and can you tell us something about line – up? Who is responsible for what?
Hydroxie (Kayfabe): Hydroxie was founded originally in 2004. At this time I’ve run several projects. Hydroxie had some smaller clubhits and contributions on different samplers. “A Fool” is one of the classic songs of that period. But after the huge success of the Wynardtage-song “Sterbehilfe” I decided to keep my full attention to Wynardtage. After the latest Wynardtage-releases “Sleepless in Heaven” and “Close II Death” (both no.1 in german alternative charts) I felt it’s time to start something new. So the very first Hydroxie CD was 10 years in the making. I reformed (like i prefer to call) our small legion of doom two years ago. After I have created the most instrumental versions of the songs I work together with Louis C. (also involved in a group named “La Magra”) and Andy Haze to find the right lyrics. Both guys are also involved to do some backing vocals and sampling stuff. Finally we have our little dark dancing queen Styana and Vic G. who also recorded some sampling stuff at studio and give our concerts the special notes.
Your debut album seems to be very inspired – over an hour of good dark electro songs. It seems that this music just had to be born… Hydroxie is described as side project of Wynardtage, but I think it’s different – it reminds about older days of the genre because it’s lack of unnecessary over-production and it’s full of gloomy melodies …Simple yet very effective. Why have you chosen this direction?
I’ve listened to some of the latest records/bands of our genre, but they didn’t sound like something I would expect as a fan of this music style. So we tried to go some days back and bring out a more rough and authentic product. So many people said to us the hole album sounds like a beast from the millennium era. That’s exactly what we like to reach, because we are no fans of the modern era electro style which has lost the typicalcharacteristics of true dark electro.
One thong can be surely said about your debut album – very catchy melodies which give every song its character. “Seelenfresser”, “Hass”, “Skandal”, “Sterbenhilfe” and many others. What’s your recipe for a good dark electro composition?
I love to produce catchy melodies. So I think that’s very exemplary for our songs. So I have often a good feel if a song could works or not. I think that’s a natural gift paired with years of experience by doing all this shit. But finally only the people in clubs can make good songs to real club hits.
One thing that quickly grabbed my attention – vocals! Very aggressive and dramatic (“Im Sturm den Lugen”) and diversified. It was hard to get such result during the recordings? Everything sounds very natural to me.
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Absolutely no. I know many bands are using tons of scary effect stuff to blow up the vocals, but like you said we have tried to keep the vocals natural. We kept the effect-level on the vocals very low. So what you can finally listen is my real screaming voice with some hall and delay effects – that’s all. So in my mind to record harsh vocals isn’t a question of effect-plugins – the broken strings and deep wounds in life are the key.
One of your composition will be featured on the next Halotan sampler. What can you tell us about this song?
“Im Sturm der Lügen” is one of the most favourite songs of our fans. They loved it because the story behind of love, trust, lie and disappointment is something real. So I think the fans really appreciate that our lyrics are no fake-fatasy shit. So if you combined thatlyrics of real anger with the rough power of that axe of a song you will have a real hellectro bastard.
Your songs are in German. You prefer to sing and write lyrics in your mother tongue or in English?
To write and record the songs in German is one attribute to distinguish Hydroxie from Wynardtage. Also it’s easier for us release and describe our rage and to perform that songs live in concerts.
I would like to ask more directly about the lyrics of the song “Du Bist Kein Goth”. I guess that you try to tell, that the whole gothic imagery and subculture shouldn’t be taken too seriously. To whom do you address this song?
So we witness that there is a little war inside our scene here in Germany. So people tell to other other people they are not belong to the scene because of there look or music style. So we told us the question who or what is real goth(ic) and tried to reflect this with a little peace of humour on that track. The real messsage behind is – please stop that stupid discussions and keep our scene tolerant and alive.
And the last question: your new album is on the way. What should we expect?
Yes, we are working hard on our second album “Seelenkrank” which will be released in upcoming winter. The people can expect 10-12 brandnew songs full of anger and passion. And no worries – we will not make crazy or stupid things on that second record, we will just continue our path of true sadness and gloom.
Fredrik Croona is the frontman of quite well known dark electro band Cynical Existence. “The Grey Line” is an album from his side project, released under his own name.
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In a recent interview – referring to his side project – Fredrik said: “I want to go a bit slower and darker with Cynical and the new material I wrote didn’t really work, mainly because it sounded more like trance/futurepop and it was a bit more “happy” in a way. So I decided to try to make a cross-over between futurepop and aggrotech. It’s going to have more singing and less screaming.”
It is one thing to read about it and another to actually hear it. What we get on “The Grey Line” is synthpop or futurepop music that brings to mind Neuroticfish, Icon of Coil or – if we stretch it a bit – old VNV Nation just to name a few classics. So this is surprise number one.
Another surprise comes when you hear vocals for the first time. I appears that the man responsible for squeaky screams in Cynical Existence can actually sing. And he sings with clear, undistorted vocals.
Just when you manage to absorb the fact that the music is not actually dark electro, another surprise kicks in – harsh vocals. Those are vocals we know from Cynical Existence. It has to be said that they sound much more authentic and self-confident that the clean futurepop ones.
For some bizarre reason harsh vocals go extremely well with the music, even though they completely break the futurepop convention of the songs.
It seems that futurepop and aggrotech crossover is actually possible. Is it digestible though? While it is perfectly fine with me, I have an impression that it may be too harsh for futurepop fans and too futurepopish for the dark electro crowd.
On the other hand being quite unusual the project can certainly gather following among people whose preferences are a bit more varied.
One thing is for sure – the material would be unsuitable as the next Cynical Existence album and if released as such it would do the band a big disfavour. The decision to release it under a different name was correct.
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Dancefloor is the place where both futurepop and dark electro parties will be fully satisfied. Fredrik Croona’s music is perfect for club setting. While mostly melodic, it retains enough aggression for the peak dancefloor time. It is music that can and will get the party rolling.
I think that “Stand my Ground” featuring Patrik Hansson is the number one candidate for a dancefloor hit. While the song follows standard futurepop routines, the harsh vocals make it stand out. It has a great potential to get noticed and keep the dancefloor full.
Another thing you may notice while listening to “The Grey Line” is references to goa trance. Raw sounds and easy to recognise psy-trance melodies add another layer to this already eclectic release. Best example – “Coming Down” – without vocals it would be just a standard oldschool goa trance song.
Overall I do enjoy the album. Fredrik clearly made bold decisions and did take some risks he probably could not afford with his main project. I think those will pay off in terms of gathering a fan base for the solo project and supporting his already strong position in the dark electronic scene.
While writing these words I am listening to “The Grey Line” for the third time and at this stage I can recommend it to you without a shadow of a doubt.
“The Grey Line” can be bought from Advoxya’s store here.
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We have a pleasure to announce that our exclusively Polish dark electronic compilation, Halotan Sounds 2 is out. As Halotan Records come from Poland (now based in Ireland) this is a special release for us. We are exited about the opportunity to unveil some promising artists from our home country.
You can listen to the whole release and download it for free here.
A physical CD is also available.
The compilation showcases Polish bands from the wide dark lectronic scene. The style is varied and consists of dark electro, electro-industrial and a bit of darkwave music.
It has been 5 years since the first Halotan Sounds compilation came out. The current one features completely different bands, different style and different new generation of dark electronic artists.
Seems that Polish scene is evolving as it was able to produce an entirely fresh set of artists within just 5 years.
Halotan Sounds 2 is just a probe we are sending to the world. If there is interest we will continue to release compilations under Halotan Sounds brand and we will keep them Polish.
The playlist is as follows:
1. GEttNER – The Former Life
2. Traumatize – Moje Odbicie (Exemia Remix)
3. 1unatic – Break The Machines
4. Cold Therapy – The Puppeteer
5. Black Tower – Zdrada
6. Switchface – Królestwo Robaków
7. Orbicide – The Ashes of Ai
8. Dark Side Eons – Lighthammer
9. Electro Fear – Sisters
10. Oira 317 – Mental Breakdown
11. Black Velvet – I Feel Loved
12. Undertheskin – Cold
13. Bart Cathedral – Inject Me (Botox Remix)
14. Cube-[x] – Niederfrequenz
15. Vault 21 – Nuclear Winter
I looked in disbelief as it climbed up to finally receive 461 likes and 87 enthusiastic comments.
The group is at least partially about music, it has musical genres in the name. I see a lot of posts from musicians there, begging to notice their music. Very good music at times I have to say.
The level of engagement the musicians receive is incomparable. 1-2 mercy likes at most (I got zero response myself). A single comment from a friend. In terms of percentage the post about haircut received on average 22,950% more engagement than standard post with a song.
Twenty two thousand, nine hundred and fifty percent more.
For those thinking in pictures I have a nice chart below:
There are some harsh questions begging to be asked. Why on earth do you people call yourselves music fans? Are you seriously members of some music related subculture? Do you care about music at all?
For anybody looking at the data it is obvious that people in the scene are not music fans, but style and haircut fans. At least these are the things that interests them enough to click like or comment under a post. Certainly not music, there is 22,950% of a difference in engagement. The evidence is too overwhelming to live a space for any doubt.
Just to stay scientifically sound, I went ahead and posted exactly the same text on exactly the same group with a song rather than a haircut. I knew what I was going to get because – as a music fan and promoter – I posted songs on Facebook groups before.
You can see the outcome below. Is anybody still not convinced?
As you can see I got ZERO response. Nil. Nada.
We – the musicians and music promoters – have been living in some strange illusion that people in the goth/cyber/industrial scene actually do care about what we do. Clearly they do not. At least they care thousands of times less than they do about a fecken haircut.
Dear pretending-to-be-music-fans haircut lovers, here is your chance to repent. Like Halotan Records on Facebook in the box below and subscribe to our newsletter up on the top. If you do both, your sins will be partially forgiven.
We post about music, there will be no haircuts in what we post. It will be hard for you. You may feel uneasy at first, but believe me, it will get easier over time. You may even start enjoying this thing called music a bit.
This is the only way to save your soul and dignity. Support the music and at least try to pretend you are a music fan. We are watching you.
A free tip for musicians:
Want to become known in the scene? Get yourselves fancy haircuts and post them on Facebook. Given the evidence above you will become stars in no time.
Made up of musicians who have been on the scene for over a decade, Larva’s new album, “Abominations” delivers exactly what you would expect from a band with such experience.
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The production is spotless and the balance between aggressiveness and clean sound is well kept. The songs are alternating between fast, club oriented ones and more nostalgic, slower compositions that allow the listener to rest and get re-sensitised to faster and more aggressive stuff.
Variation is certainly a huge plus of this album especially if you intend to listen to the whole lot at once – you will not be overwhelmed by a constant barrage of beats.
While the style is certainly dark electro, there is a noticeable EBM/oldschool flavour to it. Songs like “ Todo Es Una Estafa” follow very closely EBM style even though the overall experience is much more modern and not as raw as oldschool EBM tends to be.
Larva found a way to merge new with old in a very elegant and pleasing (if such wicked sounds can be pleasing) way.
Dancefloor-worthiness is strong in this one. There are at least a couple of songs that will get the dancefloor moving, notably “Los Perros Ahorcados No Ladran”. The song has relatively fast tempo and has a potential to become a dancefloor hit on a alternative parties.
On the slower side of the spectrum “Me Hago Pequeno” stands out thanks to its atmosphere and melodic horus. It could even work on a dancefloor as some kind of wind down song or a pause between faster songs. Well recommended.
VA - Halotan Records Sampler 07
StyleDark Electro, Electro-Industrial
More info and player
“Abominations” is certainly an album not to be missed by any fan of dark electronic sounds and we strongly recommend it to you. The physical CD can be purchased from Advoxya’s store here.
We had a pleasure to have Larva on our Sampler 07 compilation. They will also appear on our upcoming Sampler 09 with a song from the “Abominations” album.
Larva has a very professional website – a thing overlooked by most of the bands in the genre who depend solely on Facebook for their promotion. You can visit the site here – get lyrics and more info about the band.
If you are into dark electro and have not done so yet – please like Advoxya Records on Facebook:
