ABSTRACKT BLACK - Unheimlich (CD) (DarkDevil Productions) Sidney Stoffels' solo project throws Unheimlicht into our world.A disc with 8 very nice, inviting songs that lie between EBM, dark-wave and synth-wave. Both eighties and contemporary electro sounds throughout this record. ‘Night Owls’ is an instant and potential dance floor filler. It starts excruciatingly slow and dragging but when the beats get involved,we get a blast of a danceable darkwave song.The melody is angular and catchy and cuts to the bone. ‘Can't Contain Myself’ continues with the same momentum. Sidney's voice is an absolute and overall added value. At times firm, then soft, screaming, then constricted again. In any case, a voice that determines the atmosphere. Like a time machine this release, back to the prehistoric times of synthwave, with an eighties vibe. ‘I Am The Beast’ sounds so cool and retro. The synths and rhythm section evoke images of the golden,yet musical,eighties.And what to say about the more electro-punk-oriented ‘A Mind Like Mine’. The machinery seems to be neurotically thrashing around.Pace upwards,wildly beating around,danceable all along the line.“Nothing can be clear in a mind like mine…”Or when you will realize that your brain does not get things clear anymore.…We want more.'nuff said! … [JB] ULTRA SUNN - Kill Your Idols (CD / Vinyl / Digital) (Fleisch Records) Sam Huge and Gaëlle Souflet hit us once again with their witty, danceable, infectious EBM. Still the EBM is the main part. ‘Can You Believe It’ has that typical bass line and drum beats on which feet stomping people go wild for. A melody wedges itself stubbornly in between.Like no other,the duo knows howto unite styles in a sublime way. ‘Set Yourself On Fire’ is another of those songs,bursting with EBM and yet slips smoothly into your ear with another blissful melody nestling on top of the beats and bass line. Somehow even an eighties vibe can be felt.Then we get ‘The Great Escape’,which has a killer bass-line to say the least. This combined with a heavy mourning melody line and a very catchy up-pace rhythm results in … dancing! Always Tanzen! The sixth track is a remix of‘Can You Believe It’by Kris Baha, a producer and DJ.The song is augmented with some dark and some other beats plus a somewhat enlarged bass which that carries the song. EBM in sixth gear. [JB] AGENT SIDE GRINDER - Jack Vegas (Digital) Always underestimated as far as I'm concerned, at home in all markets and very strong live, that's the Swedish Agent Side Grinder who present us with Jack Vegas, their 6th studio album. Jack Vegas is firmly anchored in electro but with a twist, sometimes experimental then again with post punk leanings and sometimes even a treacherous pop halo that hovers over the songs. ‘Waiting Room’ gets straight to the point, an atypical but also danceable electro post punk track, an atmosphere that is repeated on (Progress Productions) ‘Number By Number’, including the addictive synth melody and ditto chorus.‘Bloodless’ is a bit more naked but more enthusiastic with a simple but effective tune. For its part, ‘Madeleine’hovers between light experimentation and the romanticismofAndAlsoThe Trees.A song that only really comes into its own in its simplicity and beauty after a few listens. ‘Flaws In Flames’ reduces the halo with a dormant unrest to a triangle, which connects pop,newwave and electro to retro avant-garde.The title track,withmore than 7 minutes on the clock ‘Jack Vegas’ seems to have sprung from the minimalism of the 80s,a bit of a Kraftwerk through the concrete mixer of the less cultured Neue Deutsche Welle but with a sensitive pop undertone, that electro makes pop interesting too. Less perhaps on the stripped-down ‘Decipher’, where an unsightly simple tune about a doom-pregnant murmur creates tension, until the beat takes over like a runaway heartbeat as if order becomes chaos and not the other way around, although the chaos is structured.The last song,“The Unravelling”.Perhaps the most surprising song because semi-acoustic, fragile with a piano in the lead role, musing, that is also Agent Side Grinder.Playful to bitterly serious,poppy to intimately experimental.Take your time and play this loud, louder, loudest. [KI] Read full reviews on http://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/reviews/ - 5 - www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
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