I can’t really tell what the first track on this EP is trying to be; on one hand I feel like it’s trying to be an experimental, ambient and moody track. Yet, due to the hammering bass drops, I feel like it’s aiming to be a hard techno song; but the beat is so spare that it sounds like a techno track that’s been slowed down by two-hundred percent. The second track is more akin to something palpable; a rhythmic industrial techno track that has a slightly faster rhythm. Minimalist in nature and not quite the best thing in the world, but something more palpable and a base structure to build upon. The first two minutes of the final track on this is generic and standard, bland and boring noise / ambiance. So, I’m never revisiting that one even though it opens up a bit later in the song. 

A bit too much conceptual thought here without a whole lot of weight behind the music. A classic case where samples from various movies are injected into the tracks attempting to make a concept, but fails to delivery musically. Each song sounds unproduced, such as ‘Crash & Burn’, and as if they need a better mix. Each track is soft, quiet, too quiet. Whereas I can listen to most music with my headphones set around a volume of 50, I had to turn this up to 70 to 80 just to hear everything. It’s experimental, modular music but that doesn’t excuse the poor execution. An album I simply wouldn’t recommend and wouldn’t return to; needs a better mix / master. Sad thing is I do think there are some interesting sounds on the album, they’re just barely audible. 

This is a very well produced and very fun dance single perfect for your favorite industrial stomping grounds. It’s a gradual build-up from spooky techno beats into harder, pulsing electro basslines. Haunted samples that reminisce a Halloween Haunted House are sprinkled throughout the track to give a goth tinge. I think that the track could have been cut down by a minute or a minute-and-a-half, but that’s hardly a complaint considering that each section of the song seems to morph and evolve. Perhaps Kota Kira’s best work to date, as some of the other stuff I’ve heard the artist put out has been less than stellar. 

When I first listened to this release I thought to myself, “Why, yes, this is a dungeon synth album.” And that was about it. The first song has some things going for it to stand apart from the crowd, such as the spoken word introduction, the general distorted chants that come into the album. But there are also other elements that make it feel choppy; the stroke of a synth key in the background from the beginning to around the two-minute mark sounds like something is skipping. Tracks two to six aren’t anything to really write home about either; ‘Shattered Obelisk In The Forest Cathedral’ is quite fun but sounds similar to many other ambient songs I’ve heard in the past. I’d say the best song on the album would be ‘Deviant Burial In The Oak Grove’. A beautiful, nature piece complete with angelic hums, birds chirping, piano work, and some ethereal synths; some of these sounds do come off as copy and paste, though, but the way they’re formed around one another is harmonious.  

Every time I hear a generic, barely any effort put into dark ambient / drone piece like this I get a step closer to never featuring the genre ever again on Brutal Resonance. Very few labels and artists pumping out worthwhile pieces that are energetic and creative. This is one that lacks any substance.  Step up your game. 

‘Breathing New Life’ sounds like music for a commercial where someone is about to clean their house and the cleaning supplies are in their hands and their smiling about cleaning their house. Not necessarily a compliment, but just saying it’s a pretty boring electronic rhythm. The second one is much better; simply titled ‘Music’, it reminds me of a retro space journey. The third is where we hear the vocal input for the first time; rather suiting for such subtle music, as well. A bit rough in terms of digital effects but fun. Wasn’t too huge a fan of the fourth; a bit too much screeching, not enough content to keep me going, and made me want to shut it off multiple times throughout the song. The final track is my favorite; though they could have done without some of the speech samples, I much appreciated the harder EBM beat. Not an overall bad release, but mistakes were made.

This is a compilation curated by Italian webzine and record label FLUX with a focus on instrumental EBM, industrial techno, and rhythmic noise. And, as with most compilations there are songs that I enjoy and don’t enjoy. There’s only two songs I didn’t gel with, which are Crime Die’s ‘Square & a Wave 1’ and Fangram’s ‘Puritania’. The rest are decent or better, with my favorites being that of Gamlaskatten’s ‘Tactical’ and Nemrac’s ‘Leisure Seeker’. Overall a good compilation and a good showing for FLUX. 

Not as punchy as I would hope a dancefloor EBM-inspired track to be, but also not bad by any means necessary. A lot of elements are thrust into the equation which can make for a messy and noisy concoction, so I think throwing out a few bits here and there would be much better. I don’t think the background, distorted vocals, as sparing as they were, were necessary either. But I very much did appreciate the experimental, modular sounds that ARS thrust about. Not a bad showing, and I’m looking forward to how they evolve. 

This is a case where many of the songs are extended beyond reason without much reason to be that long. Such as ‘Dichotomized (mincemeat by head ghosts)’, ‘Abyss (v1)’, ‘Dichotomized (atomized by Skin Contact)’, and ‘The Walls Between Us’ are all fine examples of this with minor length issues with ‘Tides of Woe’ and the original mix of ‘Dichotomized’. A lot of the songs on this album also sounds choppy, like they don’t know which direction they want to go in. Take the mincemeat mix by head ghosts, for example; it sounds like an amateur took a synth and began to press all the buttons at once just to see what would happen. A repetitive, experimental exercise that doesn’t work that well. When Savka works on his own it doesn’t sound too bad; the title track is alright with raw drums pairing next to spare synth lines to create something of a dance track. But it lacks a real hook, a real catch that draws me in. The experimental nature of his work helps to throw in surprises and loops, but those wear thin as the songs just drag and drag and drag until I’m no longer paying attention and wished I was doing something else.