Be My Enemy - This Is The New Wave

It's gotta be at least 10 years since we last heard from Cubanate - you remember them right? The greatest Guitar/Electro/ hybrid of all time.
Nothing with Guitars ever filled Dancefloors like Cubanate, and the project has been sorely missed.

With Be My Enemy, Phil Barry is back, to the relief and rejoicing of many. This time, Breakbeat elements are aplenty, and Phil even takes on the vocal duties.

I'll start by saying that if anyone else dared label their album "New Wave", I'd frown immediately and take on a cynical overview. Having heard the "Shot by Both Sides" EP, we know that Phil means business, and already, it's like Cubanate is back.

It takes about 30 seconds to get into this album, and after "The New Wave", the near Eight-minute "Helter Skelter" bombards us with an explosion of energy, punk-esque anarchy, and the sense of absolute Aural chaos that only the best of bands can deliver.

One thing I deeply loved about Cubanate was the fact that they could break the accepted guidelines, and mix styles and Instruments into their music that would normally turn away people on a Dancefloor. I've said in many reviews that I abhor Guitars in Industrial and Electronica - Cubanate is the only exception, and now Be My Enemy will be added to that list.

I'm impressed with Phil Barry's vocal work here : It hails the bile and vitriol that was present towards the end of the 1970's, but manages to contain enough of an identity to differentiate between the decades.

On the subject of Retro, how many artists in 2010 and 2011 can claim to still use Analogue Synthesizers, rejecting the newer Digital sound and output? The album pays homage to the older style "Juno" Rave Synth.

Although a lot of people out there won't know a great deal about Synthesizers and differences, both Cubanate and Be My Enemy are among the bands that educated me on this subject - yet another reason why I feel that Phil Barry is as relevant today as he was in 1998.
Granted, the Guitars, intensity, and Punk style vocals won't attract everyone, the myriad of talent and technical expertise that has been put into everything released by Phil is quite simply too novel and rare to ignore.

Tracks like "Disintegration" (which recently got updated on Deathwatch Asia's essential "Direct World Action" compilation - An essential double album in which all proceeds go towards helping Japan), "Ghost in the Machine" and the political and ethical "Haarp" can be nominated as the "classics" on the album, but to be honest, although I still have to be in the right mood to listen to Be My Enemy, when it plays, I just feel absolutely divine.

Also available on Deathwatch Asia. May 10 2011