Gentleman Junkie - Soul to Soul

Gentleman Junkie might strike you as a bit of a strange name for an industrial EBM act, however, let me ensure you that we are talking about danceable EBM here. Hailing from California they deliver their second album 'Soul to Soul' after their debut CDr 'Direct Connection' from 2010. They also made a split release with Bioassay back the same year. Some of the tracks from that era is to be found here in 2013 as well.

'Soul to Soul' is released on Negative Gain Records, a label I haven't heard from since around 2004, so I'm glad to hear that they are still alive and kicking. With prior releases with artists like PAIL, Filament 38 and Cruciform Injection, Gentleman Junkie fits like a glove.

Music wise they could be described as a danceable modern EBM act on the harder side. Since the album has been produced by Krischan from Rotersand, you might be able to figure out a little bit how the sound is, however, in some tracks that border into EBM/Techno and with the vocoders, they strongly remind me of 8kHz Mono's release 'Monochromator' from 2004, like the tracks "Holy War" and "Killing Time" (no, this is not a Funker Vogt album).

Generally speaking, the tracks come of as good, yet quite generic. With one exception which is the second track "Shivoham". A combination EBM together with strong Indian influences and sung in Hindi(?). This is absolutely the strongest track of the album. I truly enjoy when influences mix, marry and intertwine. I can't do anything but see Industrial Goth's dancing Bollywood style. Amazing. The sad thing is that this is the only time we see these influences, I would have preferred to hear more of it.

Other tracks worth your time is the slower "The One For Me", "Never Again", "Life is Death", "To Be The King" and the amazing "The Knife". If it was not for a few mediocre tracks, this would have tipped the scale over to an 8.0 as for the rating goes.

Part from the ten original tracks, there's also four remixes. By now, most of you know about my feelings towards remixes, so I will not spend a great deal of times with them, part from mentioning the Assemblage 23 remix of "I Want You To Know" which was previously released back in 2010. Also, the Kevorkian Death Cycle remix of "Shivoham" is worth to take a couple of minutes for.

A strong and interesting release, could have been even greater with a bit more fine polish. However, you need to check out the track "Shivoham". While you do that, I will dance away Industrial style with pink and yellow feathers waving around me and I vanish behind the heavy bright green curtains. Feb 20 2013