Nine Seconds - Nothing To Confess

Boasting an album that should be able to make any person on a dancefloor want to move their ass, Nine Seconds is a collaborative effort between vocalist Oliver Spring (Sleepwalk, tEaR!dOwN, Nerve Conflict), and keyboardists Rene Ebner and Thomas Kowalzik. With their 2013 album Polaroids achieving what I've been told to be a good success, the trio has continued forth to unleash Nothing To Confess.

Expanding upon their already sort of known reputation, they've put together a ten track album featuring three additional, reworked tracks that include other acts. Acts such as Cryo, mind.in.a.box, and Leaether Strip have all tagged along and made an appearance within the final three tracks.

Anyway, not to weight this down anymore with more background information, let's get to the music. The sort of sci-fi inspired introduction of Attractive Lies hurt my ears (not in that good sense) simply because of a higher pitched sound that would make a dog squeal. Mind you, that was just the intro, so it lasts not twenty seconds, and then it blasted me off into a heavily influenced EBM sector. Simple bassline, little drum work overshadowed by other sounds, and other random effects kept the song alive. The vocals were good, not the best, but they got the work done. An echo added to them, a bit of what sounded like a chorus effect. Fun song, good song, but not a great song.

Antistar Machinery had another standard bassline shooting through it for the most part, but it was during the chorus that the song really shined. Lovely synthwork and other electronics added into the loop gave the song a new light. Borderland [Second Attempt] was a song that was canon on Polaroids, and is now making another showing on this album. Sounding a bit more old school inspired, I'd again say that it wasn't in the main rhythm that the son ultimately stood out, but it was rather the other effects that rode out that made the track rock.

Laser-like sound effects came out in Pompeii, and the additional voice that came out was pretty rad. Not to mention that the electro element of this act came out in full form with this track. Waiting For The Last Kiss clashed, broke out more synth work than before, and was nice.

With a soft intermission titled Malfunction, a nice little break occurred before getting back into the album with The Forgotten Man. It wasn't a bad song, but most of the sounds were something I had already gotten used to on the album, and sounded stale.

No Shut Eye [Fight Back Mix] definitely delivered on the club aspect, filtering in a good beat, but nothing to really get my jaw dropping. Perhaps one of the more simple songs on the album, and one that sounded like it was built to be louder than the rest of the album, No Shuffle was alright. I didn't find too much to get excited about with this one. Planet On Fire had a lovely intro, and then shuffled into a slow moving territory with swiping synths and another bassline that felt familiar, but sounded completely different. Probably the best song on the album.

And then the collaborations came out. Cryo was first on the draw, keeping the bassline of Waiting For The Last Kiss mostly the same, changing around a little, but that's about it. I wasn't too impressed with this mix. mind.in.a.box was next, weighing in on Attractive Lies. Beautiful synth works introduced the song, and hit in extremely well throughout the rest of the song. Perhaps taking a turn to 80s sounds, this rework was absolutely wonderful and hard hitting. I fucking loved it. And, lastly, Leaether Strip's harder turn on Antistar Machinery worked in nice, but after the last collaboration, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

And, that's that. In all honesty, I think this band is missing their potential by just a key stroke. All the songs on this album are well presented, have good quality, and do have the ability to get anyone moving. However, sometimes the songs appear to be something that's been done one too many times in the past. Where they do shine, however, is in their work with additional electronics. Whenever another sound is added, even in the slightest, it made me pop out of a boring gaze and into a more interested state - in other words, they were able to capture my attention. But, that didn't happen all the time. Whereas it should. But, keep your eyes on this trio. They should be able to continue forth in the future with better works; they'll have a hit someday. I think. Nov 23 2014