Various Artists - Uturn 3: The Dark Side Of The Beat

The Canadian label Artoffact Records have made a little assembly which is called Uturn and I'm quite sure that you understand that the number "3" beside the name isn't about 3rd generation mobiles ("3" is a Swedish mobile company), this time the "3" means that this is the third album in the set.

The thing which makes this set a little bit special is the fact that it's two artists/DJ's contribute with a few tracks and in this case it's more about heavy dance music with great influences from trance and techno. Earlier acts like Massive In Mensch, Negative Format, Headscan and Implant have shared space on the two previous releases.

This time it's Blank and Moonitor who stands behind the steering. Blank is an Italian band which is influenced by Italian acts like Pankow and Templebeat. Moonitor are probably more famous by his real name Sebastian Komor, from Icon of Coil and his latest project Monofader.

The first six tracks are brought to you by Blank. Dance friendly Techno/Modern EBM to the extreme where "Dead End" and "Visual Overflow (Rotersand Mix)" are my favourite tracks by the band.

The final six tracks are of course by Moonitor and Mr Komor has really got into the land and music of the magic mushrooms with his sound this time. Unfortunately the interest dies when Sebastian is taking over since the music is quite boring and the sound becomes more of a background sound which you don't really pay attention to. Never the less, Sebastian ends his set with the track "Non Human" which is in fact the only track that makes you really listens with its fresh Icon of Coil sound.

This review was written 2004 and initially published on Neurozine.com Jan 01 2004