Neon Lies - S/T

Think I am getting into these outsider electronic-acts hailing from Croatian. The latest discovery is the debut cassette release from Neon Lies (self-titled). A rough and raw 25 minutes journey into harsh metropolitan synth punk, not that far from the likes of Suicide and Neon Judgement. 

This debut cassette is limited to 150 copies, comes in silver mirror sleeves! And yes, it does look extremely sexy, shiny and sleek! (photo below). 

I am not much into newer acts reviving the angst of classic post-punk acts, but I do think that this act delivers something to it that maintains its honest intentions. Why? It´s pretty rough and raw, the sound is not perfect (who cares right?!), It´s not meant to be an ear-catcher and it´s definitely not a shoe-gazing hipster act trying to be darkly synth-pop 80s cool. It´s challenging and intense if you ask me, as desperation takes hold (to quote Ian Curtis). The strength in this kind of release would (again) be it´s honest intentions. And it´s none-perfection aesthetic in sound and mood, love the way the sound is. Clearly, an act who creates what the person-behind-it wants to create, not creating what the listeners want to hear. And there you have it, that is the pure intentions of punk. Fuck the listeners and hail the artist.

First tracks start with a chaotic keyboards mess, un-tight computer drums, Alan Vega´ish vocals (and those reverb effects!) and a cool and cold primitive synth melody. Next track Safe In Room starts off with a similar sound to the beat of OMD´s Enola Gay, head-crashes into early Human League´ish synths and flesh-crawling vocals. The third offering offers no salvation, a hint or two to Neon Judgement´ish Factory Walk (Could work as a continuation of that track if you ask me). Love the detail that you can only hear the drums on the left side of your speakers, and then you have the harsh synth on your right (and the vocals are on both sides!). To Nothing is the albums fourth track, tunes deeper into the throbbing electro-punk sound. A very action-driven piece... likes driving at high-speed through a derelict industrial area of the city. 

The Fifth track mother tunes it down into a melancholic early industrial mood, love the metallic clashing sounds in the background. Sixth track We Lost Confidence In This Town (Kickass title), works up a menacing soundtrack mood that you might have noticed in such films like Carpenter´s Assualt At Precinct 13, might just be the best track on the album. When a soundtrack mood becomes a throbbing and aggressive electro-punk thing, really lovely!. The next track Woods almost moves into early Cure´ ish territory, something from their Pornography-era (Figurehead?), the style of the track although has that Absolute Body Control-feel (Per-Klinik group from the 80s). The eighth track Sex Without Faces follows the sound and feel like the previous track, although with way more melody (Beautiful). Last track Odds, rounds it all up with lovely rhythmic elements and vocals on raw bleeding rock n´synth knees!  

And that is how you deliver your eighties (late 70s) inspired electronic-based angst music! The whole I-don´t-care-what-you-think attitude is refreshing, specifically in a world which delivers hipster DJ goths and electro-jerks with minimal-wave´ish inspired t-shirts bought at your local H&M. Do go out and get this tape! You can get the tape from the label called Cosmic Brood Records (link below!).  

Bandcamp (band):

https://neonlies.bandcamp.com/

Bandcamp (facebook):

https://www.facebook.com/Neon-Lies-1639630016284491

Bandcamp (label):

https://cosmicbroodrecords.bandcamp.com/

   

   

Miguel Souto - Lillith

An interesting theme to bring up in our era of Mee-Too campaigns and power females. The "demonic" female Lillith is without a doubt relevant to this. As you all know, Eva was made out of a rip from Adam... Lillith wasn't. She actually left Adam, reason?... She wasn´t interested in having a relationship in the garden of Eden with a dominative husband. She went out and had a relationship with the archangel Samael. A rather... "satanic" themed arch-angel who has been called Poison of God, Blindness of God, seducer, and destroyer, etc. A sort of not-necessarily evil, because he spends his free-time destroying the sinners... Another satanic-themed arch-angel if you please. A powerful archangel doing the dirty work for god, who could say no to that?... ANYWAYS!. 

Miguel Souto has made this mini-album, which have been digitally and physical (cassette) released via Anoxia Records. I have also had the utmost pleasure of reviewing the dark-ambient masterpiece Lacrimi Si Sfinti, which Miguel Souto did together with Alejandro Durán (see the former review!). He is ALSO the same guy behind the ritual-occult act Sudari (also see former review). This one is also a solo-work from him, and a VERY interesting one (if you ask me!). 

First track Ravishing Whispers reveals to the listener that we are dealing with a piano-driven thing, a kind of... gothic piano thing. Not the kind of gothic-like the Sisters of Mercy, but more in the vein of early gothic literature like Mary Shelley, MR James, EF Benson, B. Stoker, etc. Haunting and esoteric and decadence all in one bucket. A kind of horror-themed Erik Satie, with a touch of early avant-garde music. Simple and moody piano moods, with a tiny spark of eerie glitchiness in the background. Absolutely brilliant, and rather... timeless! Could have worked as background music for Polanski´s The Ninth Gate. 

The second track called Turmoil gets more... kind of disturbing and disruptive piano notes. Weird mood swings, from being calm to being rather in a sense of despair. You have that feeling that something dreadful is going to happen! A rather beautiful track I must say. 

Last and third track called Approximation - Seduction - Copulation: First Encounter with Satan and the Birth of a New Race. This must be here where Lillith meets Samael!. An icy and cold beginning, tip-toe fingers on the piano like toes lightly dancing on dangerously thin ice. Again, the sound and aesthetic of the likes of Satie are clear here! Exquisite avant-garde sound-glitchiness creeps in with a lovely X-Files´ish/90s-Thriller´ ish atmospheric retro-synth. VERY gothic and very horrific! A church-like organ meets the mood just right further on, giving the ritualistic and esoteric elements a lovely atmospheric boost. The ending track ends with those beautiful light piano moods, drifting spiritually into melancholic disintegration. 

I mean WOAWW... Fucking Woaww!. This is the REAL deal. Not some mumbo jumbo esoteric-meets Crowley bullshit in a burger joint. This is it, the real fucking deal. It´s like if Erik Satie should create music for the stories of MR fucking James, while he is reading it. An incredible sincere and chilling experience that will haunt my dreams! I will listen to this again... and again... AND AGAIN!

Bandcamp (band):

https://miguelsouto.bandcamp.com/album/lilith

Bandcamp (label):

https://anoxiarecords.bandcamp.com/album/lilith

   

Barbaric Frost - Heroic Quest

Third times the charm. Third Kalteldur review from the polish dungeon-synth label Raven Fortress! From haunted castles to harsh frozen landscapes, now we are embarking on a journey to Hyperborea. To a time where might was right, and heroic warriors would defeat evil sorcery and rescue ravenous and seductive daughters of kings. Or as the cover-artwork could predict, standing face-to-face with a naked queen (on an alter) who might have a heroic quest for the would-be-hero. As the artwork predicts, she is guarded by two stout lookings guards. I do think that (who-ever she is/might be)... that she looks kind of being in a hypnotic state? Might explain the Cthulhu´ish icon over her head! Nevertheless, the beautiful looking physical release (beautiful CD digipack, sadly sold out!)  doesn't reveal a thing regarding a story/concept... BUT! the digital release on Bandcamp does! Here goes : 

One day when he came home, from the path of conquest

He found his village burned, and his beloved wife. she wasn't there.

For many years he was wandering the lands, searching for her.....

When he found her being the priestess of Yog Saggoth...

His quest is to take his beloved one from the paws of dark forces that no man can understand.

So there you go! Not that far from my own story! Although I am not 100% sure that a Cthulhu´ish-icon could represent the globular-formed outer-god Yog-Sothoth? Enough of that! (and yes!... I am a die-hard Lovecraft fan!). The album consists of 4 tracks, in total being 30 minutes. 

First track Frozen Evil, starts off with the sound of several frozen winds heading towards your direction. Distant and mysterious ice-dropping sounds meet up with this, with a menacing and evil sounding synth-melody lurking in the mist. The last two elements joining up is a cold and icy tune and distant martial drummings... sounds as if it is being played inside an ice-cavern! An interesting and simple beginning... reminds me of Cold Meat Industry in the old days.

Second track Barbarian Warrior starts with the icy-winds (which you heard in the first track) which gets accompanied by a ritualistic and heroic heavy atmospheric synth/string/violin-tune. Reminds me (in a way) of some of the early and ambient-orientated martial-wave recordings by French Derniere Volenté. Later on, the tracks speed up with martial moods and pompous melodies. A thing between dungeon synth and martial-wave?... Why not?! sounds really good (We need more of this please!!). 

Third track Eyes of the Serpent is a organ-driven synth piece with occasional spoken words. This is where the quest gets challenging. Something about looking into the eyes of your deepest fears (you get the point!). A cool and sutle track.

Fourth and last track called King of Frost. It offers more icy-winds, distant martial elements and drone´ish tunes. It does sound like the last track on the album. Optimistic and slightly angelic tunes get into the mix (bells and synth), a bit of classic Tangerine Dream here as a matter of fact!. 

Done... over and out! .Heroic Quest completed and experienced points are shared and levels getting up! Or you a getting a chest of gold, becoming a king and everything. A decent and simplistic story-telling barbaric dungeon synth album without too much fuss. I would love 2 hear more. Rumors has it that Ancient Meadow will release the debut called Against the Darkness on cassette! I hope it will be released, and so should you!. 

  

Bandcamp (band):

https://barbaricfrost.bandcamp.com/

Suero + Yama-Biko - Hansenbyó

Spanish cult label Marbre Negre is still very much alive and kicking! This time it will be with local Spanish experimentalist Carlos Suero and a mysterious anonymous vocalist from Japan called Yama-Biko. They have done this album together and had it limited released as a pro-CD-R, encased in a large DVD-sized cardboard cover. 

The cover informs the curious that we are in some abandoned hospital-like building. Probably something which has stood empty since 1997?. The dreaded disease leprosy in Japan has been a case of complete isolation, rather than medical treatment! All leprosy patients have been isolated on a small island, and have been left there (more-or-less) to die in isolation. We´re talking about something which has been going on since 1953 to 1997. 

"The Zenkankyo (Patients' Union) staged a number of struggles against the Ministry of Welfare and they finally won the abolishment of the 1953 Leprosy Prevention Law in 1996. It was ruled that the law was unconstitutional between 1960 and 1996. During this period, the law should have not been present. In 1998, many patients sued the Government for compensation and they won it in 2001."

A frightening concept for an album? Right?. Is it a frightening and dark album?... MY GOD YES!. Atmospheric and cold (and true) industrialism without the hints of dark-ambient! You cannot help to think back to the frightening (but real) concepts by SPK, but your also getting back to other Swedish evil moody roots like Machinenzimmer 412 (before MZ.412) and Archon Satani. 

The first frightening track Sweez Arjosh starts with a hypnotic machine-like humming sound. This sound meets up with a cold and dry repetitive industrial ritual beating. Excellent effects occasionally treat the beat and turn it into a grimy and low-tech vibe. Ear-catching and haunting horror-soundtrack sounds vail and moans in the background sound like a mixture of a huge engine room and a human scream slowed down. Painfull and blood-vomiting ritualistic-background vocals are delivered beautifully by Yama-Biko. Wha6t a beginning!. Next track Filato Amato also has a heavy humming intro which again meets up with an excellent industrial beat, the cool and exquisite sound-aesthetic continues! It really DOES sound like being completely alone, to just die in isolation. The vocals get a more whispering-talking and throaty sound here, cannot help but think about the scene with Killer Bob from Twin Peaks hiding out in the hospital basement here. Really cool vocals, VERY convincing!

Third track Fi Inesr Par also being similar, but being more subversive (and noisy) than the previous tracks. Ritualistic death-beats pounds into oblivion while distorted and reverbed razor-sharp sounds cut you open! Might as well be about Unit 731 (look up on Wikipedia!), and yes!... VERY dark material, again... fans of Archon Satani and Machinenzimmer 412 will dig this. Fourth track Detistil Fardest just sucks you further in, the angst delivered here is powerful. At this point, you start to realize that there isn´t any hope... At all!. A strang looped beat, scythe-like sound effects, sound of a ventilation-system and lovely desperate vocals wishing deliverance. 

I will not reveal how the other tracks are since I can keep on writing, about this amazing underground release. Seek it out if you need a new industrial fix, or plainly seek it out if you need something dark as hell! 

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/hansenby

Bandcamp (Band):

https://suero.bandcamp.com/album/w-m-d-i

     

Sirena Velena - The Blood Girls (Le Mestruo)

Yup... I am a guy, not a girl. How painful (and irritating) it must be to have your period (as a girl), I DO NOT KNOW. Being short-tempered, tiredness and pain are what I have been informed about it. Sirena Velena has made a small mini-album about it simply called The Blood Girls. This album deals with how other religions look upon menstruation as something aberrant and impure. This is highly expressed on this highly experimental piece of a release. 

Sirena has chosen her own sounds (and approach) to deliver what this album wants to deliver. Highly unique and sincere, and in my opinion, it could well have worked as background stuff to extreme art-performances like the Viena Actionists. Feels like a blend of the very early and trippy (the 70s) Cabaret Voltaire, in the dear company of the mighty Diamanda Galas. Creepy ass stuff, but enjoyable since the stuff has been incredibly well recorded. 

Intimate and sutle industrial electronics with organic sounds and rhythms. Kind of like... being inside a body (when you listen to it). Heart-beat thumpings, breathing (and screaming) vocals combined with stretched out-ambient sounds and wet looped electronic glitchness. I like it very much, and can highly recommend it to old-school industrial fans (TG, Coil, Cabs etc etc). 

It´s only a track album, 20 minutes long... BUT, so far I have heard it like 5 times. And for anyone who wants a special packaging, I can reveal to you that it comes assembled inside an absorbent for women in a red transparent plastic bag! (Pretty badass!). Do check out the official site for Sirena Velena (Link below!). 

Bandcamp (label):

https://hgmmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-blood-girls-le-mestruo

Bandcamp (band):

https://sirenavelena.bandcamp.com/?fbclid=IwAR2lhjPGHNNtMuEZB4rrA-NY0lTI_K_8x3ad6ZyUd8jXjbJ8NF6AQkXtMnY    

Scythe - The Sphere of Quantum

Aspects of doom-metal come in all matters of shape and form. Scythe might just be one of the outsiders of doom/funeral-metal. Hailing from A Coruña, Spain... and having several obscure releases in their ammunition belt aswell. This release was physically released on CD-R by the band itself, and the cassette released on a defunct Russian label called Otvar (2014-2016). As I can see... the cassette can still be purchased through the label´s Bandcamp site, it can also be purchased easily through Discogs (see links below). A 3-track album, with 40 minutes of pure and raw crunchy experimental doom´ness. There is really nothing else I can tell you about this act. Their Facebook and Bandcamp site has been closed, so who knows who hides behind this obscure act from Spain!. 

First track Quantum Waste of Existence gives the listener a good sense of what kind of doom band this actually is. Think early no-wave era with Sonic Youth and Swans, and then think funeral doom like Scepticism and then further on to the early recordings with drone-metal pioneers Earth. It´s not long-haired enough to be doom-metal, too psychedelic to be funeral-metal, too dark to be filed alongside indie-noise rockers and too much action to be labelled as drone-metal (you get the point!... right?!). A punishing delivery of crunchy and heavily distorted bass and guitar with ritualistic no-wave drums, with eerie scream-like effects in the background. The whole thing sounds like it has been recorded in the sewers, tons of mood and it sounds fxxxx great!.

Second track Dreamlike Humankind´s Intermission turns down on the rock sound, and delivers are more experimental ambient-noise sound-treatment. A very sort of old-school industrial feeling starts the track... metallic clatterings, looped hummings, bell-like sounds, distorted and torturous moods, slow and thundering drummings, monotone toy-piano-likes keyboard... and a very creepy desert/Texas-breed psychedelic guitar going on! I mean... Woawww!. Being high on mescaline close to Spahn Ranch in Death Valley!. What can go wrong?!. 

Last track (and the longest) called Scythetic Fate For... Adds more death-doom growl-vocals to the infernal doom-mix. Might just be the most ritualistic and trippy free-improvisational track on the album. Kind of a slow version of Autopsy with the acid-drenched free-form style of early Controlled Bleeding. I´ll say no more here, incredible track and an incredible way of ending the album.

A 5 star-motel treatment for everyone, go and give it a listen and headhunt their tape for god sake!.

     

Bandcamp (label):

https://otvarlabel216.bandcamp.com/album/the-sphere-of-quantum

Discogs (band):

https://www.discogs.com/artist/4211404-Scythe-11

    

Winterlandschaft - L'obscurité

Debut release from a project that is active on the new and Polish (and excellent also!) Raven Fortress label. So far the label had released two beautifully looking digipacks from two different projects. This one called Winterlandschaft (Winter Landscapes) and another called Barbaric Frost. I will get to the review of the later release further on. This limited digipack version is a 6 track album, just over 30 minutes of chilly and grim landscapes of coldness and dread. All the tracks on the album don't have any names... just I, II, III, IV, V and VI.          

As you can imagine, the cover-artwork tells it all. A hard-working hunchbacked peasant-lady trying desperately to gain use (grow something) with the hard and frozen soil, maybe trying to dig-up lost potatoes in a spot which she hasn´t been digging? The effort might be as fruitless likes the naked trees in the background, finding food or growing it in the harsh wintertime... something u might do when you are feeling the torture of starvation.

A lovely epic (but quiet) minimal piece of cold and morbid dreadness. Winter synth with a tiny touch of murky bit-synth. The first track starts off with a heavy and vibrating moody synth-key, kind of depressing but with a certain relaxing warmth to it. Think it might be the sound of autumn, that certain feeling when you start to notice the brown leaves and the cold rain on your face. Beautiful but also slightly sad. This heavy synth key meets up with a lighter and atmospheric synth, which almost describes the landscape before you. Yes, the flowers are gone and the leaves are falling down to the ground. The Second track welcomes the cold, darkness and frosty autumn nights. The kind of coldness which leaves frost on your window (or car!). The sound of an upcoming winter depression might be on the way. A darker piece than the first one, nonetheless very beautiful and timeless. The Third track welcomes the snow on the early morning, the kind of snow which kills every sound and movement for miles. EVERYTHING just stands completely still! You are also receiving a sense of getting lost in the mesmerizing snowy-landscape, mainly because everything looks the same... snowy white!. A walk to the nearby village (for food) will not be easier, nor will those potatoes you forgot in the soil (oh dear).

The fourth track welcomes the coldness on winter nights, warmth is all that matters!. It sounds like the kind of coldness which sneaks unnoticed into houses, and leaves you dead-cold after several hours. Almost a haunted horror-themed dread here going on! The fifth track welcomes a kind of hopelessness, the kind of hopelessness that pops up when all else had failed. And you accept it, as you are accepting the beautiful (and cruel) side of the winter season. Last sixth track welcomes death, the kind of death which leaves the same kind of quietness which you´ve heard on track three. A quiet and lonely death which (maybe) will be discovered in spring, after all the snow has melted away. A very meditative melancholic and heavy piece of ambient-synth´ness. 

A great album with tons of minimalistic cold synth-moods. Highly recommended winter-synth for the lonely cold winter nights. Be quick, few physical copies are remaining on the label´s Bandcamp site!            

Bandcamp (label):

https://ravenfortress.bandcamp.com/album/lobscurit

Dispersive Light - Spider

Do u like spiders?... For most of my small boy-years, I was totally afraid of them! Completely unaware that those who lived in my room, actually killed and consumed horrible blood-sucking bugs like the mosquitos and small irritating house-flies. Today, I am ok with them and I even have a tarantella. I am ALSO ok with one of the latest album called Spider by Ukraine-based Dispersive Light. Released via the label (also from Ukraine) called VOLOK Records. A lovely printed CD-R in a great looking solid cardboard limited to only 20 copies (so be quick for the physical version kids!). 8 tracks, 42 minutes.

Dispersive Light´s Spider can be described as guitar-based drone-ambient with industrial moods. Or you could say...not really drone-metal or post-rock, but pure haunted scrapyard ambient noise-rock! The sound is a very living and dynamic being, pulsating waves after waves of crunchy moods in your face. You can almost smell the blood on the distorted guitar strings here, and you can feel the heavyweight-sound holding you down while hypnotizing you. Would that be the spider hypnotizing you, before devouring you (sucking you dry??). I am not 100% sure about that (spider devouring you) since after listening to this great album, it left me in a state of blissful and focused relaxation. A very meditative sensation with tons of analog drones and ritualistic undercurrents. A world of sound that you can emerge yourself totally into! 

I cannot really go down and describe each and every track on the album since the whole thing/tracks work together as one thing/entity. I can recommend this for those who enjoy some of the more experimental tracks with Swans (Soundtrack For the Blind), Stahlwerk Symphonie by early Die Krupps, Controlled Bleeding, but also for fans of that pioneer of industrial esoterica Z´ev (R.I.P). Do yourself a favor and go get it! A rarity u will hear (every time) from the start and to the very end. And the good thing about it is that Disperlive Light has already released many more albums, which can be heard on the Bandcamp site!

Bandcamp (band):

https://dispersivelight1.bandcamp.com/album/spider

Facebook (band):

https://www.facebook.com/DispersiveLight

Bandcamp (label):

https://volokrecords.bandcamp.com/album/spider

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/volokrecords/

        

Testing Vault - Amnesia Milk

Testing Vault from Italy has been around for some time since 2003 to be exact. Over 15 albums released and a handfull of mini-albums. Most of the material has been released via the act´s own label called Looney-Tick Productions, a label which also has released the likes of Premature Ejaculation and Le Cose Bianche (see link below). This album called Amnesia Milk was released on Looney Tick Productions on the 5th of March this year (2019), if you would purchase the physical (and limited digipack) copy u even get an extra CD with it!. Amnesia Milk? ... What the hell is it?!. Here is a clue from the cover/inner-sleeve. 

"Amnesia Milk" is a sound installation for a recurring dream that Daniele Santagiuliana (the person behind the moniker Testing Vault) has been experimenting with since the end of 2018. An intangible but so lucid place that he can go back every time he wants to see it, where instead of the street lamps, the only source of illumination are milk bottles with a lighted bulb inside each of them.

That´s pretty.... abstract but, interesting. It makes it more interesting when you look at the cover as well, even more, interesting when u are listening to the album while looking at the cover (at the same time)... it makes sense. So what kind of stuff is it?. Think melancholic icy drone-ambient like Biosphere and the surreal pitch-black eerieness from Coil. The kind of experimental ambient-music one might isolate with while it´s raining outside on a dark night. I will only review the main-album, and let the recordings in the extra CD be a surprise for the listener!. 

The first track is a prelude, being a tribute/homage to Alan Lamb (Check him out if you don´t know him!). He did this one album where he recorded 20 hours of sound material using microphones on telephone wires! Interesting metallic scraping ambient intro to the album. The second track Amnesia Milk jumps straight into an eerie and surreal modern horror-story, and yes it does that have... dreamy feel attached to it. That kind of dream where you are quite convinced about it, yet not fully understanding it. Eerie windy sounds composing haunting tones while a moody illbient-like rhythm pounds endlessly, the ending sounds like something from Twin Peaks. Third track Digest adds more eerieness to the album, interesting organic sounds... real ear-candy believe me. Fourth track A Friendly Light being one of my favorites. Beautiful haunting Eno´ish ambient-melodies with lots of interesting sounds and creakiness, a perfect soundtrack for a modern victorian ghost story/movie if you ask me.

Fifth track Pale Pink is a ritualistic piece with a jazzy feel to it. Humming and looped human-like voice-sounds, reversed sound of plastic bags being handled, free-jazz saxophones. Second, last track Blackout further expands on that David Lynch´ish meets Nurse With Wound/C93 atmosphere. I would highly recommend listening to this with some decent speakers standing, the stereo-recording here is VERY good!. Voices slowly crawl in and out from one speaker and then further on to the other, and I fxxxxxx love shit like that! Last track called Contempt, also serves as a homage to Alan Lamb, being the longest track on the album (11 minutes). Serves as a perfect weird ending for a great album. Church-like bells, warped human voices, thick electronic glitchiness. All wonderful!. 

Excellent surreal treat from Italy, more if that if you please! At the time I was listening to this album (Often), I was walking the (rather late) mysterious dunes of west Jutland alongside the beach. All while the sun was sinking slowly over the mysterious and empty landscape. While having this on my Discman, I took these photos. The sight, the mood, the music... a perfect match!

Bandcamp (band):

https://testingvault.bandcamp.com/

Facebook (band):

https://www.facebook.com/TestingVault/

Looney Tick Productions (label):

http://eafmcart.blogspot.com/

   

Tarzownik - Castle

Chiptune should be no stranger when it comes to dungeon synth. For some of us, dungeon-themed computer-music was some of the first dungeon-synth´ish music that reached our young and innocent ears. We´re talking games on older consoles (Sega Mastersystem, Megadrive, NES etc) and on older home-computers (C64, PC, Spectrum, Amiga500). This project merges the elements from old-school primitive dungeon-synth with chiptune, the result sounds like vintage background music on classic point-and-click adventure games. We´re talking about those kinds of adventure games we had on the Amiga500 and PC. Secret On Monkey Island, Loom, Manic Mansion and then further onto such classic fantasy-themed RPGs like Bards Tale, Fairytale, Pools of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder. Nevertheless, 11 tracks packed into one album is about 30 minutes in total. The album (called Castle) is available via the band's official Bandcamp site, and it has also been released as a beautiful (kind-of) digipack via the Polish label Raven Fortress. The physical release (sadly) is sold-out via the artist's page, maybe one should try to send a message to the label via the official Raven Fortress facebook profile (see link below!).

The first track simply called Honour puts the mood right and tells (honestly) the listener what sort of dungeon synth we´re dealing with. 8-bit graphics showing a gloomy and grim castle surrounded by a mist, with valiant knights in shiny armour standing as guards at the castle-gate. Pretty cool, evocative and minimalistic fantasy-themed chip-tune dungeon-synth so far. Love the synthetic wood-´ish sounding xylophone here, really puts the listener into a nostalgic mood. The second track offers a more doom´ ish setting. It´s called Armies, and by the heavy and grim sound of it does resample march music for an orc army! Something heavy armoured and bend on death and destruction. Third track King sounds... as if the king sees that there is absolutely no way to escape this utter destruction, I am imagining a crazy king like Denethor II (Lord of the Rings). 

Fourth track Chapel follows the King theme further on into moody darkness. Fifth track Defensor, illustrates panic and stress among the protectors of the castle (I Think). Not a very comforting track, but a more angst-ridden and stressed out piece. Sixth offering named Castle (like the album title) brings a more protective and secure mood, obviously, nothing can break down the walls of this ancient castle. A very solid track! The Monks being the seventh track returns the album to its essence of gloom and despair, but the ending of this track reveals a tiny glimpse of hope. Angelic synth-choirs reveals a way-out... salvation before death perhaps? Next track which is a short one called Ranger, clearly describes someone being very stealthy and deadly... Bowman sniper-style, the kind which can see through the darkness. Swordmaster being my favourite track on the album, do give this track some extra ear attention! Second last track Torchlight, being the strongest track on the album. A very hectic escape down through a narrow and long staircase, with that flickering torchlight in your hand. The album ends with Shadows... shadows?. What shadows? The shadows that still lingers in the grim castle after the brutal massacre?. Who knows...

A very dark and serious computer-vintage chip-tune dungeon experience if you ask me. Perfect for playing AD&D Ravenloft to in the background, or a horror-themed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying scenario (if you ask me). Might even call this castle-synth rather than dungeon synth, you´ll understand when you hear it! Would I recommend it?. Yes, to hardcore fans. For beginners, probably not. Not because it's bad or anything (I fxxxxxx love it!) but again, a very dark and heavy album for the chip-tuned dungeon-synth beginners. Everyone who would remember those old video/computer-games will love this, I am absolutely sure!.     

Bandcamp (band):

https://tarczownik.bandcamp.com/album/castle

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/Raven-Fortress-Polish-Stronghold-of-Dungeon-Synth-700582633656372/

   

Kontravoid - Too Deep

The second and latest album from Canadian but Berlin-based minimal-EBM-Industrial act Kontravoid. I remember that there was some hype around the debut, but I did not give it any attention (that was actually way back in 2012). Songs From Under the Floorboard posted the latest video from this album via Facebook, and I, of course, thought that I should check it out. I was actually kind of surprised, not only was it raw, cold and minimal (just the way I like it) but it was also HIGHLY epic and melodic without being too over-dramatic. So what happened next was that I saw the video like... 10 times I think, over and over again. Even played it at my work, someone actually went over and stopped the music! Autotuned rap-based spineless pseudo-pop music is the preferred music at my work! Anyways, my next step would to buy the album and review it. So here goes!.

The style of Kontravoid. Not really EBM, not really synth-pop. Heavy minimal-wave meets gothic-techno with minor industrial hints here and there. Think early industrial/EBM-gothic act Apoptygma Berzerk (Soli Deo Gloria) meets the catchy technoid electro-tunes of Solvent. A quite effective (and catchy) combination!

First track lets in an industrial-coldness not that far away from Dirk Ivens project Dive. Metallic looped distortions, atmospheric cold vocals, and calculated machine-drums (Snare-drum sounds like a lashing whip). The second track with its catchy new-beat mood and aggressive machine-gun bassline, lovely percussion-like rhythms here. The third track follows up on cold brutality and whiplash precision... sounds like it has been recorded in a HUGE hospital basement. Fourth track Too Deep was the track which I saw the music video for (Interesting and good video if you ask me), a HIGHLY contagious and rare piece of simple genius melodic electro epicness! We are still talking something very minimal, but with that epicness that wants to squeeze its way out. 

Fifth track Never Alone turns down the aggression and heads further down into lovely post-punk´ ish electro-pop. Fans of the early recordings by Vicent Clarke anyone?. Sixth track Cost of Life with its minor synth-wave soundtrack element and robotic coldness, beautiful how the melodic elements pump life into the coldness here. Next track Distress strangely reminds me of the Wolfgang Press in a more minimal version, the catchy drum patterns and the mood? The haunting piano keyboards are excellent good here, and the almost Peter Hook´ish bassline works like a charm. 10000 Voices being the last and shortest track on the album, retro-wave coolness gets mixed up with an 80´s crime-movie mood. It could have been used in modern Miami Mice.

And woawww! One catchy tune after the other! Yup, I would love 2 dance to each of these tracks without being embarrassed that I am over 40 years old. This is catchy as hell, the artist has a clear understanding of how to create a decent pop-tune but also to balance it with a raw mystical edginess. I can and I will HIGHLY recommend this release for any fans of old-school electro and groundbreaking retro/synth-wave. Sofar the release has come out on vinyl and CD (check links below!).   

Bandcamp:

https://kontravoid.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/kontravoid