Beat Noir Deluxe – Werk Zwei (Album – Echozone)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: After the cool debut-album “Crash”, released last year and referring to the car crash of protagonist Sascha G, the Italian artist strikes back with a new opus featuring –just as for the debut album, several guests. Krischan Wesenberg (Rotersand) did the mixing of most songs.
Content: “Werk Zwei” clearly doesn’t sound as a copy-paste of “Crash”. The songs are still into Electro-Pop, but this album is more diversified and also revealing a kind of very soft Electronic ballads. Next to Sascha’s vocals, you again will here a few songs featuring female singers. The work also features cover versions of Chris Isaac (cf. “Wicked Game”), Duran Duran (cf. “The Chaffeur”) and Iron Maiden (cf. “Run To The Hills”) plus remixes by Rotersand, Rroyce, Pacoussa and Monotronic.
+ + + : I especially like the sensitive touch supporting most of the songs. It’s a part of melancholia, but also a noticeable, emotive aspect. The songs remain well-crafted –which confirms the writing skills of the artist, and reveals a great progression in song structures. “What She Could Not Tell” is a noticeable cut illustrating this maturity. The songs featuring female vocals inject a hot, sensual touch to the album. Last, but not least the cover version of Iron Maiden’s “Run To The Hills” sounds pretty cool.
– – – : “Werk Zwei” left me more skeptical than the promising “Crash”. Even if the songs are well-crafted, they’re too often missing a kind of climax. Too many songs are rather flat while the covers of Chris Isaak and Duran Duran are lacking in depth. Even the remixes left me unmoved.
Conclusion: “Werk Zwei” sounds a bit like a disillusion, which is rather painful after the promising debut album.
Best songs: “I Cannot Breathe”, “What She Could Not Tell”, “Nemesis”, “Run To The Hills”.
Rate: 6.
Artist: www.beatnoirdeluxe.com / www.facebook.com/beatnoirdeluxe
Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic
About Beat Noir Deluxe
Beat Noir Deluxe is the alternative electronic project of singer, songwriter, composer and producer Sascha Giacomuzzi, based in Bolzano, Italy. He plays drums, keyboards and guitar, and handles vocals and arrangements. The project has been labelled synthpop, futurepop, dark wave, indie electronic and post-punk.
Giacomuzzi started making music in the 1990s, drawn to analogue synthesizers and emerging electronic sound technologies. After a break he returned to music in 2019 and founded Beat Noir Deluxe, a return shaped by a serious car accident in 2017. He has worked with Annika Borsetto, Doris Warasin, Lisa Anesi, Thomas Varesco and Stefan Pattis.
The debut album “Crash” appeared on Echozone in 2020, followed by the single “Covid 19” the same year and the singles “I Cannot Breathe”, “Nemesis”, “That Circle” and “A Reason To Live” in 2021. “Werk Zwei” followed on 23 July 2021 as a seventeen-track Echozone CD in a tri-fold paper sleeve with an eight-page booklet. The single “Start Over Again” came in 2022, and the single and video “The Fear Of Missing Out” in December 2024.
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