Blac Kolor – Awakening (CD Album – Hands)
Genre/Influences: Industrial, IDM, minimal-electro.
Background/Info: Blac Kolor joined hands with Hands label to unleash the third full length of this project. Driven by Hendrick Grothe, this German solo-project released impressive works on Basic Unit Productions.
Content: “Awakening” sounds like going where previous albums left off. It’s a new exploration of different electronic grounds, which can be defined as IDM, but also industrial for their darker sound approach. You now will notice bombastic arrangements and next sophisticated electronics, which might remind you of Clock DVA. One of the most noticeable cuts is without a shadow of a doubt “Awakening” featuring guest vocals by Jean-Luc De Meyer (Front 242, Under Viewer, Crash 32 ao). The last part of the work also reveals some tribal elements, confirming the eclecticism of this artist.
+ + + : Blac Kolor simply confirms its impressive writing skills. Hendrick Grothe is a little genius dealing with an original electronic format while taking care to create impressive sound treatments. He brings multiple influences together creating an intelligent and visionary sound. Bombast and subtle treatments are merging together in an elegant and powerful production. Jean-Luc De Meyer must have liked this production otherwise he never would have accepted singing on one of the tracks. And here again the vocals are quite atypical, a bit like sampled parts. Blac Kolor has exorcised multiple ideas on this work. It’s dark and obscure, but definitely enlightening when it comes to analyze the content.
– – – : It always remains a challenge when so many influences have been brought together on the same album. I can imagine it will dissuade some music lovers, but I like it!
Conclusion: Blac Kolor definitely belongs to one of the most visionary projects from the Hands roster. It’s a great and creative sound process that will appeal for fans of different music genres. This album will be definitely one of the bests of the year!
Best songs: “Fall Into Oblivion”, “Tears”, “Loneliness”, “Nano Creator”, “We Are The Darkness”, “Awakening feat. Jean-Luc De Meyer”.
Rate: (8½).
Artist: www.blackolor.de / www.facebook.com/blackolormusic
Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
