Chemical Waves – Even When We Fall Apart (Album – Unknown Pleasures Records)
Genre/Influences: Cold-wave, dark-wave, gothic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Chemical Waves is a project driven by Marco Cattani (Halo Effect, The Mark). This project has already been active for numerous years now and has self-released a lot of stuff in between 2012 and 2015. Chemical Waves is now back on track unleashing its official debut album on the French label Unknown Pleasures Records.
Content: Marco Cattani invited several guest singers to accomplish his work. Bedless Bones, Closed Mouth, HIV+, Virgin Tears, L’Avenir, Antiflvx, Egoprisme and RjVj have been featured. It resulted in a rather diverse album, which is mainly driven by the good-old dark/cold-wave demons from the 80s. The different singers each inject a very personal touch to the work moving from sensual passages to pure cavernous vocals. The guitar playing brings the 80s spirit to life. Some songs remind me of The Virgin Prunes, but globally speaking you get a nice pastiche from the cold/dark-wave era.
+ + + : The diversity of the tracklist makes it interesting. I was mainly convinced by the perfect symbiosis between Marco Cattani and Kadri Sammel from Bedless Bones. I like this girl’s work and especially her somewhat sterile, sensual timbre of voice creates a great match with the music. Another noticeable cut is the one featuring Jason Sloan (L’Avenir), which has something mysterious, and is even a bit ritual-like. On top of the composition I especially like the cool guitar playing injecting a truly retro-spirit into the work.
– – – : One of the very few cuts that couldn’t totally convince me is the one featuring Egoprisme. I’m not convinced by the possible match between the singer and the song, which also sounds a bit more electro-driven.
Conclusion: “Even When We Fall Apart” is an interesting album; the concept of working with different vocalists is nothing new although not always successful. I think it however works for this album!
Best songs: “Denied”, “Hymn”, “The Sphinx”, “Void And Light”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/chemicalwaves
Label: www.unknown–pleasures–records.com / www.facebook.com/Unknown–Pleasures–Records-566180440115465
About Chemical Waves
Chemical Waves is the Rome-based project of Marco Cattani, who also records as Halo Effect and The Mark. Discogs lists a run of self-released EPs and singles between 2012 and 2015, including “The Origin”, “Murders TV” and “The Great Dictator”.
“Even When We Fall Apart”, released in 2020 on Unknown Pleasures Records, is Cattani’s first official album, built around a rotating cast of guest vocalists including Bedless Bones’ Kadri Sammel and Jason Sloan of L’Avenir.
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