Egoist – Breaking Moment (Album – Aliens Production)
Genre/Influences: EBM.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Egoist is an ‘old’ and rather unknown Polish solo-project set up in 2002 by Kuba Włodarski. Two years later he released the demo “Breaking Moment” featuring five songs plus a reworked song from Controlled Collapse. The project comes back to life with this official debut album featuring the demo songs plus eight extra tracks.
Content: “Breaking Moment” is easy to describe; this is pure old-school EBM reminding me of the best years of Frontline Assembly. The songs are elaborated, driven by solid rhythms, multiple bleeps and effects, dark strings recovering the album with an overwhelming atmospheric side and harsh vocals, which are sometimes robotic.
+ + + : Egoist definitely sounds 99% influenced by Frontline Assembly. I already heard numerous emulations of this legendary and leading Canadian formation, but Egoist definitely belongs to the best followers. It’s a well-crafted, mature and sophisticated production. The songs have been achieved with numerous little bleeps and details. I also noticed various space-like effects, but the songs remain driven by retro-EBM. One of the best cuts I recommend listening to is “Assassin”, which reveals blasting sound treatments and a ghost-like melody line. But it also stands for the power of this project. It’s also amazing to see how ‘older’ tracks haven’t suffered from the weight of time.
– – – : The only negative point I can think about is that Egoist will never be Frontline Assembly! But there’s no reason to compare both bands; this is Egoist and “Breaking Moment” sounds definitely better than the FLA-albums from the last few years.
Conclusion: If you’re into intelligent EBM inspired by the famous Canadian school, you definitely have to discover Egoist!
Best songs: “Automate”, “Whislist”, “Fallen”, “Melting Point”, “W.h.a.t.”.
Rate: 8½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/egoistsound
Label: www.label.aliens.sk / www.facebook.com/pages/Aliens-production-label/200028820052578
About Egoist
Egoist is the solo project of Polish musician Kuba Włodarski, who describes it on Discogs as electro-industrial work in the vein of Front Line Assembly. The project dates back to 2002 and issued the self-released CDr demo “Breaking Moment” in 2004.
The material returned in expanded form on Aliens Production. The label issued “Breaking moment” as an eleven-track digital album on 15 May 2020, with a CD edition following in 2021 through Aliens Production together with Monotype Pressing and Digi Pres. The running order is “Product”, “Fallen”, “Melting point”, “Century of sorrow”, “Equalization”, “Automate”, “W.H.A.T?”, “Remake”, “Wishlist”, “Dellusion” and “No! I am not!”. Discogs credits Tomasz Malski, Anatoly Tokee Grinberg and Tomasz Kantyka alongside Włodarski.
A second album, “Phantoms”, followed on Aliens Production in 2021. Włodarski discussed his approach to the project shortly afterwards in ‘Click Interview’ with Egoist: ‘I Was Always Intrigued In More Complex Alternative ‘Body’ Music’.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
