Mechanical Moth – Mirrors (Album – Scanner / Dark Dimensions)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Electro-Pop, Wave-Pop.
Format: Digital, 2CD.
Background/Info: “Mirrors” is the seventh full length album by German formation Mechanical Moth. Four years after their previous album, the band became a duo seeing the female singer Ivy joining in again. She previously contributed to the “Rebirth”-album (2009). This album is a double disc featuring the same eleven songs on each disc, but one disc features female vocals and the other disc male ones.
Content: Ladies first so the first disc is featuring female vocals. It feels a bit like a band that has reinvented its own sound. The sound treatments are pretty heavy, some passages being very dark while other ones are carried by bouncing kicks. The female vocals inject a sensual- and a graceful touch on top of the composition. It’s a diversified composition, which sound-wise also reveals a pure transcendental passage in “Extinction Theory”.
The other disc featuring male vocals sounds clearly different. It’s more into a Dark-Electro approach, the cavernous vocals creating a totally different effect, but Mechanical Moth also brought some little, but essential differences in sound production.
+ + + : The concept is original and it’s just amazing to see how different –male & female, singers can put their stamp on a music composition. But you also can hear the little differences in sound production, which have been clearly made for both singers. I personally prefer the female-edit for the impressive sound treatments, which sound a bit as a contrast to the sensual vocals. Songs like “Stuck”, “La Petite Mort”, “Animals” and “Extinction Theory” reflect some magical moments. But on the other side I also noticed a few songs from the male-edit, which are much better. This disc is harder and darker. I recommend listening to “Pain With No Face”, which is maybe not the most powerful piece, but revealing a great progression.
– – – : The record has something pretty confusing, maybe a bit schizophrenic, but in the end it will catch a wider audience.
Conclusion: “Mirrors” has inspired Mechanical Moth to achieve a great concept, trying to find the ultimate harmony between female- and male fronted songs. It’s without a shadow of a doubt my favorite opus of the band.
Best songs: “La Petite Mort (Female)”, “Extinction Theory (Female)”, “Stuck (Female)”, “Animals (Female)”, “Pain With No Face (Male)”.
Rate: (8).
Artist: www.mechanicalmoth.de / www.facebook.com/mechanicalmoth
Label: www.darkdimensions.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Dimensions-Label-Group/486014725206
About Mechanical Moth
Mechanical Moth is a German dark-electro and darkwave band formed in 2002 around front man Tandrin, according to Side-Line’s earlier coverage; Discogs lists Arne Gutowski, Salacity and singer Ivy as members and Sabrina Hahn as a former member. The band has released all its albums on Scanner / Dark Dimensions: “Fallen Into You” (2004), “Torment” (2005), “The Sad Machina” (2007), “Rebirth” (2009), on which Ivy sang lead vocals, “Unendlichkeit” (2013), the download “Unendlichkeit, Versionen Und Visionen” (2015) and Neverything (2017), the sixth album, reviewed on Side-Line in August 2017. The band also appears on A Human Scan(ner) – The 20th Anniversary Compilation (2021) and has remixed acts including Grausame Töchter, Sonorus7 and Menschdefekt.
“Mirrors” was released by Scanner / Dark Dimensions on 26 March 2021 as a limited double CD and as two downloads, “Mirrors” and “Mirrors (Part 2)”. The label describes it as a conceptual double album on which the band, now a duo, interprets each song in a female darkwave version sung by Ivy and a male electro version. The eleven songs on each disc are “Stuck”, “La Petite Mort”, “Bad Thing”, “Wake Up”, “Animals”, “Pain With No Face”, “Coffin Gossip”, “Icetears”, “Undead On The Dancefloor”, “Extinction Theory” and “Home”. No production credits are listed on the Bandcamp or Discogs pages. “Mirrors” is the band’s seventh album and its second Side-Line review.
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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.
