Neuroactive – In Rust We Trust (EP – Alfa Matrix)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: Finnish Neuroactive last year struck back with their first album in several years. “Minor Side-Effects” saw the band reforming in its original line-up featuring Jarkko Tuohimaa plus Ville Brusi and Vesa Raine. “In Rust We Trust” is the third song taken from this album and released as the EP-title piece.
Content: The title song has been reworked and edited as 3 different versions; a “Club Mix”, “Retro Mix” and “Corrosion Mix”. The titles say enough about the approach of each remix. The good news is we also get 2 previously unreleased songs, which both sound in the true spirit of the last album. Neuroactive deals with Electro-Pop which has something atypical; space-driven and not carried by simple melody lines, but a minimal approach with a very recognizable sound.
+ + + : What I’ve always liked in the work of Neuroactive is the sound DNA; you simply recognize the band’s sound among numerous other Electro-Pop bands. It’s not that different from this EP. The different edits of “In Rust We Trust” are original. I’ve a preference for the “Retro Mix” revealing some good-old effects and the “Club Mix”. Getting 2 new songs is a cool gift for the fans.
– – – : The title song is not the one I would have chosen from the album, but that’s all about personal taste. Both new cuts are sweet, but not exactly adding a true bonus.
Conclusion: This new EP is not exactly the most successful one in the band’s history and a rather poorly inspired exposure of “Minor Side-Effects”, which has much more to offer…
Best songs: “In Rust We Trust – Retro Mix”, “In Rust We Trust – Club Mix”.
Rate: (6 ½)
Artist: www.facebook.com/neuroactive.band
Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix
About Neuroactive
Neuroactive formed in Finland in 1991 around Jarkko Tuohimaa, Vesa Rainne (spelled Raine in the review above) and Ville Brusi. Tuohimaa has run the project through its later line-up changes. The debut album “Morphology” appeared in 1994, followed by the maxi single “Neuron” in 1995 and “Phonic Trace” in 1997. A Different Drum issued “Parallel Lifeforms” in 1998, “Put Your Trust In Me” in 1999 and the compilation “Neurology 1994-2000” in 2000. Later albums include “Transients” in 2001, “Wonders Of The World” in 2002, “Space Divider” in 2004, “N-Gin” in 2005, “Antidote” in 2009 and “Electra” in 2014.
The original line-up returned on Alfa Matrix with Minor Side-Effects, released in April 2020 on CD and as a download and reviewed on Side-Line that month; Tuohimaa talked about the comeback in the ‘Click Interview’ with Neuroactive of May 2020. The single EPs “Night Flights” and Dances Remixes (2020) were the first two releases taken from the album.
“In Rust We Trust”, the third and final EP from “Minor Side-Effects”, was released by Alfa Matrix on 7 May 2021 as a download, as announced in Finland’s pioneering electropop act Neuroactive releases 3rd EP from 2020 ‘Minor Side-Effects’ comeback album. The five tracks are “In Rust We Trust (Club Mix)”, “Driven”, “In Rust We Trust (Retro Mix)”, “Fire” and “In Rust We Trust (Corrosion Mix)”; Tuohimaa made the three versions of the title song himself, and “Driven” and “Fire” were previously unreleased. Later in 2021 the band revisited its debut on Morphology / Redux, reviewed on Side-Line in November 2021.
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