Genre/Influences: Dark EBM, body-pop, cinematographic EBM.

Background/Info: I guess that the title of this album by the Mexican solo-project Neuvision has been possibly inspired by the book of Carl Sagan “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”. This is the debut album for this band.

Content: This is a rather weird composition, which clearly finds its main inspiration in the darker fields of EBM and body-pop music. Some sequences and arrangements remind me of And One while other parts are more into the dreamy and catchy format of The Pet Shop Boys.

That’s not bad at all, but the most surprising element of the work progressively emerges from pure cinematographic melodic passages. The melodies are quite elaborate, but not exactly what I’ve heard so far in synth-pop music. It’s a strange match, which is definitely atypical and innovative, but not entirely convincing. It all sounds a bit like EBM and body-pop music mixed with movie tunes. There are different and quite opposite influences that come together.

The vocals are sometimes pretty harsh, but I prefer the passages with less effects on it.

The album also features a few remixes by bands like Nitronoise (adding some guitar riffs), Ygrod Droid and especially Electrovot.

+ + + : The idea to innovate while dealing with electro-pop music is absolutely great and a big challenge. I however think that the main strength of this band has to be finding in the harder cuts, which have less in common with the cinematographic melody lines. Great artwork by the way.

– – – : The melodies can’t always convince me as there’s no real harmony between the body-pop approach and this movie-tune like passages.

Conclusion: Neuvision is far away from the familiar synth-pop standards, but still far away from becoming convincing.

Best songs: “Body & Symphony”, “The Night Is Ours”.

Rate: (5½).

Band:www.facebook.com/NEUVISIONofficial

Label:www.advoxya–records.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Advoxya–Records/265765706059