Quieter Than Spiders – Signs Of Life (DCD Album – Anna Logue Records)
Genre/Influences: Synth-pop.
Background/Info: Set up in 2012, Quieter Than Spiders is a Chinese-Anglo band unleashing their debut album. The songs have been composed and recorded in Shangai and London while mastered in Germany by Stefan Bornhorst (The Silicon Scientist). Next to the CD format the album is also available as vinyl edition.
Content: Quieter Than Spiders clearly deals with synth-pop music. The songs reveal a truly vintage approach featuring multiple analogue sound treatments. It brings us back to the early years of synth-pop music although there also is something more contemporary on top. Quieter Than Spiders might be the ‘Chinese answer to Welle: Erdball and Celluloide’.
The album features 10 songs plus experimental intermezzos while the second disc features 10 remixes. Some remixes have been done by the band itself, but you also will find remixes by Delayscape, Jonteknik, Kevin Komoda, Micro Cheval, Vile Electrodes and The Silicon Scientist.
+ + + : This is music for 80s lovers and other synth-pop freaks with a taste for retro-music. It’s a soft expression of electro music, but which sometimes feels like a blessing. The songs have been composed with delicacy. The vocals are alternating male- and female parts. I’ve a preference for the graceful and yet sterile female vocals. There are several cool cuts features, but my favorite track is “The Statues” for the dreamy atmosphere and sexy vocals. Among the remixes I heard great contributions from Vile Electrodes and Kevin Komoda (Rational Youth).
– – – : The experimental intermezzos are easy to listen to, but not exactly adding a bonus. I don’t understand why artists are adding these kinds of short cuts in their work! The ‘real’ songs are cool, but this album is missing a potential hit or a kind of ‘club-mix’ among the remixes.
Conclusion: Quieter Than Spiders is an interesting name and also a cool ambassador from the Chinese electro scene. This is a band to keep an eye on!
Best songs: “The Statues”, “The Land Of Lost Content”, “Shangai Metro” + “Shangai Metro – Vile Electrodes Remix”, “Hibakusha – Kevin Komoda Remix”.
Rate: (7).
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