Rabbits Wear Boots – Transhuman Dystopia (Album – 3RIOART)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Techno, Trance
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: Rabbits Wear Boots is a new Belgian project set up by Sandy Nijs aka ‘Magthea’, known from his long-time involvement with Hybryds. He describes this new project as ‘the dancefloor version of the Hybryds’. The debut album features seventeen songs. The promo copy is a shorter version.
Content: Rabbits Wear Boots is a crazy project revealing a wide spectrum of Techno influences reminding me of the famous 90s Frankfurter scene. The tracks also feature Trance passages and more sophisticated elements. It’s first of all an album to dance! The songs are rather extended, and you’ll even find some extra extended mixes.
+ + + : This album sounds like the Hybryds losing control, but it’s a damned good sensation. This album took me by surprise. I first of all like the Techno/Trance fusion with multiple robotic voices on top. But I also like the cold atmosphere and different extra influences like a solid EBM bass line and a passage with Tribal elements. Sandy Nijs explored a new sonic path and, in a way, reinvented himself as musician. I should never have expected him to compose this kind of music and the least I can say is that he accomplished a fantastic job. “I Am Cyborg” which sounds as the title track (listen to the robotic voice) of the work is a true masterpiece driven by a solid EBM bass line, an irresistible retro-lead and other 90s Techno influences plus a beating kick. But there are more great songs like the intelligently composed “City To Burn” and “Why Are You Here?”. I also must mention “Nightvision” for the Tribal arrangements.
– – – : A few songs are maybe a bit rudimentary while some of the last songs from the album (not the promo copy I got) are less kicking, but there’s no real reason to complaining.
Conclusion: Magthea was already a Tribal shaman, but he transposed himself now into a great Techno/Trance druid. This is pure fun with a healing effect!
Best songs: “I Am Cyborg”, “City To Burn”, “Why are You Here?”, “Not A Number”, “Sensual Synthetic”.
Rate: 8½.
Listen to “Transhuman Dystopia”:
Artist: www.facebook.com/Rabbits-wear-boots-101312018822815
Label: www.3rioart.be
About Rabbits Wear Boots
Rabbits Wear Boots is the dance-oriented solo project of Sandy Nijs, who also records as Magthea and is the Belgian musician behind Hybryds. Nijs began in the early-1980s Antwerp cassette underground as Maniacs, recording alongside future members of Klinik and Absolute Body Control, before founding Hybryds as a ritual-focused art project. Side-Line spoke to him about that band in the 2022 Click Interview with Hybryds.
He started Rabbits Wear Boots during the Covid period after moving his production fully into a digital audio workstation, describing the project as an outlet for political and religious themes his main band does not address. “Transhuman Dystopia” was released on 24 January 2022 and runs to eighteen tracks on the full version, including three extended mixes. The second album, “No Style No Rules”, followed on 3rioart in 2024.
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