Rhys Fulber – Collapsing Empires (Album – Sonic Groove)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Techno, Cinematic, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Rhys Fulber -next to his other projects he’s involved with, has released an impressive number of productions under his own name in a rather short lapse of time. After having released works by his own label (FR Recordings) he now releases this opus again on Sonic Groove.
Content: Rhys Fulber moves on exploring the realms of Dark-Techno music at one side while still paying attention for his Cinematic- and Experimental work. It’s quite interesting to see how he mixed both influences together resulting in dark, freaky, Techno passages.
+ + + : There’s an interesting duality between both main influences running through this work. I however prefer the more Techno driven cuts reflecting different the sound intelligence of Rhys Fulber. I like his ghost-like Techno music emerging from the title track and “Glory To Labour”. “Palace Of Pioneers” is another cool exposure.
– – – : The work features a few Experimental/Cinematic passages which rather sound as breaks without real importance (like “Dronegail”).
Conclusion: Rhys Fulber confirms his impressive productivity and even if this album still features a few great tracks it’s definitely not the album I would recommend to discover his ‘Techno-work’.
Best songs: “Glory To Labour”, “Palace Of Pioneers”, “As Far As Dreams”.
Rate: 7.
Artist: www.facebook.com/rhysfulbermusic
Label: www.sonicgroove.com / www.facebook.com/Sonicgrooverecords
About Rhys Fulber
Nowell Rhys Fulber was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 10, 1970. He is a Canadian electronic musician and producer, and a member of Front Line Assembly and Delerium alongside Bill Leeb. He also records under his own name and as Conjure One.
Fulber first contributed to Front Line Assembly on the cassette “Total Terror” and on three songs of “The Initial Command”, and to Delerium’s debut “Faces, Forms & Illusions”. He ran the band Will with Chris Peterson, John McRae and Jeff Stoddard from 1987 to 1992, joined Front Line Assembly for the “Gashed Senses & Crossfire” tour in 1989 and moved to Delerium full time after Michael Balch left. Until 1997 he was involved in every Front Line Assembly and Delerium record with Bill Leeb, including “Tactical Neural Implant”, “Hard Wired”, “Semantic Spaces” and “Karma”. His outside production work includes Fear Factory’s “Demanufacture” and “Genexus”, Machine Head’s “Catharsis” and Three Days Grace’s “Outsider”. He won two Juno Awards with Delerium for Best Dance Recording, in 1998 and 2000.
Under his own name Fulber released “Your Dystopia, My Utopia” on Sonic Groove in 2018 and “Ostalgia” on the same label in 2019, followed by “Diaspora” on aufnahme + wiedergabe in 2020 and the FR Recordings albums “Resolve” in 2020 and “Brutal Nature” in 2021. “Collapsing Empires”, reviewed here, returned him to Sonic Groove in 2022.
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