Scarecrow – Black Door (EP – Infacted Recordings)
Genre/Influences: EBM, Dark-Electro.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: This EP brings us back to 1989. Scarecrow was a German duo set up by ‘Regan Eracs’ and ‘Sevren Ni-Arb’. “Black Door” was the single, official, Scarecrow work released on ZYX Records. They quickly changed the name into X Marks The Pedwalk which became one of the greatest EBM formations during the 90s.
Content: You definitely recognize the late 80s EBM sound which was dark and even tormented and featuring harsh vocals -however there’s one instrumental song featured. You clearly recognize the early X Marks The Pedwalk sound while it for sure will appeal for lovers of The Klinik and Skinny Puppy.
+ + + : The title song remains a great piece of late 80s EBM. The bass line, the rhythm and the anguishing vocals have something magic. It sounds retro-like and yet timeless. Among both songs left, I also want to mention “Revolting Silence” which sounds a bit similar.
– – – : This EP has already been re-released several times and it would have been cool to discover previously unreleased songs and/or edits but I guess there are none.
Conclusion: Scarecrow clearly had something special which would later on emerge in the X Marks The Pedwalk discography; this EP is part of EBM history!
Best songs: “Black Door”, “Revolting Silence”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.x-mtp.com / www.facebook.com/xmarksthepedwalk
Label: www.infacted-recordings.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Infacted-Recordings/124099254321690
Listen to “Black Door”:
About X Marks The Pedwalk
Originally named Scarecrow, X Marks The Pedwalk was the project of Sevren Ni-Arb, or André Schmechta, conceived in 1987. Schmechta undertook the composition, production and engineering of every track. The project’s debut single, “Black Door”, followed in 1988 before the name changed to X Marks The Pedwalk, drawn from Stephen King’s “Danse Macabre”, which references a Fritz Leiber tale titled “X Marks The Pedwalk”. Schmechta went on to release music under several further names, including PAX with Heiko Daniel, the solo project Ringtailed Snorter, Hyperdex-1-Sect with Stefanie Schmechta and Jonathan Sharp of New Mind, U-Tek with Alexis Schaar, A-Head, and the darkwave project Deluga with Thorsten Schmechta, Stefanie Schmechta and Falk Aupers. In 2012 he launched the solo electro-ambient project SN-A. Infacted Recordings reissued the original “Black Door” EP on Bandcamp in digital format in 2022.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
