SN-A – Transmissions (CD Album – Infacted Recordings)
Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, IDM.
Content: André Schmechta aka Sevren Ni-Arb is a musician that entered history as the legendary and genius composer behind the EBM project X Marks The Pedwalk, but André also got involved in other projects like Scarecrow, U-Tek, Ringtailed Snorter, Hyperdex-1-Sect, Pax and A-Head. After a long hibernation, he struck back in 2010 with a new full length of X Marks The Pedwalk. Together with his label, André announced a new album of a new side project already several months ago now. A video of “Transmission 01-001-1“ hit the streets revealing a minimal kind of EBM. I was not totally convinced by the song however it was intriguing enough to make me really wondering about the debut full length “Transmissions”.
This album took me by surprise as I didn’t exactly expect a kind of danceable electro-ambient work. I guess there is no better way to define this album as ‘Transmissions is to Sevren Ni-Arb what Delerium is to Bill Leeb’! This is not exactly Delerium-like, but there for sure are common points. The 13 tracks transpose Sevren Ni-Arb into a meaningful and great evasive electronic journey. All songs –except the aforementioned “Transmission 01-001-1“ are instrumentals. Composed with amazing, deep sounding bass lines, numerous space bleeps, low-tempo rhythms and genius sound effects SN-A sounds like creating a new dimension in sound.
There for sure are some similarities with XMTP on a few tracks, but it for sure is another project inspired by a different kind of music. SN-A sometimes moves on the edge of IDM, which probably is the perfect label to summarize André’s amazing talent. He didn’t lose his genius as a music writer, which was already re-illustrated on the last XMTP-album “The Sun, The Cold And My Underwater Fear”, but this new work goes a step further. Sevren Ni-Arb explores unknown territories, which he might have considered when working on Ringtailed Snorter, but SN-A belongs to another decade and a new context. The work is refined and detailed, but sometimes a bit experimental as well. The songs are quite different from the already familiar “Transmission 01-001-1“ –which appears to be totally different in style and influences.
Conclusion: Sevren Ni-Arb pushes the boundaries of electronic music to a higher level. It all feels a bit like a challenge, but artistically the global production and eclecticism of this work are once again impressive. SN-A is touched by the hand of Apollo -who was the God of music in the Greek mythology.
Best songs: “Transmission 0-919-1 / Subliminal”, “Transmission 87U3 / Intra”, “Transmission 0-919-2 / Stimulation”, “Transmission 2102-9041-X /the Bridge”.
Rate: (DP:8/9)DP.
Band: www.x-mtp.com / www.facebook.com/xmarksthepedwalk
Label:www.infacted-recordings.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Infacted-Recordings/124099254321690
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
