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
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