Genre/Influences: Industrial, Industrial-Techno, Dark-Techno.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Rendered is a sonic meeting between Germany and France, between Daniel Myer (Haujobb, Architect, Liebknecht ao) and Clément Perez (14anger). Under the Rendered moniker they released multiple EPs on very different labels such as Omen Recordings, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe, Tripalium Records ao. This album is a fine selection of tracks that were originally released on different productions and, which are now for the very first time on CD. You’ll also find two previously unreleased songs.

Content: “Stonecoldsoul” takes off with heavy Industrial-like rhythms. The rhythm is ultra important in the band’s work and is progressively touching ground with Dark- & Industrial-Techno. But there also is something shamanic in some songs. Some of the Electronic arrangements are retro-like and reminding me of early Ministry and Revolting Cocks. A few vocal parts/effects have been mixed in some songs.

+ + + : The rhythm is an essential aspect of this band and clearly the main strength of the work. It will get you to dance, but also into trance! Rendered isn’t just Dark-Techno like; it’s more elaborated and I especially like some vintage Electronic sequences like on the title track. My favorite song is the extremely powerful “Girlscoutsinacoma”. The song is dark, elaborated and driven by a frenetic cadence. Rendered is one more great project from Daniel Myer, but the collaboration with Clément Perez from 14anger has something  visionary.

– – – : Both ‘new’ songs aren’t exactly the most efficient ones from the album; so no real bonus here.

Conclusion: Rendered stands for a solid and tenebrous Techno sound, the album featuring multiple outstanding cuts.

Best songs: “Girlscoutinacoma”, “Bendover”, “Stonecoldsoul”, “Puppetskin”, “Holeinthehead”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/rendered.audio

Label: www.audiophob.de / www.facebook.com/audiophob

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Clément Perez is a French DJ and producer who’s already active for several years now. He released an impressive number of EP’s on different labels such as Tripalium Records, Gobsmacked Records, i-Traxx Recordings, Green Fetish Records ao, but he this year joined hands together with Ant-Zen to unleash his first full length album. “The Poison Tree” is a hard-danceable work featuring a perfect harmony between Techno- and Industrial music. The album features twelve heavy cuts (revealing a song together with HYPNOSKULL) plus four remixes by ANTECHAMBER, SHROUDS, CRYSTAL GEOMETRY and MONO-AMINE.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You’re involved with electronic music for years now, but who do you consider as your personal ‘Godfathers’; those who inspired you to DJ and make your own music? And how do you see yourself as musician/producer?

Clément: I have quite a list of ‘Godfathers’; from Aphex Twin to Jeff Mills or Converter to Ed Rush. I’m listening to a lot of different stuff and for each genres I have favorites for sure. I like artists that have their own visions and keep walking their own path all along their career. A lot of them don’t even tour or do gigs in fact.

DJing is maybe another thing as I have always liked the techniques of DJing itself. For example, I really like DJs like Jeff Mills, or The DJ Producer, Manu Le Malin or Stephanovitch back in the days; artists who are able to blend a real savoir-faire (playing on 3 decks, mixing tracks very quickly) with a great sense of tracks selection to tell their own story in a party. I try to keep it that way, even if it’s a very ‘90s’ attitude.

Speaking about that, that’s also how I see myself as a musician and producer. I’m trying to keep this very ‘hardcore’ and lowkey attitude from the 90s nowadays, moving forward with my own music, using the past without trying to recreate things from the past. Pretty difficult in fact when even kids are trying mostly to make 80s or 90s music.

Q: 14ANGER has released an endless list of EP’s, but “The Poison Tree” is your first album ever, released this year by Ant-Zen. What does this album mean to you and do you think there still a future for full length releases? How do you see things evolving?

Clément: It means quite a lot, as you said I’ve done a lot of EP’s along the years and it was a challenge for me to start doing a full LP. I’ve trying to make music in a different way, keeping things simple and with less editing than usual. Also doing a ‘real’ industrial album was something I wanted to do for a long time. I’m really happy with it and even happier to be featured on Ant-Zen, which is surely the label I’ve listening to the most in my life.

I’m sure full length releases have a future, as it’s (for me), the best way to listen to something seriously, to really enter into someone’s work. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I listen to a lot of full LP and I will continue doing some in the future.

Q: You just said composing a full length was a challenge so what have been the main ideas and inspiration to compose this work? How did the writing of the songs happened and is there a different approach in writing an album or an EP?

Clément: The main idea behind the album was to focus on the relationship with nature and humans. I’ve spent a lot of time in the forests and mountains around the place where I’m living. I did that for some months, under the very hot sun of Southern France. That certainly shaped the sound of the album. I’ve worked and finished the album on a pretty short period of time, using a sound library I’ve made and using the same synths and FX to have a special sound overall. I also worked with a lot of audio samples, a bit like I was doing when I first started to produce as I was using audio trackers only. It was really different for sure to make a full album and not a Techno EP, it’s way more personal and demanding.

Q: The sound of the album is mainly dominated by a fusion between techno- and industrial music. What makes both genres complementary and how do you perceive both music styles?

Clément: Techno and Industrial are my roots, my 2 main and bigger influences. I basically can’t imagine Techno without Industrial sounds and Industrial music sometimes miss the energy of Techno. I just see the 2 styles fitting together even if the scenes were not the same. It’s less true nowadays though.

Q: You seem to like working with other artists, but especially with Dep Affect. What makes the chemistry between both of you and what did you learn and maybe discover from yourself throughout these collaborative productions? 

Clément: We started to work together 5 years ago and it  really happened naturally, fun and easy. Even if we’re living at the opposite sides of the planet (Dep Affect is Australian), we somehow have pretty close tastes in music, and a lot of common things in our backgrounds. I sure learned a lot of things working with him, and I can say exactly the same about working with Daniel Myer in RENDERED. That could be about mixing, sound design or working more on themes and arrangements – I can definitely say I’m much better in making themes and working on details now.

Q: I noticed you together with an impressive list of French electro/techno artists contributed to a statement about the danger to see electronic artists/music disappear. It’s all because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but can you give us more details and how do you as artist try to manage this situation?

Clément: I was part of the artists who signed this as it’s just hard to watch things disappearing now mainly because politicians are doing again such a bad work. The situation could be so much better right now if good things and preparations have been done. However, I have a fulltime day-job so I’m not really affected by the situation on a financial side, but I definitely miss gigs a lot. I hope things could be better soon with maybe quick tests at doors for gigs and concerts. We have to wait and see, hoping not too much people will struggle and just quit the scenes for good…

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial-techno.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Clément Perez is a French artist who has been active as a DJ and became interested in different music genres. Like a painter he experienced and moved throughout different periods and genres. Under the 14anger moniker he released an impressive number of EP’s on very different labels such as Tripalium Records, Gobsmacked Records, i-Traxx Recordings, Green Fetish Records and many others. This year he joined hands together with Ant-Zen to unleash his debut full length album.

Content: Clément Perez has been clearly inspired by techno music, which is an influence he transposed into a hard-banging sound to mix it with industrial harshness. Some tracks are clearly getting very close to good-old power-noise, but there always is this dark-techno touch on top. One of the tracks has been composed together with Hypnoskull. The album features 12 tracks of terror plus 4 remixes by Antechamber, Shrouds, Crystal Geometry and Mono-Amine.

+ + + : Industrial-techno became a kind of trend, but more than this it simply becomes a modern sonic hybrid between 2 music genres, which clearly have much more in common than we originally thought. This album is a sonic bridge between these heavy styles. The techno inspiration of 14anger is a merciless and somewhat perverted interpretation, which has been empowered by the coldness of industrial sound treatments. I noticed several attention grabbers, but my favorites are “Turned To Dust And Ashes”, “Train To Nowhere” (which is an imposing opener) and “Adown The Glade”. “5 Minutes Left” featuring Hypnoskull is another merciless piece. But the absolute masterpiece appears to be “Night Swallows Day”. Among the remixes I especially recommend the “Ruins” remix by this other talented French artist: Crystal Geometry.

– – – : Don’t ask me why, but I get the feeling 14anger is even able to do better than what has been exposed here.

Conclusion: “The Poison Tree” stands for the modern edit of industrial-techno music. This is a highly recommended debut album by a project that has already released numerous EP’s.

Best songs: “Night Swallows Day”, “Turned To Dust And Ashes”, “Train To Nowhere”, “Adown The Glade”, “5 Minutes Left”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/14anger

Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Minimal-electronics, EBM.

Background/Info: Tcheleskov Ivanovitch is now already active under the Grandchaos moniker for more than 10 years. Based in Belgium this artist is a kind of electro-veteran who was the founder of Ivanovitch DLO while he now also set up a new project together with Jacky Meurisse (SA42) called Grand O Chaos.

This work was originally released as 2 separate 12” vinyls entitled “Days” and “Memories” released on Urgence Disk Records. The main song “Memories Is A Poison” was originally released on the last album “We Suffer When The World Changes” (2014).

This CD format is strictly limited to 100 copies!

Content: We get a total of 8 songs (4 on each 12”), which have been remixed by an interesting selection of artists. The “Days”-EP is more into minimal-electronics and EBM featuring remixes from 2XNI, Franck Kartell, Nomenklatür and Azlack.

The “Memories”-EP sounds a bit different and more experimental, but still technoid-like. We here get remixes by Noamm, Artion, Simon Carter and 14 Anger. Simon Carter and 14Anger transformed the original version into a hard-kicking techno vibe.

+ + + : The remixes from the “Days”-EP are simply devastating. The analogue sound sculptures from Franck Kartell and especially Nomenklatür left me breathless. This is great electro music made of power and magic of sound creation! No presets here, but amazing and overwhelming sound treatments leading the listener into frenetic dance moves. The remix of Azlack reminds me of Nitzer Ebb’s “Murderous”.

– – – : The experimental- and techno-driven side of this work is less convincing. It brings for sure extra diversity to the work, but it feels a bit ‘unnatural’ as it’s far away from the original Grandchaos sound.

Conclusion: This EP features a great diversity in the remixes, but the most EBM-driven ones are absolutely amazing. This is the modern sound of EBM that will for sure make you ‘move your body’!

Best songs: Memories Is A Poison – Remixed by Nomenklatür”, “Memories Is A Poison – Remixed by Franck Kartell”, “The Light In The Mist – Remixed by Azlack”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.grandchaos.be / www.facebook.com/GRANDCHAOS-144968152245744

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com