In the past week, several acts have canceled upcoming shows in Russia. While some artists point towards the war in Russia for canceling their concerts, others just removed the dates from their agenda without any explanation, such as The Pixies. Nick Cave for instance has canceled his summer tour dates in Russia and Ukraine, while praising the “brave people of Ukraine.”

Other bands like Laibach, Godflesh, Static-X, Till Lindemann, Lebanon Hanover, She Past Away, Oscar & the Wolf, Disclosure, Lacrimas Profundere, Tricky, Morcheeba, Fatboy Slim, Bjork, My Chemical Romance, Behemoth and Slipknot are still scheduled to play though this can change anytime as we pulled this info from ticket vendor websites who still offer tickets.

At the same time Live Nation Entertainment has announced that it will cease all business activity with Russia.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Industrial, EBM, Power-Noise.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Tangent Stratery is the newest signing to EK Product. Based in the US, this Japanese solo-project was set up in 1996 by chd.y. After several productions “Revenant“ is an album that will maybe catch the attention of a wider audience. 

Content: The album features 2 parts; brand-new songs and older cuts originally released on EP. The sound is hard to define yet always driven by Electro-Industrial elements. It takes off in a rather Dive style, but rapidly evolves incorporating other influences to the work. You’ll notice EBM bass lines, but still harder cuts coming closer to pure Power-Noise. Some of the older cuts also reveal a colder electro style, which might remind you of Mortal Constraint and The Klinik. On top of it all you’ll discover ghost-like vocals while a few cuts remain instrumental edits.

+ + + : The originality of this project is its atypical approach. It’s much more than simply Industrial music, but a true offspring between Industrial, EBM, Power-Noise, Dark-Electro and even vague Techno and Acid elements. This project is a sonic chameleon, which will however appeal for Industrial lovers. I like the album’s diversity and the spooky produced vocals. The album is a discovery and a true sonic trip in Industrial music. I personally like “Dead Reckoning (Reverse/Action)” for its harder, danceable approach with a kind of Acid sequence on top. In a more Dark-Electro way I recommend “Accept Death” and “Hark! For I Am The Portent Of Misery”; both songs having a strong 90s sound. Last, but not least I also want to mention “And The Lies”, which sounds to me like ‘Industrial Prodigy’.

– – – : The main strength of the album might be also be seen as its weakest spot: a mishmash of influences.

Conclusion: Tangent isn’t really innovating although creating an atypical, original Electro-Industrial sound.

Best songs: “Dead Reckoning (Reverse/Action)”, “Accept Death”, “Hark! For I Am The Portent Of Misery”, “And The Lies”, “Fountain Square”, “The Rising Sun And The Behemoth”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: https://tangentstrategy.net /  www.facebook.com/tangentstrategy

Label: www.ekproduct.com / www.facebook.com/EKProduct

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

Rome aka Luxemburg artist Jérôme Reuter is back with a new album: “Parlez-Vous Hate?”. The album comes one year after “The Lone Furrow“ which featured numerous guest artists like Alan Averill (Primordial), Adam Nergal Darski (Behemoth/Me And That Man), Laure Le Prunenec (Rïcïnn), Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer) and J.J. (Harakiri For TheSky).

You can read the interview we recently had with Jérôme Reuter right here.

The album is published in four editions:

• “Parlez-Vous Hate?” (Agitprop Edition) [Limited clear vinyl]
• “Parlez-Vous Hate?” [Limited grey vinyl]
• “Parlez-Vous Hate?” (US-Edition) [Limited pink vinyl] LP+CD
• “Parlez-Vous Hate?” digiCD

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Luxemburg artist Jérôme Reuter, this year celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of his ROME project. The band rapidly gained a name in the neo-folk scene by the early works released on the defunct Cold Meat Industry. Rome next moved to Trisol while the music progressively evolved, touching ground with different music genres. The new album “The Lone Furrow” features numerous guest artists like Alan Averill (Primordial), Adam Nergal Darski (Behemoth/Me And That Man), Laure Le Prunenec (Rïcïnn), Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer) and J.J. (Harakiri For TheSky). The work is a critical perception of the world we’re living in and sounds as a sonic osmosis between Dark-Chanson and Neo-Folk with bombastic arrangements on top and multiple guest singers. “The Lone furrow” is one more masterpiece in the impressive discography of the artist.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: More than any other album, “The Lone Furrow” appears to be Jérôme Reuter with guests/friends. What incited you to write this ‘collaborative’ album and did you handle specific criteria to work with those guests?

Jérôme: I did not really write it as a collaborative album. That idea came later. I wrote the songs and then I tried to find people to enhance and diversify it as much as possible, without changing the essence of my song. I am not letting anything out of my hands.

Q: What inspired you to write this new work and how did you transpose the ideas into music and lyrics? What have been the different stages you’d to go through?

Jérôme: I do not even know how to answer that, to be honest. Many themes on this one have been close to my heart for many years, and it just took some time to put it all in place and to see what  kind of songs to even consider for tackling the subject matter. In essence, it is a very spontaneous and visceral way of writing, but I use elements that I am collecting over a long period of time…

Q: I got the impression you seriously boosted the orchestral arrangements on this work resulting in some great cinematographic passages. Did you focus on this -and/or any other specific aspect?

Jérôme: When I start out with a record, I have a vision of what it should sound like. Or rather, I know what I want to make myself (as the listener) feel. And then I use whatever means necessary to achieve that goal. Sometimes that means orchestral work, sometimes more industrial… whatever serves the purpose.

Q: Your albums are always pretty engaged and often a critical reflection about society and the world we’re living in. From that point of view I would like to know how you perceive the Covid-19 pandemic? Dystopia seems to become reality don’t you think?

Jérôme: Dystopia is a reality, Covid is only accelerating the process, in my opinion. The pandemic is one thing, but how this age of (dis)information deals with it is another thing.

Q: There’s an interesting connection to make between the Covid-19 pandemic and one of your favorite writers, Albert Camus and his legendary novel “La Peste” (“The Plague”). Do you see similarities?

Jérôme: Yes, in many ways, but more on the political side, to be fair. I think I should have that press release altered, though, cause, as much as I like him, he is not at the top of my list. I much prefer Genet and Bloy (if we stick to French literature).

Q: Because of the pandemic, artistic life has been seriously affected, but I noticed you got the opportunity to play live again. I can imagine it must be totally different from the past, but how was it for you? And what might we expect from the announced tour?

Jérôme: I am not even sure there WILL be a tour, as financially, a classic tour does not work anymore. There are just not enough people allowed in for anyone to cover the costs… Only time can tell how things will evolve. For now I am playing the odd solo show here and there, but it is really not comparable to what my job used to be like.

Q: Your album got only positive reviews, but what importance do you give to reviews? In which way a review can be constructive or inspiring for an artist? And how critical are you with your own composition/work?

Jérôme: I am very critical with my own work, so once I decide I am done with it and release it out into the world, it is not my responsibility anymore. People will hear what they will hear – it is beyond my control, and I try not to care what people write in reviews.

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: Chanson, cinematographic, neo-folk.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Hailing from Luxemburg, Rome, the project set up by Jérôme Reuter, this year celebrates its fifteenth anniversary. The band rapidly gained a name in the neo-folk scene by the early works released on the defunct Cold Meat Industry. Rome next moved to Trisol while the music progressively evolved, touching ground with different music genres. “The Lone Furrow” is Rome’s newest work, which comes as a (new) critical perception of the world we’re living in.

Content: One of the main elements of this work is the presence of multiple guest artists. Some of them like Alan Averill (Primordial) and Adam Nergal Darski (Behemoth/Me And That Man) are active in the wider fields of metal music. Other guests areLaure Le Prunenec(Rïcïnn),Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer) and J.J. (Harakiri For TheSky).

Sound-wise the album is getting back to the influences from the past few years, which means elements of dark-chanson and neo-folk, but the global production has been seriously boosted by impressive bombastic arrangements. There also is a more cinematic part running through the work. The songs have been mainly sung in English, but Jérôme is also singing in French and German. The contributions of numerous guest singers injects some extra diversity to the album.

+ + + : Rome has released an impressive number of works over the past 15 years and I’m each again surprised by the quality and artistic level of the work. Jérôme Reuter is not repeating himself; he’s in a constant move and tries to accentuate each of his productions with different elements. He on this time realized a new tour de force mixing different influences from his career thus far. The overwhelming orchestral treatments are impressive and very powerful. This bombast sounds a bit like the red line throughout the work. The diversity of the singers is also a noticeable element. I’ve to mention the song “Achtung, Baby” (which is a wink to the legendary U2 album) featuring Alan Averill. But one of the absolute highlights is without a shadow of doubt “The Angry Cup” featuring Adam Nergal Darski. “On Albion’s Plain” is just Jérôme Reuter and himself, but it also is a brilliant song. Some of the songs and Jérôme timbre of voice are once again evoking Nick Cave to me, but the work also reveals cool cinematic passages.

– – – : I don’t have real minor points, this artist just moving on his artistic voyage accomplishing a new masterpiece.

Conclusion: Rome remains a prolific project, but the quality of each production remains top-notch.

Best songs: “The Angry Cup”, “Achtung, Baby!”, “On Albion’s Plain”, “Kaili Yuga Über Alles”, “Tyriat Sig Tyrias”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/romeproject

Label: www.trisol.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Trisol-Music-Group/104166526285471

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

If you thought that the reach of your Facebook page was low, expect even worse in the near future as Facebook is testing (and will be rolling out globally sooner or later) a brand new feed which will again drastically drop the reach that (band)pages will have. The first victims are the Facebook pages in Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Cambodia which have now seen a huge decrease in organic traffic (and it was already heavily decimated due to previous updates).

The new feed which was implemented last Thursday in the aforementioned countries sees the arrival on the desktop version of what Facebook calls the Explore Feed. With the introduction of Explore Feed in these countries Facebook no longer shows posts from pages on the default newsfeed but in a seperate feed. The default newsfeed is strictly reserved for friends’ posts and sponsored ads.

As a result Facebook interactions (likes, comments, shares) and reach have sunk drastically with almost 75%.

In order to reach the Explore Feed, users in those countries have to navigate to the Explore feed for content from pages they’ve liked. If pages want their posts to show up in the standard feed admins of such pages have to pay. What’s making things even worse is that the Explore Feed also aims to serve content from pages you don’t follow ‘but might be interested in’. More clutter and unwanted posts that is.

Here’s a tweet by Slovakian journalist Filip Struhárik showing the dramatic results of the new implementation.

Slovak media have 4x less interactions since #Facebook is testing #explorefeed (data by @crowdtangle, 60 biggest FB media pages in Slovakia) pic.twitter.com/UMfEBFz98P

— Filip Struhárik (@filip_struharik) 20 oktober 2017

Facebook’s Head of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, said that the company has no immediate plans to implement the feature globally… “currently”. We all know what that means, they will definitely roll this test (or another reach killer – very likely) out globally in the future in order to increase the revenue for the social media behemoth.

What does this mean for bands? Basically it shows again that you should own your own property (website) and that you should continue to invest in data (emails) in order to reach your fans, because Facebook won’t care at all.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com