Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro-Pop, Industrial-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Jay Taylor -known as the live drummer for  Tactical Sekt, Tyske Ludder and Harmjoy, strikes back with a new production of his own J:Dead project. “Vision Of Time” features six songs while the CD format includes seven more songs (remixes).

Content: J:Dead remains an artist with his own approach in sound. Some might call it Electro-Pop but the harder and harsher approach rather sounds like a Dark- and/or Industrial Pop format. The vocals are switching from clear, powerful passages to harsh parts. The choruses are melodic.

Remixes have been provided by Teknovore, Lights Of Euphoria, Nature Of Wires, Rotersand, The Saint Paul, Station Echo and Life Cried.

+ + + : I especially like the atypical ‘Pop’ format of this artist. Dark, Industrial and even a bit Punkish mixing enraged sound- and vocal parts together with melodic, carrying, choruses. My favorite cuts are “A Little Time” and “Afraid” both driven by an angry production. Among the remixes I especially want to mention the extra boosting remix of “I’ll wait” by Teknovore.

– – – : I expected a bit more out of the remixes.

Conclusion: J:Dead seems to be one of last months ‘hot’ artists from Infacted Recordings and this rough approach of Electro-Pop shows you why it is.

Best songs: “A Little Time”, “Afraid”, “I’ll Wait – Teknovore Remix”, “Afraid – Nature Of Wires Remix”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/jdeadband

Label: www.infacted-recordings.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Infacted-Recordings/124099254321690

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

Black Tape for a Blue Girl releases their first music video in 6 years with “In my memories” taken from the album “To touch the milky way”. Conceived, shot and edited by bandleader Sam Rosenthal over the course of two year, the video is starring Dan Von Hoyel (vocalist/songwriter from the bands Harmjoy and Titans) and fellow adult industry performer Mercy West. The song is what Sam calls “a rumination on the passing of time, nostalgia, regret and loss.”

Below is the video.

We also talked with Sam Rosenthal about how the song and video came to birth.

SL: There was a lot of splashing and diving underwater at a rubber fetish pool party I understood?

S: Yes, the piece began when I shot a half-minute phone-video of Mercy splashing and diving underwater at a rubber fetish pool party. A few months later, a piano part I played in the studio felt to me like it was about ‘memories’ — those seconds of Mercy in the pool inspired the direction of the music and then the lyrics I wrote. It’s a character’s first person narrative thinking back to the summer he was 23 and enjoying a nothing-special — and yet everything-so-special — afternoon with his lover. It moves me seeing Dan’s raw emotions that he brought to his performance. How often do you see men cry in tv or film? In our culture, men are considered weak when they show feelings other than anger. It’s still not common for them to tear up and display their loss or sorrow. I like that we captured that; it gets to the core of the song.

SL: Your son also delivered some input I was told?

S: In the second half of the song, I brought in an idea my son and I discussed at the time: if there could be a way for people to re-experience an earlier time of their lives and relive those pleasurable moments, would they ever want to come out of it and get back to reality? Or would everyone be in their chair with a helmet on (and drugs in their veins), reliving their first love, that afternoon by the pool, and that weekend at the cabin?

SL: How did the lyrics come around?

S: The music/lyrics came together quickly in November 2017; I imagined Oscar would sing the song (he sang on the previous Black Tape For A Blue Girl album). One of my son’s friends, Ari, looked a lot like how I remembered Oscar from back in the 80s. Ari was in town for the holidays; I shot footage of him in the backyard to use as flashback scenes interspersed with Mercy in the pool — all in preparation to shoot the rest of the video when Oscar came to Portland to record the album. As time passed, Michael Plaster became the vocalist on To touch the milky way. Now I had a dilemma: I had scenes with Ari as the young version of the character, but Michael didn’t look like Ari, and he didn’t want to be on camera, anyway. I wondered who I could work with to finish the clip. Procrastination set in. The album was released in November of 2018. The piece remained unfinished.

SL: You met Dan Von Hoyel (vocalist/songwriter from the bands Harmjoy and Titans) at a Kink.com event?

S: Correct, Mercy already knew Dan as they’re both adult industry performers. Around the time the Milky Way album was released, it occurred to me that Dan would be a good choice to play the grown-up version of the character in the song. Christmas Eve 2018, Dan was in Portland; I shot his scenes with Mercy. Dan was going through some stuff at the moment which inspired his interpretation of his character’s sadness and pain. The song is about the loss and longing we feel for our past. Dan brought that!

It moves me seeing Dan’s raw emotions in his performance. How often do you see men cry in tv or film? In our culture, men are considered weak when they show feelings other than anger. It’s still not common for them to tear up and display their heartache or sorrow. I like that we captured that; it gets to the core of the song.

SL: This meant you had to rework the video no?

S: Exactly! I edited the new scenes with Dan & Mercy, then procrastination set in again. I knew there were pick-up shots of Mercy I wanted to add, but my work at Projekt, adopting a new kitty, an instrumental collaboration, and a few Kickstarters took me away from the video. A couple of weeks ago I was scrolling down my Instagram and saw an image I shot of Mercy in the dress from the video. I realized it was creeping up on 2 years since I started — I had to get the piece done! Last week we shot the missing graveyard scenes. I finished the edit, and now — two years later — the video is out!

You’ll notice a result of my procrastination: Mercy has three different hairstyles / hair colors. I think that actually helps the idea of time passing and memory. I like the moods, the nostalgia, the moments of feeling on the character’s faces. I like what this story is telling me.

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

Genre/Influences: Dark-pop, wave-pop.

Background/Info: The new Blutengel album comes exactly 20 years after the band’s official debut opus “Child Of Glass”. Blutengel became one of the absolute leading formations from the electro-underground scene and has never stopped releasing referential albums. After the brilliant “Vampire”- and “Surrender To The Darkness”-EPs we now get “Un:Gott” featuring 15 songs on the main disc and 9 remixes on the bonus disc.

Content: Blutengel remains faithful to its dark/wave-pop music mainly characterized by solid melody lines and great choruses, but it’s also an album with empowering guitar parts. The familiar “Vampire” song is one of the best illustrations from this ‘heavier’ and yet melodic approach. “Un:Gott” also appears as one of the Blutengel albums with more English sung songs than ever before. Chris Pohl’s deep timbre of voice excels in charisma while Ulrike Goldmann brings her familiar heavenly and sensual touch to the work.

The bonus disc features remixes by Rave The Reqviem, Any Second, Wort-Ton, Angriffspakt, X-RX, Rabia Sorda, Harmjoy, Battlescream and one remix of the song “Auf Deinen Wegen” (originally featured at the “Vampire”-EP) remixed by Blutengel.

+ + + : Blutengel holds on to  the elements that have made this band become what they are today. It’s a dark and melodic electro/wave-pop format on, which Chris Pohl once more excels in the writing of carrying melody lines. But the essence of a ‘great’ pop song also is the power and magic of a chorus and here again “Un:Gott” confirms great skills. But Blutengel is not a ‘classical’ formation dealing with pop, but a formation with a very specific sound DNA; a band you can’t compare with any other one. And also a band that all over the years has progressively evolved, accentuating some elements of the production such as powerful guitar parts. I also have to say a word about the meaningful lyrical content, which has something deep, metaphoric and psychological. “Vampire” remains an absolute attention grabber –and definitely one of my all time favorite Blutengel songs, but I also have to mention “Into The Void”, “Alles”, “Surrender To The Darkness” and “Morningstar”.

Among the remixes I noticed great contributions by Rave The Reqviem, Angriffspakt and X-RX.

– – – : Remixes always are a nice addition as extra disc, but they don’t really bring a bonus compared to the original versions.

Conclusion: Blutengel has released an impressive number of albums over the past 20 years, but I definitely consider “Un:Gott” as one of the most accomplished and successful ones. A must have!

Best songs: “Vampire”, “Into The Void”, “Alles”, “Surrender To The Darkness”, “Morningstar”, “Am Ende Der Zeit”, “Praise The Lord” + “Into The Void – Rave The Reqviem Remix”.

Rate: (9).

Artist: www.blutengel.de / www.facebook.com/BlutengelOfficial

Label: www.outofline.de  / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel

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

We informed you a while back that the German label Emmo.biz Records was to close its doors. The Oelsnitz based label is run by Jörg Freier and was founded in 2012. The label harboured releases for bands like Leæther Strip, Harmjoy, NZ, Frontal and MRDTC.

The label has now started a massive sale to clear its stocks, and you can definitely speak of a true sale with releases being sold for as less as 4,99 Euro!

We talked with Jörg Freier to learn some more about his decision to stop the label. Jörg: “I already have another business for the past 3 years: a butcher shop. That shop requires a lot of my time. As a result I didn’t find time enough to run two business. It made me realise I can’t help ‘my bands’ enough in our music business.”

The german Label Kompuphonik Music will take some part of the label and distribution, but the webshop www.emmo.biz will be closed by the end of this year.

We wish Jörg all the best in his new professional ‘meat endeavour’ ‘Fleisch und Wurstwaren Jörg Freier‘ located at the Kammerrat Beck Strasse 8 in Oelsnitz, Sachsen, Germany!

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

EBM fans discovered Tyske Ludder during the 90s. They were signed to a small, but interesting label (cf. KM-Musik) on, which they released 2 great and punching albums plus an EP. After a hiatus of several years the band finally stroke back in 2006 by a new full length released by Black Rain. Two more albums plus a compilation album and a few EP’s were released later on. The EBM style remained intact and Tyske Ludder progressively conquered new and younger EBM fans. Their newest full length entitled “Evolution” is a quite prophetic title, which symbolizes the global sound evolution of the band and the move to another label (cf. Golden Core). We got in touch with Olaf A. Reimers to ask the band a few questions about one of the best EBM-productions of 2015!

By Stéphane Froidcoeur

SL: What comes directly into mind when evoking your new album “Evolution”?

Tyske Ludder: It’s probably the best and versatile work we ever delivered. We liberated from a lot of old, emotional ballast, which accrued over the last years. We signed to a new label, we went back to our 2-man-studio-crew and focalized on our main strength: ‘two lazy guys who just wanna make ass-kicking electronic music‘.

SL: I indeed experienced the new album as the most elaborated and accomplished work in history of the band. How would you analyze the global result and especially when comparing it to your previous albums?

Tyske Ludder: In fact it’s just an evolution. We had 4 years to make the songs and a huge variety of tracks to choose from. You each time again try and try to get a little bit further on your next album. And the cutoff from the guy we worked with on “Anonymous” and “Diaspora” was the other great impact on our actual album.

SL: Less bands today are working with ‘real’ producers while you asked different producers to join in. What have been their real impact on “Evolution”?

Tyske Ludder: Olaf wanted to give his Harmjoy project (cf. side-project) an impact from different people, so he choose to work with Krischan, Hilger and Andreas. The result was breathtaking so that’s why we decided to work with them again on Tyske Ludder’s “Evolution”. Their main focus on the album was, to get a SOUND. We wanted this time to get the maximum out of our song writing and we’re still very satisfied with their work.

SL: How do you see your own evolution as musician(s) and band over the years regarding elements like ‘composition’, ‘influences’, ‘lyrical themes’ and ‘live performances’?

Tyske Ludder: The evolution of these elements in the work of Tyske Ludder all over the years is the story of our own evolution; personal taste in music and the possibilities you get from modern computer based instruments. We never joined the hype with real, analogue instruments. Only live Olaf uses an Arturia Minibrute analogue synthesizer to get some dirty sounds this way getting a kind of live feeling in our performance.

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