Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, industrial, ritual. 

Background/Info: Entartete Musikk is the music label set up by Deutsch Nepal’s Lina Baby Doll. He mainly releases his own work, but gives also attention to other formations. This compilation featuring eight projects seems to be the first sampler ever released by the label. It has been introduced as ‘the result of a thematic raw material forwarded by Lina Baby Doll to the musicians – given free hands for their personal aesthetic decisions in the process of their creativity’. 

Artists: Horse Give Birth To Fly, Brighter Death Now, Trepaneringsritualen, Raison D’Être, Reutoff, Deutsch Nepal, Morthound, Kollaps. 

Content: It all sounds like the artists have been selected with care while most of them are also related with Deutsch Nepal. There’s a perfect twist between dark-ambient and industrial music styles. Horse Give Birth To Fly is not the most common name from the list and yet an interesting opener mixing the main influences running through this work. There also is a surprising cut from Brighter Death Now –which has less in common with the familiar death-industrial style. Trepaneringsritualen injects the ritual touch to the album. Deutsch Nepal moves on in the industrial approach featured at the last album. There also is a great cut by Morthound, which is a project I haven’t heard since several years. And there’s of course one of the absolute masters of dark-ambient music: Raison D’Être! 

+ + + : The tracklist doesn’t only reveal great names, but there’s an interesting cohesion between the bands and their tracks. This compilation has something original and it’s fascinating to discover the tracks by Brighter Death Now and Morthound. There is also a certain industrial ‘intelligence’ featured by artists such as Deutsch Nepal and also Reutoff (it’s not a coincidence they both worked together at the album “Eating The Dust” released in 2018). 

– – – : There’s no real cut to throw away although I expected a bit more from Raison D’Être and that’s probably because I’ve always considered this artist as the absolute reference when it comes to dark-ambient music. 

Conclusion: Compilations are no longer successful, but there’re always a few a year bringing something extra for their originality. “Homo Strepitus” is one of them!

Best bands: Horse Give Birth To The Fly, Deutsch Nepal, Morthound, Trepaneringsritualen. 

Rate: (8).

Label: www.facebook.com/entartete.musikk 

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, electronic, experimental, cinematographic.

Background/Info:  “Eating The Dust” resulted from the common efforts between Russian industrial veteran project Reutoff and one of the Swedish dinos of death-industrial and dark-ambient music Deutsch Nepal. The album has been composed over 10 years. Reutoff took care for the music and Peter Andersson aka Lina Baby Doll wrote the lyrics and did the vocals.

Content: What can you expect when industrial veterans are working together? Right, an industrial release, but “Eating The Dust” is not exactly what I would call ‘industrial’. There’re for sure industrial sound treatments mixed with darker sound atmospheres, but the global production is more carried by electronic minimalism, refined crystalline bleeps and sequences and overwhelming cinematographic passages. You for sure will notice rougher elements such as bombastic arrangements and heavier industrial noises, but this is not a typical industrial release, but simply an electronic work composed by ‘industrialists’.

Peter Andersson is singing like never before. He’s not screaming like he often did on his Deutsch Nepal work. No, he’s simply singing a rather natural way. Notice by the way the last song is reworked version featuring the guitar of “Alcohology”, which is a song that got featured on the same-titled Deutsch Nepal album (2015).

+ + + : This album is a sort of challenge as you don’t exactly expect this kind of album featuring Reutoff and Deutsch Nepal. I think it’s the kind of work that wouldn’t have been possible twenty years ago. It clearly sounds as the fusion between artists in search of something different, something they never experienced with before. I like the result for the fusion between opposite sound elements and influences, but still for the atypical style, which is hard to define. Andersson also reveals to be a real singer so in the end I would say this is a totally surprising opus.

– – – : As it’s not exactly what you might expect from both formations, I can imagine some die-hard fans will be stupefied. The main challenge will be for sure to find an audience although I can imagine open-minded fans of both formations will be attentive listeners.

Conclusion: “Eating The Dust” is a fruitful collaboration between two projects, which have created something different from their usual work.

Best songs: “Terrible Place”, “Vertex Insolitus Tenebarum”, “Freedom As An Island”, “Flame”.

Rate: (8).

Artists: http://reutoff.su / www.facebook.com/ReutoffOfficial / www.facebook.com/deutsch.nepal.generalstaab

Label: www.facebook.com/entartete.musikk 

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, drone.

Background/Info: This is the first significant release of Otzepenevshiye in 11 years. Set up in 2006 by Russian artists Evgeniy Voronovskiy (Cisfinitum), Dmitriy Zubov (Hypnoz, Zuboff Sex Shop) and Ivan Napreenko (Sal Solaris, 016) the project is now driven by Ivan Napreenko and Arnold_pR (Reutoff, Myrrman). The second disc of the album features tracks that were originally composed with Circle Of Unexisted and Vir’. It was originally released on cassette format (NEN Records) and here features some bonus cuts.

Content: Otzepenevshiye reminds me of early The Swans. There’s a similar industrial guitar play mixed with bombastic drums/drones. The sound atmosphere is pretty dark and even anguishing. Industrial- and epic sounds are resonating while the guitar play sometimes feels like an obscure ritual play.

Most of the cuts are instrumentals, but you’ll notice a few spoken vocals and/or samplings. The tracks are still featuring field recordings reinforcing the industrial format of the work.

+ + + : This kind of industrial-guitar work mixed with drones is not new, but not exactly the most common industrial format. I like this heavy bombast, which often reminds me to early Swans –which is more than simply a reference for this kind of industrial work. Next to the guitar play the work also features industrial arrangements and heavy bombast. It all together creates a damned freaky sensation, which especially excels at the last songs from the 2^nd disc. The vocals here added something extra totally achieving the album.

– – – : I would have liked to get more tracks with some vocals/samplings. It creates extra diversity while the sound formula now sounds a bit repetitive and predictable after a while.

Conclusion: This is an interesting industrial format reminding us that this kind of music style is much more than hard power-electronics composed by electronic gear. Otzepenevshiye sounds more primitive, but still more authentic!

Best songs: “The Black – Septic Version”, “ДАЕРММУАЗУАЯ”, “
На Западном Фронте – Nichts Neues Rework”, “24 212 Дней”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/otzepenevshiye

Label: www.zhb.radionoise.ru / www.facebook.com/zhbrecords

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: IDM, industrial, experimental, dark-ambient, electro-minimal.

Background/Info: David Lynch fans and especially the “Twin Peaks”-ones will directly recognize the legendary extract ‘The Owls Are Not what They Seem’. Russian label Zhelezobeton previously released the sampler “Now It’s Dark”, which already was a tribute to the legendary filmmaker. This new tribute features mainly remixes from these songs. Most of the bands are featured with two cuts.

Bands: Reutoff, Sal Solaris, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Anthesteria, Peter Theremin, Wunderblock, Light Collapse, Povarovo ao.

Content: This is a quite diversified compilation featuring a total amount of 25 tracks. Most of the bands are hailing from Russia. This sampler is an invitation to discover a varied selection of music tracks inspired by the work of David Lynch and transposed into different kinds of music.

+ + + : I like the concept, but the main strength of this album definitely appears to be the discovery of less familiar and simply unknown music projects. The IDM orientated cuts are pretty inspired and I especially want to tip the track of Relic Radiation remixed by Sal Solaris. Another noticeable cut is the one by Povarovo remixed by Bionoid. I also want to mention another track of Relic Radiation remixed by Alex Schultz, which moves into electro-minimalism. The IDM tracks clearly are the best exponent of this sampler.

– – – : Diversity creates a lack of coherence between some tracks. It’s quite strange to hear a totally industrial and experimental cut as an ode to David Lynch while other cuts are definitely more electro- and even dance-like. On the other side it also stands for the work of Lynch, which often is hard to seize.

Conclusion: This is a noticeable compilation, which I absolutely recommend. It will give you the opportunity to discover a bunch of ‘new’ bands, but still many cool cuts. I would like to know what David Lynch would think about it….

Best bands: Relic Radiation, Povarovo, Krytogen Rundfunk, Light Collapse.

Rate: (8).

Label: www.zhb.radionoise.ru / www.facebook.com/zhbrecords

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, industrial-ambient.

Background/Info: Reutoff is probably one of the most famous and renowned industrial formations from Russia. They’ve been active since the late 90s and have released an impressive number of productions. This is their 9^th full length album to date. “No One’s Lullabies” was originally released on cassette format in 2014 on Sea State. Later on the band released it on digital format adding 4 extra cuts. Zhelezobeton is now releasing the entire album on CD.

Notice by the way that the artwork of the album was made by Fabrice Billard who you for sure remember as the owner of the French label Divine Comedy.

Content: Reutoff calls their music ‘post-industrial’, which clearly will appeal for the industrial music lovers. The work is driven by heavy industrial sounds and cadences mixed with dark-ambient atmospheres. From drones and bombast to crystal-like bleeps to ghostly whispers the tracks are resulting in a kind of apocalyptic vision. The lullabies of Reutoff rapidly become the source of real nightmares, which will terrorize you.

But next to this heavy industrial terror and some nihilistic soundscapes the work also reveals surprising and unexpected influences like a kind of jazzy ambient passage and psychedelic elements. It’s just one little element, but it reveals the versatile character of the work.

+ + + : I like the versatile aspect of the work, however it all remains pretty compact. The composition has been extremely worked out and even features a real transcendental climax, which is one of the ‘new’ cuts, entitled “Die Stille Scheint In Der Finsternis”. There’s a perfect fusion between all of the influences.

– – – : Reutoff is not exactly what I should call an average, or stereotypical industrial formation. It makes the originality of the formation, but still a reason why industrial ‘purists’ may have difficulties to be convinced by their versatile sound.

Conclusion: The original cassette version was released on 80 copies so it should have been a shame to keep this album completely underground. Together with the extra tracks, this is a great piece of modern industrial music.

Best songs: “Die Stille Scheint In Der Finsternis”, “Dead Templar’s Groove Manuscript”, “New World Disorder”.

Rate: (8).

Band: http://reutoff.su / www.facebook.com/ReutoffOfficial

Label: www.zhb.radionoise.ru / www.facebook.com/zhbrecords

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