Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Industrial.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Hailing from Ukraine this is the second EP by BlazerJacket. “The Second” is inspired by sci/fi and ‘cyberpunk aesthetics’ and ‘pays homage to iconic franchises like Star Wars, Ghost in the Shell, Terminator, and Watch Dogs.’

Content: The EP features 5 songs taking off with heavy blasting sound treatments carried by stumping kicks and progressively evolving towards a more melodic approach featuring a few vocal lines.

+ + + : The debut songs are a heavy blast; kind of smack in your face revealing impressive sound treatments. There are empowering guitar parts while the very few vocals/samplings add a cool, little extra. This is heavy, powerful, dance stuff.

– – – : I’m sure some of the tracks could be a little bit more sophisticated but there’s no reason to complain.

Conclusion: This EP sounds like a heavy piece of Electro-dynamite; let’s keep an eye on this band!

Best songs: “Dark Side”, “The Power”, “DedSec”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/BlazerJacketMusic Read the news on ‘The Second’.

About BlazerJacket

The project is a Kyiv, Ukraine-based duo formed by Denis Cherryman (Dirty Bird 13, The Cherry Men) and Hybri.Mod. The project debuted in 2020 with the EP “The First,” followed by singles through 2022 and two 2023 EPs, “Terrorstate” and “The Second.”

Their music blends cyberpunk aesthetics with dark electro and industrial influences.

“The Second,” reviewed here, is one of those two 2023 EPs, drawing on cyberpunk and sci-fi references to Star Wars, Ghost in the Shell, Terminator, and Watch Dogs, and includes the earlier singles “Dark Side” and “DedSec”. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reinforced the project’s darker thematic direction, reflected across the EP and the singles that followed.

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.

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Ukrainian cyberpunk music duo BlazerJacket has recently released their latest EP, titled “The Second”. This EP presents a diverse range of tracks, each embodying the duo’s cyberpunk and sci-fi thematic elements. The tracks are distinct, featuring voice samples from various influential sources.

The track “Dark Side” incorporates samples from “Star Wars”, while “DedSec” draws inspiration from the video game “Watch Dogs”. “Project 2501” is influenced by the anime “Ghost in the Shell”, and “Judgement Day” incorporates samples from “Terminator”.

Formed in 2017, BlazerJacket initially performed live, with half of their early material forming their first EP, “The First”, composed by Denis Cherryman. The remaining material, now part of “The Second”, was composed by band member Hybri.Mod. This latest work aligns with modern hard EDM/midtempo standards, blending industrial, guitar, and synthwave elements.

Their debut EP, “The First”, narrated a post-apocalyptic story through dialogues, focusing on two alien brothers on a mission to save Earth and humanity from a malevolent artificial intelligence. “The Second”, however, does not follow a specific narrative. Instead, it replaces dialogues with voice samples from movies, games, and anime, engaging the listeners’ imagination.

An intriguing detail for fans is the thematic linkage between the EPs. “The First” concludes with “Skynet”, leading into “Judgement Day” in “The Second”, which transitions the listener into the “Terminator” universe. A notable Easter egg for avid listeners is the matching FX sound at the end of “Skynet” in “The First” and at the beginning and end of “Judgement Day” in “The Second”.

For more insights, here’s a video for “Judgement Day”.

You can download the EP below. Read the review of ‘The Second’.

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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The Ukrainian industrial / cyberpunk act BlazerJacket is back with a new single titled “Dark Side”.

The duo has also unveiled a music video dedicated to the Star Wars universe, featuring visuals and footage of Darth Vader to complement the release. This immersive video has to provide a cinematic backdrop that complements the dark, futuristic tones of the track.

The single “Dark Side” is now available on all major streaming platforms, and the music video can be viewed right below.

BlazerJacket was created in Ukraine by Denis Cherryman (Dirty Bird 13 / KAЇND) and Hybri.Mod. Their love for cyberpunk, retrowave, sci-fi, and action films of the 80′s and 90′s inspires them to create a new sci-fi universe and conceptual music releases.

Below is the single on Bandcamp.

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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Rector Scanner  was the first project set up by René Nowotny. Known from his EBM project AD:KeY, Rector Scanner is driven by the sound and influence of Kraftwerk. Active since 1997, René Nowotny this year released the third album of his sonic brainchild on Alfa Matrix. “Radioteleskop” is a great and intelligent work, which became a conceptual opus inspired by René’s fascination for sci/fi literature. There also is a second disc featuring remixes by AD:KeY, Massiv In Mensch, Metroland, Merry Chicklit, Letal 30 and 808 Dot.Pop.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: We all know you from your involvement with AD:KeY although Rector Scanner was your first project ever. You don’t release new work at regular basis with Rector Scanner so what does this project mean to you and how does it feel getting back to your first love?

René: Rector Scanner is my very own ‘baby‘. On one hand, I made my first steps here in the production of Electronic music and, on the other hand, I was able to realize all those ideas that did not fit into any specific box. Here I was and am completely free; I can let off steam and do whatever I want. It’s a great feeling to finally have a new Rector Scanner album in my hands after a long time. 

Q: I’m always fascinated by artists getting involved with different projects/bands. What makes the difference(s) to you between the projects and do you need any kind of preparation and/or mental spirit to work on it?

René: Actually there is not much difference to AD:KeY, only that I can implement my own ideas completely independently at Rector Scanner without having to take Andrea into consideration. Of course, she also influences the songs at Rector Scanner. After all, she contributed to a number of ideas, wrote the lyrics fort wo songs of the new album and is featured on several tracks with her vocals. But she has no right of veto. There are phases when I like to work alone in the studio -and sometimes I find it nice to exchange ideas about what I’m doing and ask for opinions.

Q: Over now to the new album “Radioteleskop”. What has been the ‘click’ to start composing this new album and tell us a bit more about the subjects, which seem getting back to the origins of human mankind? Is it a conceptual work?

René: Yes, “Radioteleskop” is a conceptual album. The idea for it had slumbered in me for years. There are two things that strongly influenced me with “Radioteleskop”: my love for science fiction literature and my admiration for the band Kraftwerk.

I have been reading science fiction novels since I was a child and I have a large collection of books in my private library. And I know that many people will immediately turn up their noses when they read these lines, because they immediately think of “Star Wars“; of lightsabers and spaceship battles and space monsters. But such stories don’t interest me.

Perhaps I should rather say that I like Social Fiction; great world designs that anticipate the future of mankind and deal critically with the present, such as the books by Neil Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, or the great authors of the East: the Strugatzki brothers or Stanislaw Lem.

Above all, my favorite author Ivan Yefremov had a great influence on the Rector Scanner album. In his great novel “Andromedanebel” –in “Das Mädchen aus dem All”, he describes a future communist society that, despite all progress, is not free from problems. This novel was the template for some of the songs that can be heard on “Radioteleskop”.

We are constantly on the lookout; it is curiosity that drives mankind to the stars. In books and novels we long for discovery, for communication with other civilizations. In science we observe the sky with the same longing, hear and see into space with radio telescopes and send probes to distant celestial bodies. I wanted to put this passion into music with the Rector Scanner album.

Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing of the album; the equipment you used, the different stages of song writing, vocals- and global production?

René: A lot of synthesizers have accumulated in our studio over the past few years. I particularly like to use the Waldorf MicroQ and the Waldorf Pulse 2. The Waldorf STVC vocoder and the Arturia MicroFREAK were responsible for the electronic voices. Many analog synthesizers such as Behringer’s ModelD, the Deepmind 6 or the Neutron can be heard very often on “Radioteleskop”. But it would be going too far to name all the devices.

The work on the album was not a continuous process, but dragged on over several years. The oldest song on the album is track number 11, “Stories About A Blue Planet”. He is well over 10 years old. Other songs were created during a recording session for an AD:KeY album. Originally, “Maschinen Sind Treu” was an AD:KeY song. But we then added more and more playful elements, including a Kraftwerk-reminiscent snare drum ‘Tschakkk‘. So we gave the song new lyrics and it became a Rector Scanner song.

During the lockdown in winter 2020/2021, when we were stuck in the studio, we wrote the last 5 songs. I think you can hear that when you look at “The Girl From Space”, “Epsilon Tucanae” and “Utopia”. They belong together both in terms of content and music. I consciously say ‚we‘ because Andrea and I were stuck in the apartment -and we had to keep ourselves busy somehow. We worked on AD:KeY and Rector Scanner songs in parallel.

Q: Compared to previous releases there’s a noticeable evolution in the artwork of the new album -and the EP “Der Dichter Und Die Frau”. What makes this evolution and in, which way is there a connection between the concept and the artwork?

René: For AD:KeY we do the artwork completely ourselves. For the Rector Scanner publications we have given the artwork to an artist, Thomas Franke. Thomas Franke is a graphic artist, book illustrator and theater actor. I met him years ago at a vernissage where his work was exhibited and I was totally enthusiastic about him and his work. Without further ado, I asked him if he would make some of his work for Rector Scanner available to me. After he listened to our music, we agreed. Thomas Franke had already designed the artwork for the second Rector Scanner album “Herzschlag” -and since we had developed a friendship, we just continued our collaboration.

There is always a connection between the concept and the work of art, simply through the fact that one consciously chooses an image or a graphic. Thomas Franke’s work has a high recognition value, which is associated with the music. If you look at the artwork, you link it to the music -and vice versa. I think we made an excellent choice to give our music a fantastic image.

Q: The EP “Der Dichter Und Die Frau” is only available as digital work. What do you think about this ‘digital era’ wherein less physical productions are released? Does it have an influence and/or impact on your artistic work? What do you expect from the future and what are the further plans with Rector Scanner?

René: I am aware that modern times rely on modern technologies. Digital publications are very efficient. You have instant access to music anywhere, anytime, anywhere in the world.

However, I love physical records, which is possibly due to the fact that I am still a ‘Stone Age‘ collector and hunter deep down. We humans want to own something, touch something and show it as a trophy. Actually, this is no longer necessary. We have everything on the smartphone or in the cloud and on the web. But I still feel that way.

However, it is also a fact that music is consumed differently through digital media than it was in the days of CDs or vinyl records. Albums in the classic sense follow a structure and have a dynamic like a play. While listening to the music, you look at the artwork, turn pages through the booklet, read texts.

All of this no longer works like this due to digital consumption. It’s all about clicks and downloads. There is no longer a total work of art.

However, this has hardly any influence on my artistic work. I enjoy producing music -even if I’m my only listener.

This year there will be a double download EP “Das Mädchen aus dem All” with 7 tracks each. We are also working on a new AD:KeY album and you won’t have to wait 7 years for a new Rector Scanner album. (laugh)

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

What happens when you mix a Star Wars composer with hybrid country music, and an English producer plus a banjo player annex Sly Cooper game composer? Then you probably get what the duo GW Childs IV and John Fryer came up with.

G.W. Childs IV is one of the founding members of the electro-industrial, synthpop band, Soil and Eclipse. In 1997 they released their debut album, “Necromancy” on COP International Records, followed by “Meridian”, “Archetype”, “Purity”, and “The Mirror”. But more important in this news story of today is that G.W. Childs IV has also worked for LucasArts/LucasFilm, creating games and processing character voices for Star Wars (“Star Wars: Battlefront”, “Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic 2”, and many more).

Comes in notorious English producer John Fryer: “I’ve always been interested in making some country music and working on this track with GW was like a dream come true. I hope you love it as much as I do.”

The third musician in the ploy is Peter McConnell who added a banjo performance. Peter McConnell also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every Sly Cooper game.

Here’s the unexpected result.

For more on John Fryer, see How the alternative scene launched two mega-projects to gather funds… on Side-Line.

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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“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8.55 this morning. She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.” One of the worst nightmares of the Star Wars fans materialised when the death of actress Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) was announced today, at 8.55 this morning.

Fisher died just 4 days after suffering a massive heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles after having visited the Flemish town of Bruges. She received emergency treatment on the plane before she was rushed to hospital where she remained in a critical condition.

Fisher didn’t have an easy life after her Star Wars fame, her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and her addictions to cocaine and prescription medication turned her life into a living hell. But by the late eighties she had overcome her problems and was steadily working on getting back into shape.

She went on to perform in several movies including “When Harry Met Sally…” and of course “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. She will also posthumously appear in “Star Wars: Episode VIII”.

Rest in peace Leia.

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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The complete “Trainspotting” cast is returning for a sequel as we reported a while back.

And now Sony also launched a first glimpse of “T2”, the sequel which takes place 10 years after the first film. Director Danny Boyle stays on board just like the original cast consisting of Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle.

You can view the 46 second long trailer below.

The 1996 British black comedy crime drama “Trainspotting” was based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. Ewan McGregor (Rent Boy), Ewen Bremner (Spud), Johnny LeeMiller (Sick Boy) and Robert Carlyle (Franco) will again be featured in the sequel which will be loosely based on “Porno”, the novel published in 2002 by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh

The book describes the characters of Trainspotting 10 years after the events of the earlier book, as their paths cross again, this time with the pornography business as the backdrop rather than heroin use. The film will take place 9 years after the original film.

Here’s how “Trainspotting” looked like…

Since “Trainspotting” the leading characters have been doing quite some acting work. Bremner for instance has played supporting roles in blockbusters such as “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down”, in which he appeared alongside Ewan McGregor (which he has again since, in “Perfect Sense” and “Jack the Giant Slayer”). Miller has risen to fame with his splendid acting work in for instance “The Flying Scotsman” (2006) and “Endgame” (2009). He currently stars as Sherlock Holmes in the CBS crime drama “Elementary”. Carlyle could be seen in “The Full Monty” (1997), “Ravenous” (1999), “28 Weeks Later” (2007) and many more films and television series. Finally there’s McGregor who has had success in mainstream, indie and art house films such as the young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), “The Ghost Writer”, and so on.

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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After the disappointing Star Wars movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, there is finally also some light at the end of the crap tunnel that Star Wars has become (at least we hope): Han Solo and Chewy will get their own spin-off!

For those who wonder why we say ‘disappointing”, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” featured a huge lot of very badly shot battle scenes on the ground (you can clearly see the fake stone props and the fact these scenes were shot indoors in most of the scenes), it also – again – had some pretty poor acting by most of the actors and overall was a very boring ordeal to go through. Fans of course will love it, since it’s the same formula over and over again.

Or to quote Andrew O’Hehir from Salon: “It was the work of a talented mimic or ventriloquist who can just about cover for the fact that he has nothing much to say”.

But enough about what was, let’s have a look at what will be. Lawrence Kasdan – writer of “The Force Awakens”, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” as well as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – will be joining both as writer and producer for a Han Solo + Chewy spin-off. Not that this makes us completely happy, so let’s hope the storyline will be far more interesting then the flat puree he came up with for the past Star Wars films. Cross your fingers!

The film will tackle the early careers of Han Solo (don’t expect Harrison Ford though but the Canadian actor Anthony Ingruber playing the role of the young Han Solo) and Chewbacca. The film will be an origin story about Han Solo and Chewy. Word has it that Disney is planning to release Star Wars related movies indefinitely, so we’ll probably hear more about Han Solo and Chewy in the near future (and that may well be the best news in ages).

On a side note, Anthony Ingruber might indeed be the perfect fit to play the young Han Solo. You can see a 2008 video the actor uploaded on YouTube with him doing a Han Solo performance from Star Wars. It’s spot on!

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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Star Wars remains quite popular in the industrial scene, for some odd reason. And for the geeks, there is now the ultimate toy, the BB-8, which has now gone on sale. BB-8 is an astromech droid that appears on the upcoming movie “Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens”. It has a ball shaped body and a domed head that resembles that of the R2 series droids, whose most popular unit is R2-D2. BB-8’s body rolls independently from the head, which always stays near the vertical axis of the droid.

But it doesn’t stay just a functioning film prop, as it is now made available as an app-enabled droid offering robotic movement, interaction and even personality so the makers say.

The BB-8 can be controlled using your smartphone or tablet but also recognises and reacts to your voice commands with a range of advanced expressions and behaviour. Designed with in-built holographic communication capacities, the Sphero BB-8 allows you to record and view virtual holographic videos. Add to that autonomous behaviour… yep, it has its own personality indeed.

Below is a video showcasing this little robot which is available from today on! For more Star Wars gadgets, check this selection.

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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