V/A Table Of Elements Volume 5.0 (Album – M-Tronic)
Genre/Influences: IDM, Minimal-Electro, Industrial, Ambient-Electro, Experimental.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: Twenty seven tracks to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the French label M-Tronic. As the title indicates, it also is the fifth volume in the Compilation series “Table Of Elements” which started in 2004 with ten tracks.
Artists: C.H.District, Cathode Ray Tube, Alpturer, Amantra, An Hedonia, Plaster, Mono Peninsula, Valance Drakes, Nearfield, Syl Kougaï, Tineidae + Comforting Darkness, EKS Center, DEF, Obscure Formats, Snowbeasts, Martin Dupont & Philippe Petit, Xorcist, Flint Glass, Ermanspeed, Shizuka, Leitmotiv Rainbow, Lith, Cruise [ctrl], NSP.
Content: The impressive tracklist perfectly stands for the particular and minimal-driven sound of the M-Tronic roster. It’s an avant-garde vision of the Electronic underground scene featuring an intelligent, sophisticated and complex approach of Electronic music. Most bands are familiar names from the label roster although you’ll discover other bands as well.
+ + + : M-Tronic is a label I’ve always respected for its visionary approach. Electronic music is much more than artists repeating each other and music genres without innovation. M-Tronic brings visionary music and always have dared to sign unknown bands with an intelligent sound. But intelligent music often stands for a rather restricted number of fans. I however remain an adherent of this label and this compilation simply confirms the good taste of the French label. And when you realize the label also released albums of bands like Millimetric, Mlada Fronta, Ex_Tension, Displacer, Geomatic ao, which aren’t featured on this compilation, you only, but have to agree this label stands for high tech productions.
– – – : A few more explicit Experimental passages aren’t my favorites one, but you don’t hear me to complaining.
Conclusion: Electronic music with an uppercase E!
Best bands: Tineidae + Comforting Darkness, Ermanspeed, S.H.I.Z.U.K.A., Lith, C.H. District, Leitmotiv Rainbow.
Rate: 8½.
Label: www.m-tronic.com / www.facebook.com/mtroniclabel
About M-Tronic
M-Tronic is a Paris-based electronic label active since July 2001. Its catalogue numbers follow the periodic table of elements, which is also where the “Table Of Elements” compilation series takes its name.
“Table Of Elements Volume 5.0” was released on 16 March 2021 to mark the label’s twentieth anniversary. The Bandcamp listing describes it as a 25-track compilation running more than 145 minutes, while the review above counts twenty seven tracks. Cover photography is credited to N.S.P. and the design to Element.
The label roster represented here includes Lith and Tineidae. The first of those gave Side-Line an interview in June 2022, published as the Click Interview with Lith.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
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.
