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October 31, 2011

Torul “Partially Untamed”: Viva Music Album Review

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Tracklist: “In Whole (Original Mix)” * “Show Me Your City” * “In Whole (Noir Frais Remix)” * “In Whole (Tenek Remix)” * “In Whole (Bacteria Remix)” * “In Whole (Qualiass Stomp Remix)”

About Torul:

With their first single “Try“, Torul managed to launch a first club hit in our scene! The former Low Spirit artist delivers a fine mix of synthpop, electronic sounds and techno influences to create an own musical sound! Often compared to acts such as Sono, Mesh or Iris, the band stands for a unique modern pop sound. “Partially Untamed” is the second outtake of their forthcoming album “In Whole” which will be released early December 2011! This double A-side single is limited to 500 physical units and features the massive tunes “In Whole” + “Show me your city“, as well as various remixes in different musical styles! A true must have for all fans of good electronic pop music! Listen and enjoy! (source: press release)

Torul “Partially Untamed”: Viva Music Album Review:

Out at Infacted Records this month, Torul’s newest single, an insolent peek into what their next album, “In Whole”, expected for December this year is going to be, shows alongside the album title track the new song “Show Me Your City” and what’s more, great remixes of the core track, including one by Tenek! Torul sounds resplendent and carefree, and is proposing an intriguing musical experience with “In Whole”, one that builds up with each sound and creates a safe haven of harmonies and emotions, a pretty good hiding place if you’re looking for shelter. The refined instrumental course of the track shapes up against a great vocal experience, and the production of the track shows that it is indeed a title worthy of giving its name to an album. Of equal interest are the reworks of the track included in the single release, as well as the new track. The remixes are all topnotch and you cannot actually single out one that catches the attention more than the rest, because they are all intent on keeping the track’s efficient use of melody and transpose it in different musical surroundings, embellishing it as if showing it around in a museum of mirrors, which instead of distorting the song’s reality, put it in different perspectives, and are all pulling out quintessential elements from Torul’s track.

Torul – Official Website | on Facebook | Discography on Discogs

October 12, 2011

Shiv-r “This World Erase” – Viva Music Album Review

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Tracklist: “Entree” * “Pharmaceutical Grade” * “God Is Art” * “Incision” * “Hollow Mask” * “This World Erase” * “Blind Mice” * “Deafening” * “This Fix” * “Stripped” * “Alpha Omega” * “Lingerie” * “Arise”

About Shiv-r:

Shiv-r are: Virul3nt (Pete Crane), and Kong (Lee Bulig).

After hitting the scene with their innovative debut album “Hold My Hand” and the hard-hitting follow up EP “Incision“, Shiv-r are back in 2011 with “This World Erase“, a new full-length album to awaken the dark side lying dormant beneath our skin. No stranger to club hits, Shiv-r tread this ground stronger and heavier than ever with plenty of harsh club annihilators destined for the dancefloor. Haunting, neoclassical tendrils also encompass the brutal club sounds while a more evolved lyrical and vocal approach attacks themes such as nihilism, the romantic rendering of abuse and above all waging a war on apathy. From the grindingly slow vampiric dirge of “This Fix“, to the psy-infused energetic explosion of “Alpha Omega” and the overly emotive title track, “This World Erase” is a varied and evolved follow-up album that further establishes Shiv-r‘s gossamer stranglehold and strives to make us feel alive in a dying, apathetic world. (source: press release)

Read about Shiv-r’s performance at Nocturnal Culture Night 2011 here| See the photo gallery for Shiv-r’s performance at Nocturnal Culture Night 2011 here

Shiv-r “This World Erase”: Viva Music Album Review:

Can a music album be an exercise in eloquence? After listening to Shiv-r’s “This World Erase”, released this week (and already a top seller with Metropolis Records and a point of pride for Infacted Records) and giving it a serious thought, the answer is definitely yes. The purity of the sound, the shrewdness, and, audacity of the lyrics, and their fortifying combination really bring on a special effect. Listening to this album is like listening to a good friend, who, no matter what the two of you are talking about, brings you reason and clarity. Nothing stands out in an obtrusive manner, and nothing provokes havoc. And all songs included in “This World Erase” are like pieces in a puzzle: they mix, they match, and fall in the right pattern before your eyes. (more…)

August 26, 2011

Placebo Effect – “Gargoyles & Galleries” Re-Release – Viva Music Album Review

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Tracklist: “Mystress” * “Intoxication” * “Psychotrauma” * “Poison Tree” * “Brain Entrophy” * “Galleries of Pain (Bloody Pain Remix)” * “Intersection” * “Move (Animation Remix)” * “Psychological Drama” * “Devoid Soul (Salvation Remix)” * “Autopsia” * “Agony of the Mind” * “Dawn and Death” * “Lumph” * “Move” * “Galleries of Pain” * “Last Day” * “Hard Work” Tracks 1-14 from the original tracklisting of “Galleries of Pain”. Tracks 15-18 from the original tracklisting of “Gargoyles”.

About Placebo Effect:

Christoph Kunze, Achim Windel and Axel Machens started Placebo Effect  in 1988. While Christoph and Axel already dabbled in music making with their project Pleasure and Crime, Achim brought to the band his interest in contemporary electronic music, from Skinny Puppy to Cabaret Voltaire, and from Kraftwerk to Gary Numan. After early live experiences that were on the verge of trespassing ban limits with their gory musical content and medical gowns they donned on stage, the acclaim came to the band with the 1990 Danse Macabre release of their “Gargoyles” EP and their success in a Zillo band contest. Also from this date, their collaboration to Das Ich’s Bruno Kramm dates; a collaboration that also brought their “Galleries of Pain” to fame. Their first full-length album of 1992 was followed by “Slashed Open” and “Manipulated Mind Control”, adding to the band’s portfolio sufficient material for their 1996 compilation “Past and Present”, a selection of the band’s finest. In 2003, after several years’ hiatus, the band got together again, and in 2011, Infacted Records honors their music by releasing a digital remastering of their first two materials under the contracted “Gargoyles and Galleries” title in their classics collection.

About Placebo Effect – “Gargoyles and Galleries” – Viva Music Review:

The placebo effect is a pharmaceutical expression of patients feeling improvement due to their belief in medication’s curative effect, notwithstanding the overall inefficiency of the treatment or inaccuracy of the diagnosis on the basis of which the drugs were medicated. Often, in clinical research, the term of ‘blind test’ is used to describe the assignment of medication to patients of the same ailing: to some the real research drug is offered, while to others a ‘blind’ substance is given, and the effects are monitored for research purposes. Taking further the analogy, being ‘served’ in 2011 Placebo Effect is similar in strength: you could be tricked into believing you’re listening to music created in recent years, but get out, twenty years ago! So there is a lot of context defamiliarization, of the good kind, when listening to Placebo Effect. (more…)

August 25, 2011

Unitary – “Safe from Harm” – Viva Music Album Review

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“Unitary is a narrative composed of order and disorder, longing with endurance and the dreams of imaginary bliss in an age of conformity.” (source)

Tracklist:  “Cold” * “Calm” * “Renitent” * “Aria” * “Clarity” * “Zenith” * “Repair” * “Closer Apart” * “Travesty” * “Woven Heart” * “Der Perfekte Traum” * “No Signal” Mixed by: Walter Baecklin; Music, words, mixed and recorded by: Johan Hansson; recorded by: Daniel Soedeberg

About Unitary:

Unitary is the brainchild of Johan Hansson coming all the way from Uppsala/Sweden. Unitary is a narrative composed of order and disorder, longing with endurance and the dreams of imaginary bliss in an age of conformity. After bands such as Covenant, Cat Rapes Dog or recently Necro Facility, Sweden proves once more that it’s the leading country for innovative alternative electronic pop music! After a first compilation appearance on „Infacted Compilation #1” and the vocal guest appearance alongside Frozen Plasma on the song “Ebb and Flow“, Unitary present their first official studio album under the seal “Safe From Harm“! A sound mixture in between early Covenant and modern influences of bands such as Assemblage 23, Frozen Plasma, or Diorama. Twelve masterpieces on one album far away from today’s uninspired electro hear-a-likes! Innovative electronic pop music with an edge!

Unitary – “Safe from Harm” – Viva Music Album Review:

After a first album released in 2003, “Second to None” with Off Label Productions, Unitary is back in 2011 with the album “Safe from Harm” with Infacted Recordings. While the whole creative process behind the album’s mastermind, Johan Hansson, is laid out in the open, the major merit of not becoming artificial in the process. With a very quiet tectonics of sound, but with erupting vocal lava beneath, “Safe from Harm” is a good listening recommendation of 2011, and one we would like to see develop in a multifaceted manner in the future.

Unitary means one, and this trite statement is however necessary in order to remind of one of the major merits of the album – as a one-man enterprise, it is really astonishing. With all due respect to all trained ears, the album could easily sound as the endeavor not of one, but many. However, it is true that today’s technology, put into the right hands, can make a band from just one person – and from this perspective, Unitary stands for something we want to see replicas of in many genres. (more…)

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