Hope Estheim - Sleepwalkin Societies

The futurepop revival is in full effect! Unfortunately the big names of the genre are still active, some mediocre names are returning, and there is some new stuff around like Melbourne's Hope Estheim. And i have to say i am not really impressed.

Its standard futurepop like they made it around 2001. The band also claims being influenced by dubstep, but that's only in a few breaks where we hear the slow beatgrind. And when that is accompanied by a very weak bassline, as opposed to those growling monsters proper dubstep producers are using Hope Estheim falls flat on its face.

If we concentrate on the futurepop Hope Estheim is mainly about cliches. Its all there: The detuned supersaws from the virus synths, the dancebeat, the analogue bass on the afterbeat, and the trance influences. A song like "Promises For Sale" sound more like popular trance from the 90's but even then it doesn't achieve to get even close to similar names like Darude or Tiesto. Original? Absolutely not. Good? No. Not bad either. Just mediocre and uninteresting. Something mildly original might be the female vocals, but there are already futurepop bands with female vocalists around, so that does not really save Hope Estheim. Well, maybe they might get a deal on Alfa Matrix for their next release. Who knows.

This EP give you 4 original tracks and three remixes of the title track, which is better then the usual two tracks and 8 remixes of the titletrack which seems to be the norm in futurepop/EBM/Electro-industrial land. Unfortunately the remixes have nothing to add to the original, though the Cease2exist mix might be usable in a DJ set.

'Sleepwalking Societies' is an EP which is not bad, but will also not achieve much. We have heard it all before more than a decade ago. The inclusion of dubstep influences does not work because Hope Estheim can't get the bass dropped in a decent fashion. If you are a hardcore futurepop fan, you might like this, but don't expect the successor to VNV Nation or Icon of Coil here. Apr 23 2013