Various Artists - Minimal Milan

Minimal Trend Records is an Italian based label focusing on modern music with their ideas based in the past. So, as of right now, you're looking at a label that focuses on getting vinyl records and cassettes out there. This release is a record based around a collection of electronic artists based in Italy which has both an A side and a B side.

To start off, we were given Au+'s EVEN. A fairly minimal electronic song (as the title of the record would suggest), that plays with decent sounds throughout. The sound can be even a little noisy at parts, but it still works well. The vocals compromise of a woman talking over the beat, and though it's hard to hear her, the vocals sound decent.

Plovdiv's Cracks in Space comes out with a better beat than the previous, an electronic instrumental with nice, somewhat 80s sounds. A bit repetitious, but definitely enjoyable.

A robotic vocal set decided to visit on TheToblerOrchestra's Scry. Lots of sci fi inspiration seemed to flow through this song, and it made it all the better.

A dark ambient mix came into play with Words and Actions' Unwelcome. A nice little beat flows over the dark ambient nature of the song. Not the greatest, but I managed to get through it alright.

On the B side came along MM2 with HAL 9000. Obviously inspired from the lovable robot from Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, the song does a good job playing it low key till more electronic effects are added in. Not bad, but not great.

And, as much as I liked the final song, MarryMe2night's Grave for Drowning, as it really did make me think of something that would belong in a 70s/80s film, I found it to be repetitious and tiresome after a while of listening to it.

Now, the artists present here aren't all too bad, but there just wasn't much to be impressed by. I'm not horrified by this collection, but nor am I jumping with joy from it. You could say I catch myself in between when listening to this music, finding not too much care for whether or not it stays or goes, whether or not I listen to it again or if it is just left as it is. I hope that future releases from the label will be more enjoyable. Jun 19 2014