Review Everything : Part 9 : This Is The Last One I'm Doing (But There Might Be One More)
V▲LH▲LL : NEVERSLEEP : 8.5 out of 10
Ah, V▲LH▲LL, how you’ll always be a sweet little love of mine for the rest of my life. But, seriously, this once witch house based project has moved well beyond that. Creating a bit of a genre in their own right; folklore, occult-based, witchy, electronic music that sounds like a lullaby transporting you into an alternate dimension. But I think that’s what’s magical about this band; no matter what they do or how they evolve, their music always sounds great. I love the old stuff for sounding like an ancient being awaking in the modern age and citing old magics to the current world. And I love their new stuff on ‘NEVERSLEEP’ for sounding as if it’s the soundtrack to stepping through a magical portal in the woods and being transported into an alternate dimension. I suppose this is less of a review of the music and a review on how it makes me feel. But if an album evokes emotion and imagination in me than it has my heart forever. This is what V▲LH▲LL does on each of their releases and I love it.
Ghstprxy : Protonet : 8 out of 10
A very well developed and formidable cyberpunk track. No overblown production here like we see with most released under a familiar umbrella; a trickling bout of near-future goodness perfect for tabletop adventures, a drive at night, or trips to big cities painted in neon. The instrumental song does not bore either; while maintaining a consistent theme, it also throws in loops every now and again to keep the song fresh for it’s four-minute and twenty-second duration. Incredible and well done.
Neutron Dreams : Night Crawlers : 8 out of 10
Editor's Note: This one was written by Luke Jacobs. This is my first experience with Neutron Dreams. With a name like that, the first thing I thought of was synthwave, which has just become derivitive to point it longer holds any interest to me. However, Neutron Dreams may have some synthwave influence, but they have a more refined electronic approach connected to an earlier time. There is an obvious nod to Jean-Michael Jarre's Oxygene album from mid 70s which separates it enough from the stuff that pains me to hear to a point of joy and relaxation. The open soundscapes are foundational cathartic and unlock gateways into the vast celestial highways reserved for otherworldly travelers far more superior to those Earth-born, There are no lackluster tracks here, just a solid collection of interstellar exploration masked as an electronic album. Any aliens found here on this journey are more like E.T. than Independence Day, but that's cool, not every alien has to be mean to be cool. Fans of JMJ and Telefuture take note. A physical release would be appreciated by the Earthlings, especially with the overly goofy artwork. Klaatu Barada Nikto!Lost Masters : Some Say : 7 out of 10
Okay, good song, but I can barely hear the vocalist and it sounds like he has a pretty good set of chords. Though, again, I’m not sure because his voice is buried way in the back of the mix. The music however is pretty chill; blasts of synthetic keys on top of a sleazy noir beat. Trip-hop inspired with smokey vocals backing up the primary. Again, a good song, but get the mix a bit better so your vocals shine just as much as the music.
AVGMNT : SEQVENCES : 7 out of 10
A pretty good blend of industrial rock and futuristic themes. I remember enjoying what I heard from this duo on their single ‘HVMAN SKIN’, which also makes an appearance on this album, which makes seeing the final product enjoyable as well. Swell production with lots of varients in between; sometimes switching into hip-hop inspired beats and lyrically delivery, other times taking a break to make a pure synth-y, ambient track in ‘BVRIAL’. Total industrial blast, even replacing their U’s with V’s to showcase their dedication to this niche scene.
Majestoluxe : Dry, Cold & Free : 6.5 out of 10
A relatively safe EBM album that hits all the right nerves. Very minimalistic and cold with an old school feeling. The minimalist aspect also hurts the album, however, as so little goes on in the songs that eventually they dry up and bore. Production is grand, but I also feel as if the bass is muffled in songs such as ‘Business Angels’. While I don’t expect every song to be a dancefloor killer, this seems to be the route Majetoluxe was attempting to take but put themselves on a leash.
Sister Cell : Philosopher’s Stone : 6.5 out of 10
The brand-new EP from industrial rock / metal project Sister Cell. Not bad on any account but definitely needs improvement here and there. ‘Witch Field Encounter’ is a cute forty-second intro before diving into the bulk with ‘Hammer Horror’. The raw production works for me as the blast beats sear into my mind. The vocals need work, though; not quite as intimidating as the beat nor as rough and raw. Kind of ruins the vibe. And this is how I feel for a majority of the EP; grand and wondrous beats with an old school industrial vibe; the vocals need to be either reworked, or Sister Cell needs to hire on a vocalist. Otherwise solid industrial beats.
SET : Altered Reality : 5.5 out of 10
The first minute and some seconds of this song can be disregarded. I understand that Set was trying to set the mood with some spooky sounds and ambiance, but it failed to capture me as a listener. Came off a bit stale. When we get into the meat of the song things get both better and similar. The big bass hits nicely but the structure of the song does not. Hardly any room for variety and a repetitious doldrum of electronic rhythm. This isn’t anything to get hard for. Lots of potential, for sure, but nothing amazing.
Muta-suM : How They Remixed My Summer Apocalypse : 5.5 out of 10
The polarizing producer returns; I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with Muta-scuM. Sometimes on-point, other times bizarrely off beat. Noise, breaks, industrial, etc. Remix albums I don’t much care for on a normal basis, and this one remains the same. INTSEC’s remix is a fun and blasting techno beast with some lovely cinematic synths interwoven through the noise. A bit too long at seven minutes and forty-some seconds, but good nonetheless. VLHLL does their spooky witchy thing and sound good as always. The other three remixes aren’t worthy my time. Simple as that.
Chains of Agony : The Antinatalist : 5 out of 10
Before any goes off here and does the whole, “Haha, aggrotech, in 2023?” sort of act, no. Get outta here. I can enjoy aggrotech every once in a while but it has to be good; has to be unique. Something that we didn’t see when the industrial scene was hammered with aggrotech / hellectro releases. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do the trick. It does sound better than 90% of the other aggrotech bands that submit their music to the site thanks to tighter production values, but it’s nothing new that I haven’t heard from the genre. Rather stale and plain. Gotta give credit for the overall length of the album, though; ten original tracks with 18 remixes. So effort was definitely put in here. Just not a whole lot of payoff.
Millions of Dead Tourists : Healthy : 5 out of 10
This electronic album sounds like the opening credits song to a movie that goes on for way too long. There’s nothing too energetic about anything that comes off the album; a steady electronic trickle with bass guitars creating a frantic and frenetic rhythm. It never pays off, though; it never goes anywhere. Stuck in the mud. And while that rhythm does sound good, ten minutes of it becomes unbearable and boring.
Project Overdose : A war against war (choice is an illusion mix) : 5 out of 10
Barely anything going on in this song. Minimalist beat, like a chase song out of an old video game. One synth, vocal samples, one or two experimental whirls, and a bassline that goes in and out like a heartbeat. Very quiet, too. Too quiet. It felt like I was doing nothing the entire time this song was on.
Alphane Reality Generator : VALES : 4.5 out of 10
At first, I laughed at the title of the first song on the album ‘Confessions of a Crap Industrial Artist’. I like a project who has a good sense of humor; but the further I went into this album, the more I realized how much it wasn’t a joke. This is outdated from a production standpoint with nothing sounding completely mixed or mastered and a lot of the songs having repetitious and uninspired sounds. The title of the tracks takes titles from various media and parodies them. Unfortunately the creativity found within the songs aren’t that great.
Dpoint : dpoint : 3 out of 10
Holy hell are the vocals on this album awful. Like God awful. When once I heard this synthpop project’s lead vocalist open up his mouth, I paused the song and had to prepare myself for more. You know when a friend jokingly sings along to a song and they purposefully sound bad to make you laugh? Yeah, this is what that sounds like except dpoint isn’t attempting to sound bad and they’re not trying to be funny. This is their best and it just doesn’t work and is really, really, really torturous.
Earthflesh and Eyerolls : Elemental Atrocities : 3 out of 10
Noise. Well produced noise. But noise nonetheless. Stuff I’ve heard a thousand times before in the scene. Could be any other noise project. It’s not that great. It’s bland. Tasteless. But I’m not listening to nearly an hour’s worth of non-stop noise that I can get from any other source on the planet. Noise artists need to start recognizing the repetitious nature of their work and put in effort to avoid generalized sound structures that bleed into that genre so often.
BlipVert : The Sound Tower of Dr. Jitters : 1.5 out of 10
Did you ever own a Gameboy as a child? If not, look up the nostalgic sounds. Then, imagine if your GameBoy had a breakdown, and started convulsing at the same time. All those noises colliding with one another in an unfathomable mess that’s just a cacophony of noise; like throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. This is exactly what this album sounds like; it is completely unimpressive, janky, and not worth the time. This is Brutal Resonance, and I can be Brutal by saying that this is one of the worst things I’ve listened to in quite a long time.
Steven Gullotta
info@brutalresonance.comI've been writing for Brutal Resonance since November of 2012 and now serve as the editor-in-chief. I love the dark electronic underground and usually have too much to listen to at once but I love it. I am also an editor at Aggressive Deprivation, a digital/physical magazine since March of 2016. I support the scene as much as I can from my humble laptop.
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Highersense - Half Way Between is available at POPONAUT from 14,95€