Fleisch & Waffeln - Svin

"Learn From Your Mistakes" is a often-repeated mantra, and when a Brutal Resonance writer tears your release apart on these pages, the message is not to give up, but to produce something better next time. And having vented my disappointment at Fleisch & Waffeln for their terrible 'Meat EP', it seems the band agreed with my appraisal of this piece of juvenalia and promply submitted their new EP for review. And I'm happy to give them a second chance.

The "Svin" EP (it means 'Swine' or some other pig-related term) clocks in a mere 7 minutes total, a good sign for a genre that's supposed to be short, sharp and to the point. And the title track, a mere 2 minutes and 8 seconds in length, makes all the right EBM noises - blunt bassline, deep throaty grunts for vocals and percussion panned across the stero channels, just the way it was on Front By Front. Two mixes are offered, the title mix marginally the stronger of the two, with the 'Mit Pommes' version (gotta love that fast-food menu title) coming across as slightly muted and thus less impactful. Believe it or not, we Brits don't always like everything with chips.....

The final track is the G9 mix of "EBM Soldat". I don't know the original, but this track sounds somewhat 'static' compared to the title tune, not terrible but taking the 'mechanical beat' concept too far and sounding a touch lifeless as a result. Anyway, Fleisch & Wafflen have at least passed into the realm of EBM acceptability now, and they benefit from not getting too clever conceptually, and songs about meat are always welcome round my way. The whole thing is available on Bandcamp for a 'Name Your Price', so if you're after some old-style body beats and have seven minutes to spare, you could do worse than grabbing this. Jan 31 2014