Surgyn - Hit the Nerve

Surgyn's single 'Hit The Nerve' is closely knitted together with their debut album 'Vanity' which will be reviewed very soon by Brutal Resonance's own Nick Freakin' Quarm. But to be fair, he actually already reviewed the original version of the album with Surgyn's own self release before the summer.

"Hit the Nerve" has a very clean sound for being Harsh EBM, while I still would call it Harsh, it sometimes borders on what E-craft did in their 'Electrocution' album back in 1999, flirting like a slut with the harder techno scene. Still, there's a lot of hard EBM and Dark Electro in the mix as well. What I like about it is the clean soundscape, the massive beats and the high club potential. With that in mind, the Modulate remix does not really float my boat. Not that it has a gritty sound per say, it's simply somehow loose the cleanliness in the process.

However, the Cygnosic remix is excellent, reforming and reshaping the track almost into a futurepopesque escapade by removing the distorting from the vocals and making the music wear something cute instead of sweaty black leather, giving this track a completely new outfit, exploring new possibilities and ways for this story to be told.

The B-side of this single is "Pressure" and it's much more simple minded, less lyrics and goes with a grunting version of the old Nitzer Ebb repetitive chanting. While the club potential is high on this track as well (simply because the explosiveness in the performance), you tend to grow a bit tired of hearing "Pressure - Breath" one time for every grain of sand on this planet.

With 'Hit the Nerve', Surgryn advances as a new interesting act to follow and since they are potent enough to keep it up for an entire album, I'm quite sure that Death Watch Asia will do a Fritzl with these guys. Putting them in a newly dug basement, away from craving fingers that might steal them away, and it's fair to say that they are doing the right thing. Aug 26 2011