Syndrome X/209 - In Loving Memory...

This is my first review for Brutal Resonance, and I chose a 4-track EP by the Swedish band Syndrome X/209 to get my feet wet, so to speak.

Curious about the title, "In Loving Memory...", I had a short chat with Kettil Sundberg, the voice of Syndrome X/209, who said of the EP, "I was mostly just releasing tracks that had an older sound and didn't fit the other material."

These are often great tracks, they are sometimes only played live or they have just never found an official release that they fit into. I have come to refer to them as "orphans", and every band has them.

The opening track is Optix-Noir and I like the minimal feel to this track. It easy to imagine dancing to this track live, however as a listener, and not at a club or a show, it seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to. It felt like the songwriter just didn't know where or how it was supposed to end. Surprisingly, when it did reach the end, the ending was really good, not often the case in situations like this!

Up next was Pale Flesh, and this is the track that caught my attention first and immediately made it onto my radio playlists. A very dance floor friendly track as are 3 out of 4 of the tracks on the EP. The first break at :55 seemed to come too earlyjust as the track was establishing itself. Wonderful breaks at 2:17 and 3:12 that recapture the listeners attention, yer the track never loses the beats which means you will keep the the dance floor active. On this track I really love the abrupt ending. I would say that the voice may be a tad over-processed, but I could make out most of the words, and I loved the way many times the voice was stretched into an electronic effect.

The third track on the EP is Create/Destroy. The first 14 seconds were difficult to picture mixing and made me want to forward the track. I did not and the syncopation resolved nicely into the beat of the song. The odd rythym returns at 1:23, but I realized that they mirrored the sentiment of the song, the disjointedness of your life after losing the closest friend/love you have. The one track on the EP that I would say is not particularly dance floor friendly, it is, nonetheless, very well put together. It easily conveys the feeling and emotion of losing that which has been so close to your heart. As an aside, I would have loved this ending on the remix!

The final track is a Create/Destroy (Say Just Words Remix). The level of the lyrics are a tad low on this track, but the music is beautiful. The breaks at 1:28 and 2:02 carry the beats through. The words "There's nothing left for me" lead to silence at 3:14, emphasizing the sense of being left alone. This is a track that will be haunting you long after you first hear it. If the ending had a bit more fade out I would be happier, but I would say this is a nearly perfect track...

I have noticed there is a trend to release "orphans"and I think this is a wonderful way for a band to show depth and range. I personally would prefer this trend to the other one I have noticed, that of releasing remix CDs. Are you listening bands? Your fans would always prefer new material over re-worked classics everytime! "In Loving Memory..." is a perfect example that concept. Mar 25 2012