Terminates Here (Reviews Only)

Krieg & Frieden

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:52:20 GMT

I may have a soft spot for old-style electronic body music in the vein of early Nitzer Ebb, Front 242 and co, but there's a limit to what you can do with the style. I've always been willing to tolerate Orange Sector's limitations as they've always been able to come up with tracks that are, by the standards of the genre, catchy and easy to swallow. But they've exhausted their credit now. Their 1990s output might have been varied in quality, but their synthpop and industrial influences they briefly wove into their sound at least kept it varied. Ever since

Further

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:47:39 GMT

The Chemical Brothers were one of the key names during the mid-90s 'big beat' dance craze a rare example of a dance genre that crossed over into rock and alternative circles, an arena where the artist behind the music was more important to than who operated the record deck. I, like many others lost interest come the 00s I easily acquired their last two albums for peanuts on eBay and a run through each indicated an increasing reliance on guest vocalists and (in the case of 'The Salmon Dance' from the last album) gimmicks. The Chems had jumped

Shattered Heart Reflections

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:25:58 GMT

I remember watching Top Gear back in the mid-90s, when they actually made an effort to review cars real people might buy. Jeremy Clarkson was tasked with reviewing the Vauxhall Vectra, a middle-of-the-road car for middle-managers. Typical corporate fleet material. He spent the majority of the review shrugging his shoulders, at a loss as to what to say about a car which had nothing really wrong with it, but nothing remarkable either. And I'm in a similar situation here. I have no idea as to what to say about this album.

I do have one interesting thing to

How To Destroy Angels

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:34:27 GMT

Trent Reznor is obviously making up for lost time. 2005's 'With Teeth' saw a creative return for Nine Inch Nails after a 6-year gap. A succession of NIN releases would follow thereafter, only for the project to go on hiatus in 2009. And now Trent surprises us again, in the sense that one of his side-projects actually sees release, and after only a year of waiting, too! And it's free! Angels 1, Tapeworm 0.

Of course, as Trent Reznor is/was/will be Nine Inch Nails, you might wonder why he's bothered with a different name for the project. It's probably due to

Loblieder

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:50:53 GMT

I don't remember hearing many Megaherz remixes over the years, and having gone to the effort of acquiring their entire backcatalogue, that's actually something of a surprise. For those of you who don't know, Megaherz are one of the open secrets of the NDH scene If you live outside of Germany, you'd be hard pushed to learn of their existence unless you:

a) Frequent the file sharing networks, and acquired some mysterious Rammstein track called 'Gott Sein'. Only to realise several years later that it's no da 'Stein after all but actually a band called 'Megaherz'

b) Frequent sites like

Violently Alive

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:37:52 GMT

I might have waxed lyrical about the new Nitzer Ebb album, but so did everyone else, and thanks to the launch date of this site, they did so several months before me. But whilst they've spent a full 15 years getting new material together, there's a another project from the South-East corner of England that have been at the hard, rhythmic elecronics for just as long, and with an equally long "creative break" in the middle of their career. Wikipedia calls them "one of the most famous obscure electronic music acts in the world", which is contradiction in terms if

Born Again

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:59:33 GMT

I'd almost given up waiting. It's been twelve years since 'The Gospel Of Inhumanity'. An album which drew influence from the darkest corners of the neofolk, martial, occult and industrial scenes, and then ironically delivered one of the most listenable albums this highly elitist subgenre has produced. And now after barely stoking the fire with various live albums, colabs and limited singles for more than a decade, Michael Moynihan FINALLY issues the long-awaited full-length follow up to his debut. And despite the man's reputation as an extremist 'bad egg' (the debate about how true this is can rage elsewhere, I'm

Popgefahr

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:32:21 GMT

Have you ever spotted a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, if you're so inclined) that was essentially your 'type', bore all the features that you usually find attractive, but you simply didn't find attractive for some undefinable reason? I'm like that with De/Vision. I usually love morose European synthpop bands, but this one has always lacked a certain something, despite (or maybe because of) the polished, professional quality of their output. Every now and again they do something to catch my attention, only for me to realise shortly after that I didn't like it that much

Cinderellicious

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:26:04 GMT

This is the second album from the Cinderella Effect project (a Blutengel spin-off, in case the name of creative driving force Constance Rudert means nothing to you), but the first to contain original songs. The first album was simply a collection of cover versions of various schwarze-scene 'standards, though in fairness, some of these did prove to be an interesting creative twist on the originals (like that cabaret-esque 'Timekiller' cover). But cover albums are always going to be an easy option. How is Cinders gonna cope when she has to find her own way to the ball and write her

Eiszeit

jonny@terminateshere.co.uk (Jonny EOL) — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:12:00 GMT

Whilst Rammstein are busy filling arenas around the world, it's worth remembering that there are plenty of other bands out there practising the 'New German Hardness' (as it is now called), and some of them are knocking out the albums at a rate that put Till and Co to shame. This is the fourth Eisbrecher album in six years, outpacing both the project they emerged from (Megaherz) and those firey Berlin superstars who I'll try to avoid mentioning by name again in this review. It's not that a comparison is fallacious (in fact it's pretty close to the truth).