The theremin in the opening track "The Ghost inside" is making the track both very dreamy and
mystical, it ends like it began, quietly fading away......
Track two with the violia is wonderfully fresh, voices layered on top making the perfect combination.
I grab myself singing along while playing "air" guitar.
Track 3 "Angle" is bringing us down into the deepth, a bit Bauhausian (those lovely guys).
Beautiful magic, true tender moments of melancholy, even a bit The Legendary Pink Dotsish at moments.
True the whole album I also feel the presence of Godspeed You Black Emperor....
Try to sit quiet when playing "Billion year half life", or "Planting".
Play it over and over and over again, fantastic true geniuses at work......
Eleven delicious tracks (please notice that the last track don't appear before track 77).
PLAY LOUD!
 

www.elysiangoa.net
info@elysiangoa.net
info@toxicwear.net

Faler: House of common

A nice and melodic americana cd with catchy songs all performed and produced by one man,
Wayne Faler. The mood is relaxed and laidback, it's nice background music not doing something
unpredictable but just following the same pace. You will find some certain highlights om this cd,
track 2 "Realize" and track 6 "Aimless". I have no problem with recommending this cd.

http://www.thegroundlabel.com/
info@thegroundlabel.com

Fields of The Nephilim:
Mourning Sun

My all time greatest goth icons have done it again. It's truely what you could call a ressurection from the dead.
Who would have thought that they could deliver such a mindblowing comeback after several years of silence.
Carl McCoy is back with his charming and devilish raspy voice, making a journey to hell and back.
This is a powertrip of goth delight. WONDERFUL! It's Fields of The Nephilim with a look into the future, raw
and unpolished with some delightful power beats.

Fiji Mermaid: Fiji Mermaid Ep

A one person project by Justine Herbert, doing all the lyrics and instrumentation.
The recording is very lo-fi and laidback. She has created her own unique style and
universe with peculiar lyrics. She has a folkish approach to every song with very simple
instrumentation, the sound is very stripped down. It actually has a bit of the oddness that
I liked with the The Cosmiks. The whole project has a kind of sadness layered on top, a bit of
the Sylvia Plath feel expressed through music. A feel of loneliness and isolation.

http://home.earthlink.net/~hjustine/
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/105/fiji_mermaid.html

Fiji Mermaid: Green Pond
fijimermaid.com

Thanks  Justine this is pure balm for the soul. Minimalistic and stripped down with
a naked  honest voice and some simple instrumentation, just listen to the lovely instrumental
"I had a little piggie". Eleven dreamy escapes. That Justine has grown and matured as an artist
is quite obvious, this is beautiful. The sadness that she had on her Fiji Mermaid Ep some time back
is still present, but a kind of joyfulness is also present. 
The record also has some noisy parts that fits the rest of the material very good, listen to "Forest Walk"
and you will understand what I mean.
If you want something unique, honest and very beautiful just contact  fijimermaid.com.

The Fire Apes: Central Park Carousel
www.TheFireApes.com
www.KOOLKATMUSIK.com
A strong Beatlemania feel to the whole record combined
with some catchy modern poprock references.
It's a very pleasant acquiantance. In track 5 they have
a more ska-rock attitude and is breaking the slow tempo
that started the 4 first tracks of this record. The main
focus of this record is to make some good melodic pop tunes with
catchy choruses and sing along ba-ba--pas and la-la's.
Let yourself be swept away back to the sixties.

Floodland: Ocean of the lost

You could clearly hear their gothic roots, but they want to label their music neo gothic rock.
I am tempted to agree that they have found their own expression, just listen to track 2 the title
track, it's quite clear another approach to the genre, it reminds me a bit of Paul Roland on the
quiet pieces (a person more true to the written gothic legends, an english gentleman).
Track 3 "Crepusculum" is really close to my gothic "heroes" Fields of the Nephilim, but then
all of a sudden you have interludes in which you clearly could hear their neo classical influences
and they sound very different.
Christian Meyer has a very dark, talkish vocal very suitable for the music that Floodland play.
I could on some of their more instumental parts of the album feel the prog-rockian influence.
Nothing wrong at all about lending from goth icons if it's done so cleverly as in track 10, but if
you listen closely the intro is very recognizable, I am sure you will agree with me.

Fifteen strong tracks....

Floodland: Decay
Wait and Bleed, 2002

Floodland is back with a strong release. The musical landscape and sound is much richer than their
previous recordings. The electronics are playing a major part, quite different from before. Still the music is
exploring the darker sides of  us humans. The vocals is a important instrument to strengthen the feeling of
despair, Meyer's voice has matured, he clearly shows his potential as a very good vocalist.
They are taking us on a psychotic journey, down long forgotten back alleys of our mind. The title track
"Decay" is one of my favourites, a song that shakes your emotions, so cleverly put together.
The whole album is slow tempo, very Paul Rolandish if I may say so.
It's very gothic, but more in the written sense of the word, following ancient traditions, far from the EBM and
the hard hiting danceable goth, lovely. It's slow dancing with you and your own "self".
The album is closing with "First flower after the flood", so sweet, sing along, it's the true display of melancholy,
a worthy closer of  this very good recording.
Their best recording to date.

waitandbleed@aon.at
contact@floodland.org
 

The Foots: Again...

The Melbourne all-girl three piece based The Foots follow up to their self-titled debut album.
I hear a lot of resemblance to Sleater-Kinney, but also to the former Throwing Muses member
Tanya Donelly and her band Belly. It's fresh indie music with intensity. I could also hear some
The Breeders influences.
It's a quiet and laidback recording  miles from the rebellious riot-girlllls movement. You could
feel the delicious self-confidence and tightness of the band.
The vocals has a very clear australian accent and pronounciation that gives the music an authentic
and unique twist, and makes it possible to pick the out of a crowd with a lot of similar bands.
I must say that I really liked the recording.

The Lost  & Lonesome Recording Co

lostandlonesome@hotmail.com
www.lostandlonesome.com.au
 

Freebus: The Yeti

A very pleasant listening experience. It all stars off with the title track The Yeti, a lovely piece with great
percussions, first starting a bit in Tom Waits country but soon getting a bit more funky adding the saxophone.
The next track "People too" reminds me a little of Tones on Tail on their "Seventh Dream in Teenage Heaven"
album.
The vocals is a bit smoky and gives a feeling of being part of a journey on dusty roads pulling off the mainroad
and taking a rest at a local "saloon", just playing for a local audience that seem to have been inside the place for
ages...
"Charlie" is again bringing "us" onto the mainroad, a song filled with hope and expectations, something soon to be
fulfilled.
The album is packed with moody songs about journeys, life expectations and things yet to come.
Eleven delicious songs in a charming cocktail.

Have a Sandwich Productions
bths@xsite.net.

Front Line Assembly: Epitaph
Metropolis Records

 Leeb and company is back stronger than ever.
 New music for a new century. It's not hard to love this EBM icons.
 This release is more stripped down in sound, not so many layers of sounds
 like in previous realeses from this guys.You have a wide variety of styles
 from the more danceble tracks to the harsh and bitter sounding track
 "Backlash".
 I just love this album. The album is more of a concept albums that you have
 to listen through without breaks. It gets better and better after several
 hours of spinning.
 They play functionalistic EBM with very structured arrangments, the music
 bounces back to you, back from the cold and unfriendly walls that are just
 scenes and settings for another very strong album.

http://www.metropolis-records.com/