Smother Magazine – A Site Dedicated Since '96 Covering all the Music that You Haven't Heard Of.

Featuring seven remixes of their “Filmezza” adventuresome album, Delicate Noise’s latest remix album casts its net wide across the globe in search of artists to re-rub their music. With young-and-upcoming electronic musical groups reaching far and wide from such places as France, Japan, Iceland, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., “Filmezza Remixes” has repaved the highways that the original concreted. Throughout the album there are elements of bleak and stripped down electro house, minimal soundtrack and psychedelic art, art-noise, atmospherics, and synthetic electro. Eclectic and essential.

Moroccan primitive electronica!?! Okay well the duo isn’t really from the Middle East but they temper the sounds of the Saharan Desert with the ethno-centric music of the Middle East while filtering it all through a mirage of experimental electronica and primitive noise ala Throbbing Gristle. Dangling elements of sonic manipulation while copulating with authentic middle-eastern textures and musical elements, Khamsa Khala (who is really Don Poe and Neville Harson with several guests), conjure a musical extraction that one rarely finds. Also the full-length disc comes packaged with a DVD of several music videos shot in Morocco and Egypt in full HD quality. Another money release from our friends at Lens Records.

Another dark industrial EBM and dance album by one of best up-and-comers this past decade has seen in this genre, Suicide Commando. “Implements of Hell” smashes your skull against hard concrete drum loops, techno acid synths, and distorted vocals that could only be heralded by people who have a sinister desire of the dark gothic underworld. The album populates each banging beat with gyrating club-friendly melodies that while harsh are still undeniably catchy. To date Suicide Commando had yet to release such a compelling stroke of genius that was across the board fantastic but “Implements of Hell” does just that and much more raising the bar for everyone else in a very dominated EBM genre.

Remixes of KMFDM’s latest album released in 2009, “Blitz”; “Krieg” is a body-crushing dance nightmare with some of scene’s bravest and best innovators tapped to revision the music into something distinct and even more intriguing than the original track. The album opens with a bang with Combichrist’s “All 4 One Mix” of “Bait & Switch”, sounding like a rave held at an abandoned east European factory.  Then “Strut” is rerubbed by Andy Selway whose “Disco Balls” mix is dirty and reminds one of Lords of Acid. Seismologist offers up a darkened “Potz Blitz!” that bleeds old school industrial dance. Prong grabs their distortion pedals and pounds on your eardrums with their rendition of “Bait & Switch”. Skinny Puppy contributor and engineer Dave “Rave” Ogilvie brokers his take on “Never Say Never” with a mix that’s surprisingly very Yo Gabba Gabba with its sun-soaked synths and pleasant melodies. Other notable contributors are Komor Kommando, Assemblage 23, tweaker, Koichi Fukuda, and Vile Evils (Pop Will Eat Itself).

When people mutter the word “crossover” in regards to music, I find it usually is a reference to two possibilities – one being that it’s a “nu-metal” type band from the ‘90s in the vein of Korn or Deftones or hell even Limp Bizkit, and the second being even worse, an excuse for not being able to write music that’s good, thus using a genre crutch to get by the simple fact that your band can’t write anything cohesive or imaginative. Slow Six has convinced me that there’s a third; a genuine crossover that crosses the genres of classical in the traditional sense with electronic music in the semi-traditional sense – and I’ve found that more and more bands in this hybrid genre are being self-referential when saying the ‘c’ word. Interesting how music and the verbiage to describe it constantly is evolving, huh?

Slow Six – Tomorrow Becomes You

The music of this breed is one that is both a stripped down and raw acoustic-electro experiment that refuses to abandon the structures that classical music has eschewed for a handful of centuries now. “Tomorrow Becomes You” is somewhat prophetic in this sense, offering a new style of minimalism that darts and dashes through high-brow melodies harmonious with slow-building cacophonies of sound that simply overwhelm the senses. Crafting soundscapes this rich and surrounding, almost to the point of sonic suffocation is no doubt a challenge, but one that Slow Six has raised the bar in creating. Even more elating that the timeless pieces of music that the group has composed is the fact that Christopher Tignor, who is both the band’s violinist and resident software engineer, has released his custom written music software to the general public available for free on their website. Stunning people, stunning. This is a must-have for 2010 – they’re touring in support of “Tomorrow Becomes You” and if you are lucky enough to see one of their shows, please leave comments, I’d be fascinated to know what that experience is like.

Listen and watch a live rendition of “Echolalic Transitions” as performed on WFMU:

Slow Six – “The Pulse of This Skyline with Lightning Like Nerves” with video art by Shimpei Takeda:

Recommended If You Like: Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Tortoise, and The Dirty Three

Sultry off-jazz vocals with the constructs of electro-pop and indie pop building a foundation, Panda Transport, a duo consisting of Kathy Compton and Thierry Holweck have been around since ’06. The duo found fame with their single “Transmission” off of their critically acclaimed debut “Plush Mechanique”, which was featured on Greys Anatomy. Having written their debut essentially through Internet-based collaborations, Panda Transport set out to do something more organic and intimate. Intelligently blending ‘found sounds’ (they sampled cicadas outside of Kathy’s yurt and car-door-slams became a new found kick drum) with personal and emotional vocals, light melodies, sweet harmonies, and future pop rhythms, “Monorail” builds upon the success of their debut and proves that they’re far removed from the dreaded sophomore jinx. Pop fanatics will covet the truly catchy nature of many of the tracks, while the more indie and experimental music junkies will drool over decomposing and digesting the varied musical tapestries that make up each track.

Denver’s Kill Paradise who having been touring with bandmates Brokencyde (you read that right, sigh) is electro pop with mall punk and club synths & beats embellishing and utilizing as many of today’s pop clichés as possible. Auto-tune? Check and then some. Hot Topic exclusive? Yup. Music featured on one or more MTV reality TV series? Absolutely. Mixing dance beats with emotional vocals (cough, emo, cough)? Yes. I just shudder for the children of today if this is truly what the hell they like. The real question is if they can sing more than a single bar or two without the help of vocal effects like auto-tune…I think I know the answer to that. Hey maybe that’s what they mean about “The Second Effect” – that they’ve found one other than auto-tune? This can’t even be a guilty pleasure without wanting to jump off a bridge after listening to it. Don’t believe me? Just watch the below video.

Watch the video for “Just Friends”:

KMFDM announces the release of the remix companion
album to “Blitz”, “Krieg”. “Krieg” features 12 tracks, over 55 minutes, of
new, diverse and exciting remixes from some top names across the musical
spectrum.

“Krieg” contains 12 remixes of select somgs from Blitz, KMFDM’s new studio
album from early 2009. The remixers include current and past member of
such groups as Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, Danzig, Static-X,
Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Prong, Combichrist, Apollo 440, tweaker, Icon Of
Coil, Pop Will Eat Itself, Die Warzau, Gay Bikers On Acid, Stabbing
Westward, Zombie Girl, Assemblage 23, Jackalope, Vile Evils, Metl,
Salvo, Healer, Revolve, Seismologist, Girder as well as present and
ex-members of KMFDM itself!

In addition to a CD filled with mixes from an impressive list of heavy
hitters, the accompanying booklet features striking new artwork from
longtime KMFDM cohort Brute! and liner notes that tell the story of the
album’s creation and fully detailed credits.

KMFDM warns their fans, prepare yourself for Krieg as lightning strikes
again!

‘Krieg’ Track Listing:

1. Bait & Switch (All 4 One Mix) by Combichrist
2. Strut (Disco Balls Mix) by Andy Selway of KMFDM
3. Potz Blitz! (Harmonic Tremors Mix) by Seismologist
4. Bait & Switch (Sacred Cow Mix) by Prong
5. Never Say Never (Naughty Habit Mix) by Ivan de Prume of White Zombie
6. People of The Lie (Requiem Mix) by Koichi Fukuda of Static-X
7. Bitches (Pop Will Eat This Mix) by Vile Evils
8. Never Say Never (Confessional Mix) by Komar Kommando
9. People of The Lie (Crooked Illusion Mix) by Mary Byker of Apollo 440
10. Davai (Cyrillic Mix) by tweaker
11. Never Say Never (Candy Apple Mix) by Dave “Rave” Ogilvie
12. Davai (Bloody Fog Mix) by Assemblage 23

Krieg is exclusive to KMFDM Records and available only at The KMFDM Store in both CD and high quality MP3 digital formats. Hear some previews here.

Frigid synthetic unmelodies collide with industrial-sized caustic noise and abrasive metal clanks and clicks forge the audible nightmare that is “Soul Cleansing”. Sektor 304 is industrial in the vein of early era Einsturzende Neubauten, Godflesh, and Clock DVA (Jeffrey Dahmer’s favorite band). Noise and apocalypse never sounded so uninviting and yet so seductive. Atmospheric blends of soundscapes with percussion that hammers away at your eardrums, tantalizing your soul. If Sektor 304 sounds like a nightmare factory that’s because it is – this assembly line is one that builds the robots of the future that take over Earth and obliterate Mankind.

Tiesto has played all across the globe. He has played the Olympics. The DJ has been nominated for a Grammy for his last artist album, “Elements of Life”. He has also been recognized among his peers as the world’s most renowned DJ with some of DJ’s most coveted awards. And still he does not rest on his laurels. Stick another feather in his crowded cap with the launch of his new gem, “Kaleidoscope”; a full-fledged journey of sound produced and written by this magnificent electronic wizard. Proving he is not just another vinyl slinger, his production, engineering, mixing, and writing is peerless. While often rooting himself in the melodic trance and dance styles, he builds off of it, collaborating with other renowned artists and singer/songwriters from various groups representing some of the best of pop and rock, all along the way to forge perfect odes of electronic joy. This adventure kicks off with a guest spot featuring Sigur Ros’s singer Jonsi Jónsi Birgisson from Sigur Rós – as you may expect, it’s otherworldly and an intriguing listen. Other guests include Bloc Party, Nelly Furtado, CC Sheffield, Cary Brothers, and Tegan & Sara among many others. The big singles are “Escape Me” with CC Sheffield, “ I Will Be Here”, featuring Sneaky Sound System, “Here on Earth” with the Cary Brothers, and “Louder Than Boom” is rumored to big another smash single. Things get really intense around “Fresh Fruit”, a wall to wall banger, that straps you in proper for the rest of the ride of the last half of the album. Tiesto provides a steady rhythm and beat to go along with his smooth melodies and beautifully sung harmonies. It always amazes me how much Tiesto is ahead of the curve in dance music, and “Kaleidoscope” once again provides the framework for the next several years of dance music to build off of.

Follow Tiesto on Twitter.

Watch “Escape Me” w/CC Sheffield:

Watch a great behind the scenes video on making the video for “Escape Me”: