TAT - "Quinta Essentia"

Good gothic album (7/10) D-SIDE n°32, Emmanuel Hennequin - Septembre 2006: "Les canevas acoustiques et hors classe du projet français TAT conduisent à une première oeuvre autoproduite d'envergure et de grande personnalité, au fil de laquelle s'expriment les voix et instruments de talents divers et variés (parmi lesquels AlBéRiCk de .cut aux mots, et la basse de Cypher d'Omnicore). Les thèmes musicaux investissent des décors acoustiques rituels et mortuaires, parsemés de cloches ("Quinta Essentia : Part 1") mais sans y voir une limite. Et la sévérité des sujets ("Thalidomide", du nom du médicament ravageur) se confronte en permanence à la douceur poétique des cordes classiques. Dès lors, l'acclimatation nécessaire à une entreprise poly-linguistique, créant un univers fait de subtils reliefs et mû par le paradoxe. Formellement, TAT crée une musique d'un nouveau genre : folk, progressive, post-classique et expérimentale. A la fois limpide et ténébreuse, elle ne veut pas tromper sur la marchandise. L'expérience auditive, captivante, est donc proposée en download libre, et ce préalablement à tout achat. La beauté et la culture de l'objet nous font dire ici que sa survie aux tentations de la musique libre de défraiement doit s'organiser. C'est un appel à l'achat, oui, car de disques comme ceux-ci sont durs, et rares. Ils sont beaux." Lacrimosa meets Dead Can Dance meets Einsturzende Neubauten - these are the first associations that came to my mind after listening to this album. But TAT is still quite original. For example, use of a classical guitar gives a very interesting effect. Dark ghotic tunes - very haunting. The only downside is the terrible French accent in English songs. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's Website]

Silence Industry, the - "Edge Of Illusion, the"

Songwriting skills vs production skills (7/10) The 4th release from The Silence Industry. This time The Silence Industry can be heard refining their unique sound which combines elements of post-punk, industrial, noise, dream-pop, psychedelia and goth-rock. "The Edge of Illusion" is a reference to our dispossession and our struggles to overcome it: a theme that runs throughout the release. It is sad and frustrating. Because this band truly knows how to write great gothic rock/metal songs. Even if they borrow heavily from Fields of the Nephilim, these tunes are so good that it would not be a problem. So why is it sad? The reason is all the work and talent they put into songwriting is wasted because of lack of production skills and/or equipment. This album sounds like recorded in a bucket full of water, but with the mikes placed not only outside the bucket, but also in another room. The mix is flat, with all the instruments forming an undistinctive mass of dull sound. The vocals are particularly awful, unintelligible and buried deep in the background. Yuck. I pondered how to rate this work and I am giving it 7/10, but only because the songs themselves deserve 9 or even 10. The quality of sound deserves 2 or 3. One could say it should not matter - Jamendo is not for professionals and I should rate only the quality of songwriting. But what if poor production makes the recording almost unlistenable? Should I award 5 stars to the album that I can barely listen without my ears aching? No way. That is not going to happen. Re-record this album, guys, and I will be happy to give it full 10 points. The album has been released on Jamendo as well as by the now-defunct netlabel Ekleipsi and is available for downloading at the following locations in mp3 and ogg formats: Jamendo / Jamendo mirror at archive.org / Ekleipsi mirror at archive.org You can also download it directly from the artist at Bandcamp in a variety of formats, including a lossless FLAC version. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation at Jamendo or Bandcamp. I would choose Bandcamp to support sharing lossless music.

[Artist's Myspace]