Title: Memoria
Artist: Lost Area
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 23rd April 2010
Label: Echozone
Album Review
Actually, it doesn't feel that long to me that German LOST AREA released their second instalment 'Man Machine', but a quick look revealed that already over 1.5 years have passed since it came out in September 2008. In 2010 there's already a new baby waiting to be unleashed by the name of 'Memoria'. It also is the first album for the new label home Echozone.
The dust of centuries, blown away by the wind bears long-lost melodies and memories, and when stirred up they're becoming alive again, swaying in the streams of air. It's just a blurry picture fading as the straight dance beat of opener 'Memoria' kicks in to welcome you. As soon as the first vocals get heard we're introduced to a new characteristic of the LOST AREA sound that permeates the entire album: Vocals get alienated and pitched, distancing them a little from human sounds. The purpose of that technique still remains in the shadows but will come to light soon enough I think. 'Mirror' gears up to fill the footsteps well, made by the opener. The opaque atmosphere gives way to a diffuse twilight in which you'll find yourself immersed while the beats keep thumping relentlessly. A sound reminding me of a certain German radio play opens the next song 'Lies', before the machinery starts rolling again with odd sounds played over a simple beat. A nice club tune unfolds out of them with occasional eruptions of desperation to free the charged emotions which frequently causes cold showers.
'Guardian Angel', a ballad, captivates right from the beginning with the unfettered sadness bleeding from out of its slowly surfacing and swelling orchestral builds inside a frame of yet minimalist electronic gadgetry. The later evolution adds a mood of yearning and longing, transcended into melody and words with incursions of fuzzy and clean guitars. For those of you with a penchant for experimental stuff, 'Desire' is a tune worth checking, crawling into your ears with edgy broken samples and melodic cuts, rolled out over a slow burning rhythm, leading to a poppy and polished chorus. I can't help it but listening to 'I Live Your Dream' always gives me the feeling like someone's mixed elements of SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS and PROJECT PITCHFORK together in a mid-tempo track. There could be worse bands to choose, admittedly. What I'm getting at is that a compelling track has been crafted from those supposed ingredients. The scarred melodies of German-tongued 'Ikarus' ring the bells for the end of the album and also lyrically it's a departure from a bleak, forlorn world. Doesn't everybody want to fly away sometimes when the weight becomes too heavy?
LOST AREA on their new album still place a focus on producing club compatible anthems and do succeed in shaping them with varied means to keep up the interest. Also a new undercurrent of experimentation becomes apparent on 'Memoria' that pushes them even further away from the flat deliveries on the debut in my opinion. A little propensity for Goth cliché is still there but there are worse things. Well done!
Tracklist
01. Memoria - 5:01
02. Bloodrain - 4:35
03. Mirror - 4:02
04. Lies - 5:50
05. Guardian Angel - 4:34
06.Evil Eye - 5:04
07. Desire - 3:58
08. Nothing - 4:41
09. Dream On - 4:33
10. Strangers - 3:45
11. I live your dream - 4:59
12. Eye of the Storm - 5:28
13. Ikarus - 3:49
14. Unborn [Gecko Sector Remix] - 4:56
Line-Up
Jan Bertram - Programming, Mixdowns, Premastering, Management
Markus Bär - Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Producer
Andi Grundler - Vocals
Website
http://www.lostarea.com / http://www.myspace.com/lostarea
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10
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