CD Review: Various Artists - Dependence 2012

Written by Sebastian Huhn Saturday, 21 April 2012 11:59

Artist: Various Artists
Title: Dependence 2012
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 27th April 2012
Label: Dependent Records

Album Review

It's that time of the year again where a new Dependence compilation graces the ears of sophisticated music lovers with a collection of new, unreleased and remixed electronic music of varying genres. 'Dependence 2012' starts with a completely unknown project called RADIOAKTIVISTS with all the more prominent members who produced marvellous electro track whose beauty shines way beyond its actual duration; its echoes ringing in your head for a long time. The engaging lyric of Frank Spinath ensures you're going to listen to that track more than once. MESH throw out a typically catchy track with 'You'll Never Understand' that comes across a little rougher than usual before the recipe is being turned upside down to make a typically harsh track by SKOLD the picture of melody when THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE present their take on 'Tonight'. Next up PRIDE & FALL rise from the shadows with a new track, called 'Reborn which is quite fitting if you think about it. Not nearly as depressing in tone as their previous work, the song's an invitation to dance.

A hymn to strength and endurance is coming from INFORMATIK, presented as a laid-back, slightly rocking ballad wrapped in warm, melancholic textures and vocals with 'World Of Wonder'. SEABOUND went into hibernation many years ago. When listening to the first new track in almost six years, titled 'The Escape', I feel that it was totally worth waiting for. IT's clearly recognizable SEABOUND holding gradually freezing melodies and soundscapes meandering through a fabric of rough-edged beats and rhythmic fragments amidst cryptic lyrics that you'll eventually begin to figure for yourself. While the title 'Whole Wide Wide World' suggests a brighter direction, DISMANTLED should tell you enough to make every thought of something like that vanish into thin air instantly. Even though the track bursts with melodies and in a weird way harmonic vocals, the undertone's clearly tragic and definite. The new ACRETONGUE track actually is a rather old one. Coming from the first EP, 'Violent Pale' gives you a good idea of the project's beginning. The song's creeping through dark corridors of moods and shadows that won't ever clear.

With the recent VELVET ACID CHRIST material treading acoustic waters it is nice to see Brian Erickson returning to electronic realms again on the atmospheric 'Even Now' that even lets a few rays of light in through the window that hasn't been opened in years. DECODED FEEDBACK closes the compilation with 'Another Loss', ridden by grief and despair. In 2012, the Dependence compilation series comes around with their most cohesive collection of tracks to date with a few surprises added as the icing on the cake.


Tracklist

01. Radioaktivists / Pieces Of Me - 6:45
02. KMFDM / Amnesia (Käpt'n K. Mix Edit) - 3:48
03. Mesh / You'll Never Understand (Harder) - 5:20
04. SKOLD / Tonight (The Birthday Massacre Remix) - 4:28
05. Pride And Fall / Reborn - 5:05
06. Informatik / World Of Wonder - 5:52
07. Seabound / The Escape - 4:41
08. Dismantled / Whole Wide World - 5:22
09. Encephalon / The Transhuman Condition (Singularity) - 4:31
10. Front Line Assembly / Angriff (Project Pitchfork Mix) - 6:45
11. Stromkern / Ruin(ed) - 4:55
12. Acretongue / Violent Pale - 5:25
13. Ghost & Writer / Fraud (Decay Inc's Fourty-Something Radio Mix) - 3:11
14. Velvet Acid Christ / Even Now - 5:06
15. Decoded Feedback / Another Loss - 6:05


Website

http://www.dependent.de/


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10


Buy the album here!