Title: Hyperactive
Artist: Xotox
Genre: Noise
Release Date: 9th May 2008
Label: Vendetta Music
Album Review
Andreas Davids founded XOTOX as a solo project in 1998 and with the first albums, released by himself, he could establish a small but constantly growing fan base. In 2003, he signed a record deal with the ProNoize label and henceforth released alums under the label’s moniker. The recently released ‘Hyperactive’ is a Best-Of collection and an exclusive North American release.
As you might know or not, the music of XOTOX walks on the thin line between Electro and Noise and on this collection this is gonna be celebrated to the max and sometimes even beyond. Andreas himself entitled his style as “Industrial for hyperactive people” basically this means, technoid beats meet relentless noise attacks and the whole thing starts with one of the XOTOX club smashers par excellence ‘Eisenkiller’ wasting no time and starts to hammer the beats inside your head, followed by multi-layered noisy sequences a few seconds later whose sonic appearance changes a bit from time to time. ‘Bypass’ shifts the amount of noise to new heights, while a monotonous pummelling beat lures all the club fetishists to the dance floor. ‘Nightmare’ starts calm with a German speech sample from a movie but then gains momentum with a collage of distorted beats and short melodic sequences. ‘Nasse Wände’ and ‘Mechanische Unruhe’, both originating from the 2004 release ‘Unruhe’ are included in their original versions, deliver typical XOTOX fodder for the devoted fan, whereas ‘Nasse Wände’ turns out to be much harder and more destructive.
Further on we go with ‘Stammzellenforschung’ und ‘Düse/Pumpe’; the first one being a terrifying monster with beats like jack hammers; the second one being somewhat typical with its technoid beats. Normally, the music of XOTOX is kept strictly instrumental, but on the track ‘Winterblut’, originating from his album ‘Psi’ from 2005, he collaborated with Jan from X-FUSION who’s providing his well-known distorted vocals. ‘Bohrung 25’ sends you into the entrails of a fabric, that’s how it appears to me. Machine noises everywhere and metallic echoes, when a hammer rushes down on a piece of iron. The tempo is raised with the second-last song ‘Degeneration’. Remarkable is that tiny glimpse of melody at the beginning and I was thinking ‘Oh my God, could it be’, no it couldn’t just a short excursion or a sample until the song returns to its sub-cooled sound. Jan of X-FUSION who we met earlier on this release, contributed a remix to the collection from his more Noise oriented project NOISUF-X and a admit that I like this track much more than most of the original stuff, it’s not groundbreaking or something, but a nice dance track with distorted beats and some melodic riffs.
I’m making no secret of not being a XOTOX fan and this hasn’t changed at all with this compilation. The sound is much too monotonous and noisy for me. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check this release out. If you’re into that kind of music you’ll most likely be more than satisfied and it’s a good start into the world of XOTOX.
Tracklist
01. Eisenkiller – 4:55
02. Bypass – 5:25
03. Nothing – 3:34
04. Nightmare – 3:49
05. Mechanische Unruhe (original version) – 5:27
06. Nasse Wände (original version) – 4:55
07. Stammzellenforschung – 4:52
08. Pumpe/Düse – 4:52
09. [Xo]Toxic – 3:44
10. Industrial Madness – 4:21
11. Winterblut – 3:30
12. Tote Bäume – 4:09
13. Bohrung 25 – 4:50
14. Roboterkrieg – 4:06
15. Offizium – 3:42
16. Degeneration – 3:57
17. Lass Mich (Noisuf-X Remix) – 3:50
Line-up
Andreas Davids - All Music, Production
Website
http://www.xotox.info/ / http://www.myspace.com/xotox
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 5
Extras: -
Total: 5
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