Title: State of the Heart 2
Artist: VIP Nation
Genre: Various
Release Date: 7th November 2008
Label: None (Self-Released)
Album Review
The ambitioned idea of the German VNV NATIION fan community to compile a sampler where both established acts and rather unknown projects, all members of the community, would contribute a track to, led to the release of ‘State of The Heart - The Sounds of VIP Nation’ in Autumn 2005. About three years later we see the second part of the series ‘Further Sounds of VIP Nation’ continuing the established concept.
Now let us begin with a not entirely unknown project. The German electronic duo FINAL SELECTION opening the compilation with ‘The Travelling Man’, an atmospheric, dreamy piece of synthesized pop music taking us away into another world. The next song then brings us back into pats times, into the times of silent movies and ‘The Cabinet’ of Dr. Caligary, which is a well-produced dance track, here in Remix of the French project PEOPLE THEATRE. We go on with quite an unconventional track for this compilation ‘New Dawn’ by SENSORY GATE. Other than the rest it incorporates rocking guitars into its structures. That sounds fresh and brings diversity into the game. That said, they have a decent singer as well and hence it’s a track that really stands out. ‘Vomit’ by ADORION heavily works with contrasts, opposing airy, light-footed synth melodies and a fluffy beat with a socially critical text. Nice work!!! If I’m not mistaken, the creators of the FAELEND project must be Lord of the Ring fans. They mix the Elvish language with a few English lines and mystical ambience.
Melancholically starts the second CD with BOUNDLEZZ and their same-titled track going into the electro pop direction with a danceable beat and lots of nice melodic textures. With SKATOL comes the project of SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS vocalist Dennis Schober with a minimalist kept electro track called ‘Soul Obsession’ not overly melodic it has a certain charm though. OS come along with the next poppy track on this compilation, especially living on the beautiful vocals, before it’s going back down into to the depth of industrial influenced electro with EMPIRE IN DUST and ‘First Fall’ with alternating male and female vocals as well as some sound gadgetry in the background. CELE with ‘Sweeter’ ends the compilation with an ambient-like sound collage with organic undertones.
For the record, I really find it great people put so much time and work into their tracks. Unfortunately the outcome isn’t always satisfying in my opinion. I would have expected something different from MORTAL VOID than a rather generic club track or the DUNKELBLITZ track starting quite good, but then it gets lost in the repetition of a melodic synth riff ‘til the track is over. All in all I think it doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessor even if there’s some killer tracks on it - showing that there are still some hidden talents out there.
Tracklist
CD1
01.Final Selection - The Travelling Man – 4:37
02. Nothing to Fear - Conflict (Edit) – 3:40
03. EGOamp - The Cabinet (People Theatre's Secret Mix) – 4:14
04. Sensory Gate - New Dawn – 4:52
05. Mortal Void – Thanks – 4:23
06. Kaiserschnitt – Desillusion – 5:37
07. Dunkelblitz - Dying Reality – 3:12
08. erdbeerwelt – Freakshow – 3:31
09. Adorion - Vomit (that makes me want to ...) – 4:15
10. digital ENERGY - Doubting Heart – 4:03
11. Engaging Ears – Running – 4:06
12. In The Works - Beeing's a Pipeline – 4:01
13. head:Less - Triebjagd (Analogue Brain Remix) – 5:01
14. projecT_diN – Crusade – 4:41
15. Faelend Project – Faelend – 5:36
CD2
01. Boundlezz – s/t – 5:56
02. Hanse Allliance 1230 feat.Chrom – Illegality – 4:46
03. Blitzfeuer - When I'm Killed – 4:24
04. ampyre - Miezkaserne 3000 – 2:45
05. Skatol - Soul Obsession – 4:10
06. Sinessence – Between – 4:38
07. Compton Effect – Confession – 4:54
08. OS – Örö feat.Spacygirl76 – Angel – 3:41
09. 2A – Blast – 5:15
10. Legacy of Music - Serenade of Death (Short Version) – 4:45
11. Empire in Dust - First Fall (State Version) – 4:33
12. Supreme Court - Mad Rush (SOTH2 Version) – 4:42
13. glis glis - Spring Of Pain (Wir-Wissen-Mix) – 4:38
14. ecoINDUSTRIALIS – Lauf! – 4:28
15. Cele – Sweeter – 4:01
Website
http://www.stateoftheheart.de/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 6
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 6.5 / 10
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