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borghesia andmancreatedgod
Artist: Borghesia
Title: And Man Created God
Genre: Rock/ Folk/ Electronic
Release Date: 10th June 2014
Label: Metropolis Records


Album Review

BORGHESIA might be best known for their late-80s EBM and club hits like 'Discipline' or 'No Hope No Fear'. Founded in 1982 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, BORGHESIA more or less cultivated a similar musical field as their fellow countryman from LAIBACH. But while the Slovenian art collective from Trbovlje opted for a more experimental and often pretty bombastic and even Wagnerian style, BORGHESIA's sound was usually dancier and rather followed traditional verse-bridge-chorus song structures. Unlike LAIBACH, Dario Seraval and Aldo Ivančič aka BORGHESIA never achieved the same international success and critical acclaim as the Slovenian art collective.

Consequentially BORGHESIA stopped releasing records in 1995 after the album 'Pro Choice', a compilation of soundtrack works. In 2009, BORGHESIA reappeared with a number of live gigs and the best of-compilation '20th Century - Selected Works', and now we get the first BORGHESIA album with new material in almost 20 years with 'And Man Created God'! But when listening to the new album one actually wonders why Seraval and Ivančič decided to use the BORGHESIA moniker again. Fans who expect something similar as classic works like 'Resistance' or 'Naked, Uniformed, Dead' will perhaps be a rather disappointed by the new album. But after nineteen years it is perhaps no surprise that the musical style is pretty different to the old material, even if it's the same core of musicians.

On the one hand, 'And Man Created God' is basically a conventional Rock album, although at times quite synth-heavy. On the other hand it is a multi-languaged, diverse piece of work that has quite a few weird moments. The lulling, laid-back Hawaiian Folk of 'Kaufen macht frei - Buy Baby Buy', complete with steel guitar, is one of these moments. But there are also Country & Western influences ('Para Todos Todo') as well as a female Rap ('194') and oriental elements from the Middle East ('My Life is My Message' and again '194'). An astonishing multiplicity of influences and styles but on the flip side of it 'And Man Created God' is way to uneven, inconsistent and floundering to work as an album unit.

The best thing about 'And Man Created God' is the very unambiguous, provocative and confrontational political message of the album, which you perhaps will already have noticed alone with the help of the song titles. Slogans as 'Profit, Power and Lies' leave hardly a question unanswered. The entire album is a strong anti-capitalist statement in times of banking crises, financial meltdowns and global corporations and capitalists gearing up for some sort of final battle against grassroots democracy, the Occupy movement and system collapse. Never mind if you agree with BORGHESIA's stance or not, 'And Man Created God' has certainly a crystal-clear revolutionist and campaigning attitude. Sometimes this attitude comes across aggressively but more often than not it is disguised by a make-believe slack and relaxed atmosphere.

'And Man Created God' is surely a solid production by experienced musicians who still have something to say about today's world but the ironic twist of the musical wrapping of the messages doesn't work all the time, I'm afraid. The album is simply too inhomogeneous, on the other hand there's no song which truly sticks out and maybe BORGHESIA tried a bit too hard being theatrical, obscure and sarcastic in their music, too. To be honest, in regard to the musical content I'm not sure if I will listen to the album again all too often... Oh, and if you see this album filed under EBM or Industrial then just don't believe it! That's merely because of the name BORGHESIA, really!


Tracklist

01. We don’t believe you
02. C’est la Guerre
03. My Life is My Message
04. Kaufen macht frei – Buy Baby Buy
05. 194
06. Profit, Power and Lies
07. Para Todos Todo
08. Too much is not enough
09. Shoot at the Clock!


Line-up

Dario Seraval - vocals, programming
Aldo Ivančič - drums, programming


Website

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Borghesia/162162863861625


Cover Picture

borghesia andmancreatedgod


Rating

Music: 6
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10





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