Artist: Neuroticfish
Album: Antidoron
Genre: Synth Pop / Future Pop / Electronic / EBM
Release Date: 14th December 2018
Label: Non Ordinary Record
Album Review
In the early 90s Sascha Mario Klein and Henning Verlage founded the band. With music of the genre Future Pop / Synth Pop / EBM they created songs made for the dance floors. But in 2008 NEUROTICFISH gave notice of the end. Fortunately in 2013 they announced their comeback with a ‘Sign of life’ concert in Bochum. Not only did the break them good which was proven by the release of the album ‘Sign of life’ but on various concerts and festivals the band raised the roofs. Including this EP the band has released seven albums (including re-release and a best of) and 10 singles/ single collection / EPs.
What Wikipedia says: “The antidoron (Greek: Ἀντίδωρον, Antídōron) is ordinary leavened bread which is blessed but not consecrated and distributed in Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite. It comes from the remains of the loaves of bread (prosphora) from which portions are cut for consecration as the Eucharist during the Divine Liturgy. The word Ἀντίδωρον means ‘instead of gifts’.”
Every music lover has special songs that expressed what one felt in certain phases of one’s life. Songs that soothe you, songs that motivate you, songs that make you cry, songs that remind you of happy times, songs that show that you are not the only one - not alone with certain feelings, moods or the chaos in the head. And for the artist / musician his/ her art / music is the tool and the valve to express all kind of emotions and a way to cope with the burdening events in life. ‘Antidoron’ now is a very personal album and you might probably miss more up-tempo songs, kind of dance floor hits, on it. There are a few of course but a lot songs are slower, more contemplative and very sombre. But they are very expressional at the same time.
The intro of this album starts slowly with ‘Colourblind’ with a haunting instrumental featuring noises of playing children in the background beginning before the vocal sets in. They lyrics describe the state of mind when you are in a depressive phase where you aren’t able to see and feel the delightful things in your life. The next song starts playfully despite the profound text describing the darker feelings and the inner fight that isolates you from others but with the song line “I walk alone until I see the light” it also shows that there is still hope and that you have to just keep going through this rough time in life but this will end for better. Song three now is more up-tempo perfectly fitting to the title which means fugue. This song is now on my running playlist. The tempo slows down with the following song and describes a difficult and conflict-laden relationship but also the will to overcome the problems.
Song five starts already powerfully and makes your bass loudspeaker vibrate. The lyrics describe the mind-set of severe depressions that can go so far that suicide seems to be the only option. The next song started besides the melody with a looped spoken sample before it turns out to be quite a danceable track. The intro of ‘Challenge you’ starts slowly but speeds up soon. The lyrics describe that you come to terms with someone after a long adversarial relationship when there is no reason or no time to go on arguing. The background noises of the following sombre song seem to have sprung directly from a haunting nightmare. ‘Hold of me’ is not from the melody a bit more uplifting but also from the lyrical aspect stating that despite the hardness in life not to give up and allow these events or people to destroy your personality.
The tempo goes straight up with song ten. Here the author is clueless for his kind of perception which make his life harder for him. The despair of this situation is wonderfully expressed with the passionate background singing at the refrain. The second to last song is also a more up-tempo song where a sound effect is used that spontaneously reminded me of the MESH song ‘When the city breathes’. There it describes the inner conflict if you are not able to go into a dispute, to make your point of view clear and take opposition. The outro of the album is the soothing song ‘Invisible’ where the message of it is underlined with the powerful and passionate singing of the refrain, saying that you are not alone - not invisible when you are suffering from depressions or have to endure hard times.
The album is available as CD, MP3 but you can also buy each song separately as download version.
Tracklist
01. Colourblind
02. Walk alone
03. Fluchtreflex
04. I am here
05. Hysteria
06. Honesty
07. Challenge you
08. Lovely walls
09. Hold of me
10. What is wrong
11. Fail to disagree
12. Invisible
Line-up
Sascha Mario Klein - Vocals, music, lyrics, production
Henning Verlage - Keyboard, production
Website
http://www.neuroticfish.com / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialNeuroticfish
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 10
Total: 9 / 10
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