Title: One Frame Left
Artist: Mortal Void
Genre: Electro
Release Date: 12th October 2007
Label: Codeline Records
Album Review
Since the inception of MORTAL VOID in Summer 2001, the On-Man project of German Tobias Hopp released quite a few tracks on compilations as well as several own records like ‘Anthropophobia’ and the ‘Aberratio Mentalis’ E.P both released in 2004. With the German label Codeline Records in the back he released his most recent full-length ‘One Frame Left’ in last year’s October.
‘Contagion’ opens ‘One Frame Left’ with deep threatening drones, a speech samples and a pretty disturbing whiter noise, constantly getting louder before the punchy beats and lead synths come in. The vocals are deeply embedded into the sound and often appear as another instrument rather than real vocals. You should check out the lyric anyway. I initially liked ‘Disease Emotion’ because of the strong and dense atmosphere it builds up very early with wide synth layers and atmospheric swells wafting through the night and a voice screaming out its pain . Beats have a dance appeal but are not particularly designed for the floors as the rhythm differs quite a bit from the usual 4/4 stuff you get to hear there. I can’t imagine ‘Rotting away’ to be dance floor filler either. First it’s only a dark sound collage building up, then the beat kicks in after about 40 seconds and soon lots of sonic gadgetry starts to appear with a special distortion on the vocals. It’s like an evil current, floating through it. Sounds pretty cool!
Regardless of the atmosphere which I think is once again very strong , the underlying beat of ‘Human Bomb’ is too much four-to-the-floor and too technoid for my taste, but the following ‘Hollow Shallow’ is just the right thing to make it up again. Initially I was a bit confused about it as it sound like totally different rhythms had been layered upon each other, but as I’m a fan of such elaborate tracks I soon came to like it. A delayed beat and razor-sharp synth riffs. With ‘Ghosts’ follows a track where the wider melodies are subtly mixed into the background while the forefront is dominated by pounding beats and chopped synth riffs, but it’s nothing compared to ‘Spit at You’, the fastest track on the album, coming up with a genuine drum gallop and the vocals are hardly recognizable as human anymore. It’s as if everything human has been drained from it completely. ‘Another Breakdown’, the album closer is very much rhythm focussed. There’s only little use of melody, nonetheless it’s a very moody track, especially when those ghostly pads or chorals join in halfway through the song.
I admit I like the sound of MORTAL VOID it’s not one of these projects strictly aiming for the dance floors though it incorporates danceable elements into the sound. Sound-wise the arrangements could be a little more differentiated, meaning that it’s sometimes hard to spot out single sounds because they’re drowning under the other layers. Apart from that the album is something, fans of more complex electro should definitely check-out.
Tracklist
01. Contagion – 5:35
02. Disease Emotion – 4:46
03. Rotting Away – 4:27
04. Downwards – 5:15
05. Imitation – 4:47
06. Human Bomb – 3:52
07. Hollow Shallow – 4:45
08. Era of Destruction – 3:47
09. Ghosts – 4:27
10. Spit at you – 3:32
11. Another Breakdown – 4:13
12. Come to me (Needlewire RMX) – 6:18
13. Disease Emotion (Steve G. RMX) – 4:29
Line-up
Krankheitssymptom –Music, Lyrics, Vocals
Marty – Live Support
Website
http://www.mortal-void.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/mortalvoid
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7.5
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