Title: Ten years before the Dream
Artist: Sub Division
Genre: Alternative, Goth, Clash, Electronic
Release Date: 9th October 2009
Label: Danse Macabre
Album Review
This interesting Anglo-French band of some ten years standing has produced a very worthy album here. With Dee (front of Atomic Tabasco) taking lead vocals to compliment the growling threat that is Lol's voice, we have a great convergence of styles here all under the umbrella of one little album. It's a fantastical mix of Rammstein-esque riffs, 80's hard synth, cold wave and anything else you'd dare them to throw into the arena that has clearly been their musical melting pot during this CD's path to birth.
The introduction to this interesting album starts off with a musical box being wound and played which soon becomes a distressed distorted wail and really sets a compelling and eerie tone. 'Love Assassin' is the first proper track, although technically the second, and a disembodied vocal commands attention over the top of a great electronic backing as synths, guitars, bass and an alternative vocal nags and drives. A great track so early in the album which reminded me slightly of a more electronic INKUBUS SUKKUBUS and really started things off well, with sudden changes to rhythm and tempo leading slickly back into the original tune.
The third track is 'The Voice' and begins as interestingly as the introduction with static noise then a compelling bass line that argues nicely with a contra rhythm. Vocals are sinister and hissed, lyrics are disturbing and it's a nice gritty track of electronica, so nice that I'm really beginning to find that I like this album. In contrast, 'Age of Machines' is a very hard driving rock track, still as electronic as ever, but with a lot more clout to it. It wakes things up nicely, insisting that you sit up and take notice. As a track sound-wise it's not quite as clean as the others, but apart from a few misheard vocals it really doesn't detract at all. Sometimes dirty is good. 'Game Over' comes next, a noise extravaganza which quickly cuts to beautiful pumping rhythmic overtures and harsh guitars.1980's sounding vocals give this track a slightly surreal feel, but it's great, enhancing the whole flavour of the album and one of my favourite tracks.
Sixth up is 'Next level', an initially more mundane, but no less well performed, piece which soon goes it's own way to demonstrate that Sub Division are really on top of their game in terms of pushing boundaries. 'The Otherside' would have been the best track on the album for me, as it's exciting, driving, compelling but again the mix is slightly dirty and the lyrics are indistinct. Whilst I get the feeling this is probably planned, I found myself liking this track so much I really did want to hear what was being said, so for me here, that slightly dirty mix is a definite downside, but the track itself is stupendous. 'New Dawn' breaks next and is without doubt my favourite track on the whole album. The mix is good so you can hear the excellent lyrics with strong male / female vocals driving the track forward. Pure genius!
'8' is next featuring space age synth suggestions and a nice line in disturbing, threatening vocals. This sounds like the soundtrack to your worst nightmare and that's why I like it so much, it has an eerie shattered quality to it being slow and dragging at you to pay it heed. The tenth track ' Arise' starts off with the assertion that “All around there's screaming silence” and apart from a nice musical interlude that's pretty much it for the lyrics initially. Much as I like the tune, the musicianship and the mix on this, the lack of solid lyrics is irking, as hitherto the lyrical content of this album has been pretty strong. They do wander off to a short verse a couple of times but we're soon back to the 'screaming silence' theme and I think that alone makes this one of the weaker tracks on the CD. It's a well executed track though for all that.
'Alone' is next. Energetic with driving drums, this is still much the same as the previous track in that it's repetitive and I'm hoping that this excellent album is not losing its way for a moment. The penultimate track 'Virtual Path' soon assures me that this is not the case, as another wall of noise assails my ears and solid rhythms take it away to the land where lyrics exist again. I like the flick-flack between male and female vocals in their work and it's used to good effect here. Perversely 'Birth' is the final track, with a long spoken prologue, fast to gain your interest and promising something really special. It turns out to be a worthy ending to an excellent album, more melodic than much of their work; it commands your attention with psychotic laughter and a beat that's hard to ignore. A truly great track, finishing a pretty damned good album!
Tracklist
01. Intro - 01.30
02. Love Assassin - 04.25
03. The Voice - 05.08
04. Age of Machines - 04.00
05. Game over - 05.17
06. Next Level - 05.54
07. The Otherside - 03.32
08. New Dawn - 05.35
09. '8' - 04.03
10. Arise - 05.42
11. Alone - 04.04
12. Virtual Path - 04.43
13. Birth - 07.14
Line-up
Fodge - guitars, programming, keyboards, backing vocals
Lol - lead vocal, programming, keyboards
Dee - lead vocal
Website
www.myspace.com/subdivision33
Cover-Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10
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