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xmtp thesun
Artist: X Marks The Pedwalk
Title: The Sun, The Cold And My Underwater Fear
Genre: Pop/ Dance/ Electronica
Release Date: 14th September 2012
Label: Infacted Records


Album Review

It was a long road for X MARKS THE PEDWALK from “Germany's answer to SKINNY PUPPY” in their EBM days in the early 1990s to the un-credited co-founders of Future Pop in the second half of that decade to the lost and found Electro pioneers of the 21st century. This year, the brothers Sevren Ni-arb and Raive Yarx plus singer Estefania (actually Ni-arb's wife) released a new album, which has become a rare thing for X MARKS THE PEDWALK. In fact, Sevren Ni-Arb abandoned music production entirely at the end of the 1990s to concentrate on his family and job career, so it was rather a surprise when X MARKS THE PEDWALK returned with new single in 2009, a new album titled 'Inner Zone Journey' in 2010 and even an exclusive live gig at the Wave Gotik Treffen in the same year, which was subsequently released on DVD.

The new album is named 'The Sun, The Cold And My Underwater Fear', and it is quite easy to tie in the new long-player with older albums like 'Meshwork' (1995) or 'Drawback' (1996). The days of EBM and harsh and dark electronics are long gone, though, and they have been already in the late 1990s. A fact which made many old fans X MARKS THE PEDWALK turn their backs on the band back then. X MARKS THE PEDWALK were simple way ahead of their time, too much apparently for the fans of club stompers like 'Abbattoir' or 'Cenotaph'. At least they had a final club hit with 'Facer', which combines the Dance and Trance elements of the later days with dark EBM elements of the band's early ones. In fact X MARKS THE PEDWALK should be credited for inventing Future Pop with 'Facer' years before bands like VNV NATION or APOPTYGMA BERZERK became immensely popular with a combination of EBM, Synth Pop, Techno, Dance and Trance!

While X MARKS THE PEDWALK were too much ahead of their time in the late 1990s and alienated some fans because of it, things are different with the new reincarnation of the band since 2009. I might dare to say that X MARKS THE PEDWALK actually sound dated at times! Their blend of Dance, Pop and Techno cries “1990s” in many moments, and the new album is no exception to that. On a more positive side this is of course great news for lovers of pre-millennium Electronica, and there is no doubt that the perfect production skills of Sevren Ni-Arb are still there! In a way it makes sense that a band of forty-somethings is less forward-thinking and has their fingers less on the pulse of time in favour of a more retrospective and introspective approach.

The album starts with balladry 'You Are Gone' with Estefania on the lead vocal, and this slow and dreamy tune sets the mood for the rest of the album. Not that there wouldn't be any up-tempo moments, there are actually many of them! But still this album hardly caters the dance-floors, even if there's an 8-minute Trance stomper like 'MKK.2' and a careful recourse of old EBM glories with 'Run! Run! Mary!'. 'The Sun, The Cold And My Underwater Fear' is nevertheless a rather introverted album, and the very exact and skilful programming and sequencing gives the songs enough space to breathe. It 's not a very pushy record which needs a few run-throughs before you discover its beauty.


Tracklist

01. You Are Gone
02. Don't Lie To Me
03. The Day I Start To Die
04. The Side Of The Wrong
05. Nightfall
06. The Sun, The Cold, My Underwater Fear
07. Fallen Angel
08. Electric Summer
09. Tormented Skin
10. No!
11. Run! Run! Mary!
12. MKK.2
13. A.I.C.S.I.N.


Line-up

Sevren Ni-arb (songwriting, vocals, production)
Raive Yarx (electronics)
Estefania (additional vocals)


Website

www.xmtp.de


Cover Picture

xmtp thesun


Rating

Music: 7.5
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.3 / 10





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