Subocontages
Night In The Key Of Madness
Nemoch - Sarath
Triptych Passage
Pnothphalleum
Machine Heat
Mekanick

Writing lists is the new rock n roll…possibly. There’s something ultimately satisfying and therapeutic about making a ‘top ten’ list of all your favourite subjects. So far I’ve gotten through two notebooks based on my musical tastes. Things like…favourite groups beginning with the letter ‘M’…Megaptera, Melek-Tha, MZ412, Mike and the Mechanics…?? My tastes are strange and varied. What’s so exciting about these lists is that they are constantly evolving and changing. Out of any ‘top ten list’ only the top three entries normally survive any continued reappraisal. This release will be going into my ‘top ten’ list of ambient recordings…and for those of you with an impetuous streak you can go straight to the last paragraph to see where I’ve placed it. Thinking about it…those of you with an aversion to severe butt licking would be advised to move swiftly onto the third paragraph as the following may be too much for you to take. Don’t say I haven’t warned you.

Coph Nia: "That which remains" and Mindspawn: "Null Infinite" join forces for a 7 track musical trip into the heart of a biomechanical machine. A Philip K Dick novel set to a musical accompaniment. Visualising musically machines as living breathing matter the music is a mixture of proto Industrial with a SFI black ambient heart and the controls set fully to darkest atmospheric. Any release by Coph Nia is greatly anticipated by this reviewer…even when he hangs, draws and quarters a Leather Nun song into oblivion as he did on "Shape Shifter". You just cannot help but admire his fluid work and audacity to reshape music into dynamic dimensions . As for Mindspawn…he’s been AWOL for far too long after the exciting "Null Infinite" release. Bringing together these luminary’s of the dark side of electronics to work on this project is a masterstroke of pure genius. Utilising their immense pool of talent they have sculpted out a recording of stunning vivacity and depth that does them both huge credit. Why they have never worked before together is a mystery as on this showing they may be great individually but together they have attained a Prophet messiah like status that shits over their luminaries. Over the top possibly but ultimately true…minus the Prophet messiah bit if you’re an unbeliever.

Of course at the end of the day it’s for the music that "Erotomechaniks" will stand or fall. Music must have a connecting bond of empathy with the listener if success is to be rightly achieved. The need to draw a mystical world through the power of music…where every singular note awakens and plays on the imagination…where cohesion and balance is offset by ingenious radical diversions…where leading a playful dance doesn’t alienate but illuminate the aural experience…and "Erotomechaniks" accomplishes all this with aplomb. The sheer vibrancy of the darkest of dark soundscapes is a guilty pleasure to be repeatedly savoured and picked over until the bones of it are sucked dry. Yeah…it might just be another black ambient recording chugging along the production line conveyer belt…but this is one mean phallic motherfucker so erect and hard you’ll not be able to keep your hands off it. Resolutely and positively amazing in every aspect.

In at number three with a bullet. It will remain there for a very long time.

ANM