I saw a ghost in the mirror...
The last resort.
Notausgang.
...and it laughed back at me.
How is it going to end ?
Machine to machine, rust to rust.
Far away from home.
Continuum.

Cheapskates of the world unite. You have nothing to lose apart from your reputation. Time to moan. Fuck it. I’m entitled to do what the fuck I want. Now, I don’t know how Jo feels about this, but what really grips my tits is when a label sends out a half arsed crappy CDR copy, without bloody artwork, and then expects their precious product to get a decent review without that fact being mentioned. Well I don‘t work that way. Send out shit and shit will come back [Amen! Jo]. So here’s the solution Archetypmuzak. Send out the total package next time. You state that it’s a beautiful A5 gatefold cardboard sleeve in your press release. Well all I see before me is a piece of nothingness. If you want to play with the big boys get rid of this amateur attitude pronto otherwise face the consequences of a not a happy chappy reviewer.

Which is a pity that such a poor attitude by the label has taken the shine off a dynamic and thoroughly enjoyable release. This limited CDR, 100 copies in all, is an eight track 60+ minutes of invigorating dark machine / death Industrial. A debut release by a French artist (name unknown) who says his home is made of broken mirrors so he can’t see the reflecting evil. Which gives some idea to where his mindset is currently at. Mixing a heavy dose of samples with the doom laden sounds he creates a nice nightmarish picture throughout the tracks. That creeping sense of dread made so popular by acts such as Megapetera, ...Today, I’m Dead, Wilt, Law, MZ.412 and all the usual suspects. With those acts as a template is becomes self evident as to what "‘Notausgang" sounds like. Copious amounts of terrifying electronics, deep dark dank passages, reverb and echo going haywire, ethereal and demonic voices, all manner of scrapings and scratching, some beats and machine noise and haunting refrains. You can probably guess the rest. Tick the usual boxes and nod sagely. All this is done in a highly competent and professional way making for an invigorating hour in his company. Which is fine by me.

I was suitably impressed with the music on this release. Nothing to slag off. A hell of a lot to praise. He layers the atmospheres in such an impressive way that there’s a sense of sadness when the recording ends. Which is a good sign in my book. Although falling just short of outstanding (which for a debut would have been hard to achieve) there’s enough on this release to mark him out as a name to watch out for. His star is on the ascendancy. Therefore the recording get a big thumbs up. The review copy a huge thumbs down. That’s what happens when you piss off a reviewer.

ANM