POPOL VUH - EINSJAEGER AND SIEBENJAEGER
























Popol Vuh "Einsjaeger and Siebenjaeger" Album Review
Pure & Majestic Music!!
Very original and i think unlike any of their other stuff. Very loose and organic music. The drums really pound away and we can't forget danny fleischer's intuitive and unique drumming; The guy drums unlike anyone else! Oh if he only got the credit he deserves! Rapid tom fills -smashing away at the crashes and coupled with Florian Frickes intense piano progressions ...the music is very majestic and seems to glorify the human spirit in every way. The last song, 20 minutes in length or so, is really where these guys Rock Out- Its definitely not 'NEW AGE' !!! These guys are pummeling their way to an ecstatic state!! And when I listen closely I could hear them singing and moaning and yelling and they even seem surprisingly swept away by the Power and Intensity of their own creation.. One of my favorite songs of all time is the last one, it has to be heard to be believed! Pure Music, mistakes and all!! The music touches a piece of my heart that no other music seems to get close too! I like putting on their last song REALLY LOUD and just sit in amazement at the beauty and power that the piece of music conveys, it builds, climaxes, builds and climaxes and leaves me with a momentous feeling of what the human spirit could achieve! Great melodies, great theme, great piece of music, period.
QBALL - IN SPACE





































Qball "In Space" Album Review
Excellent CD
This CD is a must have! You will find yourself listening to it over and over again. Catchy tunes like "Get On the Bus" and "Committed" will have you whole body moving.
Video Q*Ball - "Q*Ball In Space"
Q*Ball, live at Webster Hall in NYC, 2003
THE ALPHA CONSPIRACY - CIPHER


































The Alpha Conspiracy "Cipher" Album Review
Two brilliant songs, but not much else.
I've been listening to Necros since 1998, long before he embarked on his professional career in the music industry. Even in those days, I knew he was going to make his mark sooner or later; despite his limited equipment, despite the primitive recording techniques he had to use, he still wrote at least half a dozen songs that could easily stand up to any mainstream dance hit and beat it at its own game. Necros had an ear for melody like nobody does anymore, and I still listen to his old songs to this very day. When I learned (a bit late) that he had finally opened his own label, Diffusion Records, and started releasing albums under the name The Alpha Conspiracy, it was like a dream come true. I immediately bought both his albums, of which Cipher is the first.
When I got the album, the first thing I noticed was that it contains "Martian Lovesong." This is one of Necros' old tracks, recorded anew especially for the album. It isn't one of my all-time favourite songs by him, and I didn't even like it that much when I had first heard it long ago, but this new version is astounding. It's clearly an electronic track, but it's impossible to categorize into any of the numerous styles of electronic music. Nothing else sounds like this: a dense swirl of mournful synthesizer notes, a flickering keyboard lead immediately followed by a harsh, distorted guitar counter-melody, and a powerful, varied rhythm that generally follows one of the standard techno patterns, but adds numerous fills and details in between the beats. These days, when it seems like electronica has just about given up on memorable hooks and riffs, this song sounds even more fresh and vital than when it was first recorded.
The other big standout is "Winter," a new track. Here, Necros uses his expanded recording opportunities to add vocals, which were previously lacking in his songs. Three songs on the album feature his voice, but "Winter" is by far the best. A distorted, airy vocal sample introduces the propulsive beat and the fast but serene melody, which break to make way for the singing. In the lyrics, a conversation with some girl is used as an occasion to meditate about the prospect of growing old and the fear of wasting one's life on useless pursuits. Necros puts his voice through numerous filters and produces it with a harsh distortion that is extremely reminiscent of Underworld's single "Pearls Girl." In fact, Necros' singing style is almost a perfect replica of Karl Hyde's vocals on that same track; you could fit Hyde's "White room, sun room, shadow room, night transmitting cars across the room" into "Winter" without breaking up the flow of the words. Even so, I think I actually like the imitation more than the original, due to the lovely music and the more comprehensible subject matter. If only it had been released as a single, I'm sure it could have gotten significant airplay and greatly increased The Alpha Conspiracy's following.
"Cross Product" also deserves some recognition. It's another vocal track, similar to "Winter" in style, with distorted vocals over a pretty melody. Here, though, the singing alternates between a dissonant, very heavily produced sound, and a softer, more vulnerable tone, which is a nice touch. After the second verse, there's a cool instrumental break with an acid-style synthesizer sound, before a return to the main keyboard line. Someone ought to play this in a club sometime and see what happens.
Unfortunately, that's about it. The other tracks sound like aimless sketches that were never developed into full-fledged songs. For example, "Ubik" sounds pretty good while it's playing, but doesn't linger in the mind afterwards. It's got some moody keyboards in the style of "Martian Lovesong," but without any distinct riffs. Apparently, Necros claims that this was supposed to be an attempt to merge garage rock with ambient techno. I get the second part, but not the first; he's probably referring to the prominent drums, but they are much more reminiscent of some formless trip-hop song than of the energetic, ramshackle feel of garage rock. Other songs are similar in nature; they aren't bad listening, but they don't stay in one's head for hours afterwards. Only "Glass" makes a sort of lasting impression, and that's not because it's a good song, but because it's much more stripped down than the rest of the album, and thus sounds different from the other tracks.
The production on this album is less elaborate than, say, on The Alpha Conspiracy's own second album, Aura. That's not a bad thing, but it has the effect of centering the listener's attention on melodies and songwriting, which are unfortunately under-developed on most of the songs. The gothic-techno arrangement of "Morphic," the third and final vocal track on the album, may have made for good dance-floor material, but unfortunately, the lyrics are ridiculous, containing such embarrassing lines as "you're in disguise / wait for days / it's a surprise" and "once is never / it multiplies / the darkness coming for you." They're placed up front in the song, too, so it's hard to get past them.
In the end, Cipher isn't the masterpiece I've been hoping for. Still, despite the weakness of most of the tracks, "Martian Lovesong" and "Winter" are the two best electronic tracks of this decade, which may make the album worth your while anyway. But if you haven't heard anything by Necros yet, I'd recommend Aura, which is a much stronger album overall.
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