Music of 2008.

End of the year, let's summarize how the electronic music scene looked like in 2008? Generally there was a lot of talk about how the "synth" genre is dead, no-one innovates and so on. Well, I for one tend to disagree, there was a lot of really interesting releases this year, as you can see below.

5. Negative Format - Gradients

Negative Format returns with yet another release that is both trance, EBM and dreamy sound scapes. The track Hues of Grey is probably one of the best tracks NF ever did. Looking forward to even more tracks from NF in the future.

4. Ayria - Hearts for Bullets

Ayria or Jennifer Parker released a very very good record 2008. She describes her music as "Tit-zerEbb" style, greasy bass-lines, great hooks and hard beats. Together with Jennifer's voice this makes for a very very pleasant musical journey. Best tracks include "Girl on the Floor" and "Invincible".

3. Informatik - Beyond

This release really came as a surprise for me, I have heard Informatik before but I have never really gotten into their music. Beyond on the other hand really blew me away! Catchy synth-pop tunes with a powerful voice and awesome hooks. Listen to the tracks "Nothing Greater" and "Don't be Afraid" and be amazed!

2. Standeg - Ultra High Tech Violet

Another surprise! By mid 2008 Standeg released a free digital EP called "Rushing Pictures", after listening to this EP day out and day in they finally released "Ultra High Tech Violet". This is innovative release mixing trance sounds, intriguing melodies and very fine details. This is one of those releases where the more you listen to it, the more details you notice. The music is like a futuristic sound track for a sci/fi future. Best tracks are "25 hours", "Homes & Gardens 3.0" and "Image in motion". Haven't you bought it yet?

1. KieTheVez - Non-Binary

I have been talking about innovations and complex music for a futuristic world. But sometimes plain old beautiful will just work! KieTheVez is a Swedish synth-pop band from Gothenburg, they released a couple of records during the 90ies but have been silent for 11 years before they released "Non-Binary". This is pure synth-pop bliss! Haunting, beautiful and with great sing-along values. This might not be innovating or complex, but it's still great and it tops my last.fm list for the year! Smash hit is "One world for the next" but the disc is filled with awesome tracks.

Worth to mention as well is that the best gig of the year was Interlace at electriXmas, they have just released two new songs "istatue" and "nemesis" that can be found at their myspace page. If the new material will be anything like these two songs then it's going to be one of the strongest releases they ever made.

This years disappointment is Imperative Reaction's "Minus All" which is pretty dull record compared to the rest of their material. To bad, they used to be one of my top groups.

Now I am looking forward to 2009 with up-coming releases by Interlace, Combichrist, Depeche Mode, In Strict Confidence and hopefully a new Headscan release.

Update

Spent the whole week in Berlin, at the BBWF trade-show. It was pretty quiet, but still it hurts your body to stand in the booth for that long. Berlin was nice, actually nicer than I remember, last time I was there (ages ago) it was still a big construction space, now you couldn't see much of that. Otherwise pretty eventless week.

This morning I picked up my iPod touch (yes I am trading the N800 for the iPod Touch, found myself a buyer) and I must say that I am sold. It's too bad that the opensource world has so little success in attracting good graphical designers, the UI of the touch is awesome. Looking forward to hack a bit for it in the future.

Also I pre-ordered the new Mesh DVD, I am such a fan-boy. Hope the material is better than the old Live VHS, it was a ok concert but pretty boring stageshow. This time it looks better, with the back projections and the full band on scene.

Next week I will go to Frankfurt over two days, but nothing else planned for that week. Next weekend is the Apoptygma concert and then my parents arrive for a full week of hanging out. Going to be fun but crowded I guess :-)

Rabia Sorda @ Ritmo y Compas, Madrid

Rabia Sorda is the a project by the singer of Hocico, Erk Aicrag. Comparing the music to Hocico Rabia Sorda is a bit more indie like, clean vocals with real drums and more guitar sounds, but still aggressive and energetic.

The concert was great, Erk had a lot of energy as always and it sounded good. Unfortunately the audience was missing, only 70 something people attending, a shame with the quality of the music.

I had a great time in any way and I look forward to see both Rabia Sorda and Hocico soon again.

Paradise Lost @ La Sala Live!, Madrid

Last week me and Lisa went to the Paradise Lost concert in Madrid. It was a blast! I haven't seen them live in 4 years, actually that concert was the first time I meet Lisa ever, so it was fun in that sense also. That last time they where ok, but not really good. This time though they did shine! Th e new songs worked really really well live and the audience was really into it. PL played a good set with lot of songs from the new album (In Requiem) which was great since the new album is really really the best album in years. The did play some old nice songs and some surprises, I did miss some songs from Draconian though.

Pics are in crappy mobile-quality.

Two days ago, I woke up ... under water ...

With "Crossroads" by mind.in.a.box we return to their intense electro-world. With cool vocal effects, multilayered soundscapes and addictive melodies this is nothing but a masterpiece. If you never heard a mind.in.a.box album before you'll need to know that they are thematic records with the protagonist "Mr. Black". At the start of this record (chapter three in the story) Mr. Black wakes up in the water and cannot remember who he is. The first songs deal with his memory loss (amnesia, into to the night) and then mr. black manages to figure out who he is (the song identity), but things spiral out of hand and our "hero" realizes that he is not alone (songs fear and stalkers). I won't spoil the rest of the story for you, you should listen to it yourself! The CD comes with a booklet that contains a small story written by the Austrian sci/fi author Andreas Gruber that takes place in the "crossroads universe".

I must say that I love the idea of not just writing cool songs, but also add to a wholeness, like NIN did with Year Zero. This gives you something more than just music.

I recommend everyone that like electronic music to get this record, listen to the stories and read the booklet, you won't be sorry!