AVANTGARDE - Certified & Tested

Avantgarde's second release convince with incredibly catchy and poppy songs with charming and witty female background singing. I like the "Baba ba ba" singing in "A Pair Of Dice" or  "So Close In A Mood". After all the background vocal textures fit perfect with the peppy songs. In comparison with their previous release "Basic" this album sounds more melodic and matured and it got more analoguey synthetics. Their lyrics are about gambling addiction, terminal illness and death that are never lightweight fluff. 

For people who do not know Avantgarde just take the best of early Depeche Mode, Erasure and Elegant Machinery and you will know how they sound.

All tests passed - "Certified & Tested" by Synthie

NEUROPA - Alternate Faith (The Mixes)

This third release of Neuropa consists of remixes of their first album "Faith" plus a new song called "Lifeline". I had mixed emotions when listening to the remixes as some remixes are quite good and some are disappointing. The disappointing ones sound long-winded and I did hard to find a reference to basic melodies of the originals (f.e. "Near To Me"). The highlight on the album is the new song "Lifeline". With "Lifeline" Neuropa took use of guitar samples - I do not know if the guitar playing is artificial or real. I guess it is artificial but it does not matter as the song is quite good.

This release also includes two videos which you can on a PC or MAC.

MESH - On This Tour Forever (live - backstage - studio) - PAL, CD

This valuable pack includes the live video and live CD which are recorded in Hamburg, Leipzig, Bristol and Gothenburg in 1999 and 2000. It consist of live singing, backstage and studio cuts. The quality of the recordings - video and Studio - are excellent.

Unfortunately the CD does not include all video tracks. It seems that Mesh tried to earn extra money as the missing tracks are on the "MESH - Live E.P." Especially "Trust You" - the best song - is not on the CD.

COSMICITY - The Binary language of Love

After a lot of good releases this year I was I little bit disappointed when listening to this one. Most of the tracks sound boring and undanceable. I also was not able to recognize any new ideas relating to synth. The main thing I have to criticize is Marks "non-dynamic" and lengthy singing. I also missed a peak at the refrain of each song.

I can only recommend this release for real COSMICITY fans, all others should refrain from this album.

Well, sorry Mark, but this is not the way I think in binary.