The Orange Kyte – Carousel

Jan14

With two rather well-received albums under their belts, Irish-Canadian psych-garage rockers The Orange Kyte have already revealed an individual sound as rich in its variety as it is fascinating in its character. Even so with loose ends connected and its web of adventure extended it is an evolving exploration of enterprise which has now come to a head in new album Carousel.

The Vancouver outfit’s fusion of garage and psych rock with shoegaze and indie inclinations again breeds the tracks making up Carousel but each stands as an individual enticement as much a pop protagonist as a rock incitement with many more flavours embraced in their fairgrounds of curiosity and adventure. From start to finish, the album dances with the body whilst taking flight with the imagination, its touch dirty and voice haunting but at its core a body of rock ‘n’ roll revelry.

Founded in 2016, originally as a solo project by Dublin hailing singer /songwriter/guitarist Stephen White (Magic Shoppe, ex- Strange Things and Ireland’s House of Dolls), The Orange Kyte inspirations include the broad likes of The Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett, Graham Coxon, The Byrds, Primal Scream, The Who, Death in Vegas, CAN, White Fence, Spiritualized and Super Furry Animals as well as psychedelia and krautrock in general. Many are essences which immediately flavour the heart and endeavour of Carousel as revealed by opener Masquerade!

The instant jangle of Mat Durie and White’s guitars immediately enticed keen attention as rhythms pounced, the psych flames of Matty Reed’s sax only intensifying the tempting. From its first breath quickly after, the song’s stroll is an eager bounce, the animated beats of drummer Dave Mulvaney as encouraging as the dark swing of Pierce Kingan’s bass, it all wrapped in the just as infectious hug of Durie’s keys. Together the ingredients made for a virulent and addictive enticement, one as rousing, bordering on the rowdy, as it was dark and invasively provocative.

The Modern Day Saints follows with a slightly more tempered gait but one again as contagious as the melodic warmth and enterprise making up its infection. As in all songs, Whites tones are a dream coated lure of temptation and lyrical observation within a web of tenacious sound while every element of the track hit the spot with Chris van der Laan swinging the sticks this time, the sax again especially potent before Distractions springs its melodic gossamer upon drum machine beats to beguile and haunt the senses. There is a House Of Love breath to the track at times which only adds to its psychedelic thought and irresistible seduction.

A rapacious appetite comes with the creative promotion of C.O.P., the controlled but boisterous persistence of the song again utter contagion even as vocals and melodic invention continually evolves and accentuates its ear gripping body while the following pair of Little Death Balloon and Demonstration Garden with their respective groove bound captivation and drone scented serenade similarly seized keen ears, the former a glorious slice of the band’s sound and imagination bound in one of the album’s major highlights with its successor, as all tracks, no lightweight in thick enterprise and temptation.

The R/B spun garage rock canter of Infinity Rope equally had attention in the palms of its transfixing surf coated hands to emulate the success of the tenacious garage pop antics shared by Sea Of Love / Ocean Of Hate before it , a constantly growing track again fusing psychedelic and pop exploits in a moment of creative manipulation.

The Chris van der Laan produced Carousel closes with the stripped down offering of Downfall, a sinking into sonic smog as inviting and evocative as it is disturbing and disorientating, and finally the sixties pop lined garage pop of Captain Ron. Both songs echo the diversity of the release, the band’s sound, and the inescapable lure of the creative fertility behind it all.

Carousel is a real joy, a ride of enterprise which effortlessly got under the skin whilst announcing The Orange Kyte one of the leading lights in the next decade of garage/psych adventure.

Carousel is out now on 12″ pink vinyl from Little CLoud Records (US/Canada) and Cardinal Fuzz (UK/EU) and digitally @ https://theorangekyte.bandcamp.com/album/carousel

https://theorangekyte.com/ https://www.facebook.com/theorangekyte https://twitter.com/theorangekyte

Pete RingMaster 14/01/2020

Inkräktare – We Are Not Really Here

Jan7

credit Mark Wallace

As we keenly sink into the creative depths of the new album from Inkräktare once more for the actual writing of this review, it is hard to remember any encounter in recent times as absorbing yet unsettling and as invigorating but disturbingly haunting as We Are Not Really Here. It brings a collection of tracks which voraciously embrace the listener, engulfing their senses and imagination in a proposition as sonically claustrophobic as it is expansive in sound and intimation.

We Are Not Really Here comes ten years after the first Inkräktare full-length and sees producer and multi-instrumentalist Dean Garcia (Curve, SPC ECO, S T F U, Blurred City Lights) creatively and in sound poetically igniting the dark and invasive soundscapes created by his collaborative partner, Mark Wallbridge (a.k.a. Vasko The Pig). It is a riveting union of craft and imagination which makes their new album one compelling trespass which is made only more enthralling by the vocal presence of Rose Berlin (SPC ECO) and Preston Maddox (Bloody Knives and S T F U).

Album opener Speak Out Loud called to the imagination from its first crystalline breath, keys a radiant lure within the darker electronic landscape soon unfolding within ears as the hypnotic tones of Berlin serenade quickly enveloped senses. Even in its enthralling beauty there is a dark intensity brewing within the song; a gathering fume of shadows which just as eagerly captivated as the kaleidoscope of light above them.

The following Say Goodbye To You comes from a more shadowy depth but too brings a magnetic elegance and lure to temper the volatile and agitated heart of the song. With Maddox’s voice another rich lure in the rapaciously mercurial insistence of the song, it invites and devours in equal intensity and craft before Terrified explores similarly dark corners and textures within its drifting sonic winds; nightmare and alluring intimation embracing each other’s contrasting hues. Even with Berlin’s tones a safe caress if succubus like in the haunting embrace, the track disturbs as it seduces while The Night Growls prowls the same mental landscape with predatory intent with Wallbridge’s tones in turn a dark protagonist in suffocating aural and emotive fog. Both tracks simply bewitched the senses and festered in the imagination, the Nine Inch Nails toned latter especially irresistible as it consumed with voracious, tenebrous temptation.

The nagging enterprise and breath of Free The World equally proved a spellbinding exploration, Berlin again a light for the moth of greedy curiosity for the song’s fascination and mercurial landscape while We Are Broken and We Are Not Really Here with their respective electro pop breath and evocative dub nurtured escapade only fuelled captivation even if the first did not quite hit the addictive hazard warning heights of its successor.

Who Cares offers another melodic sunspot in a richly atmospheric embrace while Saphirr Bomb after is like a sonic house of mirrors, each sheet of melodic crystal shattered or tainted by the invasive shadows of darkness as the spellbinding track gripped ears and psyche. Echoing the album as a whole, both songs brought warm light and invasive disturbance to ears and thoughts, a striking enterprise and suggestion just as fertile within the toxically crawling, senses chaffing, emotion disturbing Husk.

Closing with the thought questioning Could There Be?, a sand storm of melodic grains and sonic resonance, We Are Not Really Here is a release which reveals and gives more by the listen. It is an encounter which takes the listener out of step with reality yet throws a provocative light upon all the world’s emotional darkness and physical flaws whilst providing unbridled temptation.

We Are Not Really Here is out now via ELaB Recordings; available @ https://inkraktare.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Inkraktare https://twitter.com/VaskoThePig

Pete RingMaster 04/01/2020

Syztem 7 – Evolving

Dec19

Though new album Evolving is the first time we have come across US rockers Syztem 7, it is a proposition which immediately felt like an old friend back to eagerly stir things up. That is because the Seattle hailing outfit openly aligns familiar rock, industrial, and metal textures to their own just as bold imagination. It is the distinctiveness of the latter though which fuels and drives their rousing sound and makes their new album one highly enjoyable encounter.

The multi-flavouring adventure of their industrial rock sound has allowed Syztem 7 to share stages with and find support amongst the fans of bands as varied as Zakk Wylde, The Genitorturers, One-Eyed Doll, Thrill Kill Kult, Lords of Acid, King’s X, The Dreaming, and many others. It now provides a gripping incitement within Evolving which needed mere seconds to ignite attention and appetite as album opener No Regrets erupts to kick things off.

An initial lure of guitar makes for a potent coaxing, one swiftly ignited as the rolling rhythms of drummer Ed Rhoads add their ear grabbing bait to the great dirty grumble escaping Nathan Raynes’ bass. With keys keenly bursting into the already rousing mix, the track had us swiftly bouncing before relaxing into an infectious stroll alongside the enticing tones of vocalist Jason Ames. Rhythms continue to pick their spot with military precision, accelerating their strikes as the track’s anthemic chorus erupts upon the increasingly intense sonic hookery of guitarists Jaymz Kennedy and Shane Scot. Like a blend of Gravity Kills, Powerman 5000, and Rammstein, it is a gripping and highly manipulative start to the album and a persuasion only matched and twisted to greater temptation thereon in.

This Disguise is next up, the song laying down an electronic misting from which sonic tendrils wrap the imagination and a thick fusion of rock and metal spirals. As with the first, a certain familiarity in its voice and moves only entraps eager participation while fresh enterprise and individual imagination breeds the overall uniqueness which fuels the Syztem 7 sound. It swiftly had body and ears engaged passing them over to the just as easily persuasive Eternita Divina. Emerging as one of if not our favourite moment within Evolving, the song has a great touch of Breed 77 to its cosmopolitan web of melody and rhythmic animation, it all making the passage under our skin fluid and swift.

Proving just as captivating, Forgive and Forgets raises its anthemic hand upon the equally magnetic croon of Ames, the song with a Mudvayne meets Stabbing Westward air swiftly irresistible while The Worst sizzles on the senses straight after to match the virulence and captivation previously on offer. From guitars to rhythms, vocals to electronics, the track is a rapacious dance of varied rock enterprise designed to and succeeding in enticing full participation from its willing victims.

The following Skintag captures a 16 Volt/Celldweller hued temptation to its breath-taking enticement, the song another with a firm grip on best album moment as it nags eager and complete involvement in its arousing endeavours. Unsurprisingly it cast a web of tantalising flavours lined with varied and recognisable yet freshly individual threads in its energetic and inspiring weave and no shock, it too had us hook, line, and sinker.

Evolving closes out with firstly the physically intoxicating Godsend and finally the spiralling tempest of its title track. The first of the pair stalks the senses as it seduces ears with its melodic yet more carnal traits; its electronic elements inciting the bite of its rock and metal nurtured essences whilst equally breeding richer harmonic tempting in sound and vocals. Its successor aligns sonic turbulence and emotional intimacy with melodic intimation and ravening electronic contagion resulting in a final slice of inimitable Syztem 7 enterprise and audacity.

With every second, from its first lungful of sound to last, hitting the spot, Evolving easily rose as one of the year’s most arousing moments and Syztem 7 a band we can only anticipate much bigger attention rising up for.

Evolving is out now via Mighty Music @ https://targetshop.dk/product/syztem-7-evolving-cd?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/Syztem7band/

Pete RingMaster 12/12/2019

Tombstones In Their Eyes – Maybe Someday

Dec12

photo by Cathryn Farnsworth

With a healthy clutch of heavy praise bearing releases already under their belt, Los Angeles hailing indie psych rock outfit Tombstones in Their Eyes have just unveiled their new album; a release destined to eclipse all before in acclaim and success. It is a feeling simply hard to escape as the album smothers the senses in its swampy and rousing, enveloping and seductive textures, and one which intensifies with every compelling listen.

The band’s sound is almost suffocating as it surrounds ears with its spatial bound, haze clouded fusion of psych rock and shoe gaze within post rock seeded soundscapes. Each track within the Paul Roessler (Nina Hagen, The Deadbeats, The Screamers, 45 Grave) recorded Maybe Someday provides a dreamscape of suggestion around a sonorous wall of intimation and all go towards making the new Tombstones In Their Eyes full-length one fascinating and invigorating exploration.

From its opening breath, Maybe Someday began surging under the skin, the stormy entrance of opener Open Skies rich in threat and intimation. Those hues only thicken as the sonic flames of guitarists John Treanor and Josh Drew ignite the subsequent melodic stroll of the song, one instantly catchy and captivating with the equally magnetic vocals of Treanor in full sway within its canorous winds.

With a touch of Spacemen 3 meets My Bloody Valentine meets Birdland to it, the track makes a rousing start to the album which its outstanding title track quickly accentuates with its calmer but no less hypnotic proposition. The rhythms of bassist Mike Mason and drummer Stephen Striegel hit their manipulative stride from the off, inciting song and listener alike as the vaporous keys of Treanor echo the harmonic resonance of his voice and the guitars. As the first, it is an infectious almost invasive temptation sparking only an appetite for more which I Want You feeds with its somnambulistic serenade. Flirtation lines its melancholy as radiance wraps its melodic reassurance, individual craft and enterprise accentuating all of its haunting beauty as the album spots another irresistible moment in its still short but already impressive presence.

Shadows cast potent intimation upon the following soul searching Today while Down in the Dirt bears a grungier side to its character while circling the senses with its own individual psych rock nurtured squall as voice and words bear their hearts. Both songs expel mesmeric charm from start to finish, each sharing their unique imaginations before The Demon manages to eclipse both their striking exploits with its surf kissed, self-refection bred rapture and beauty.

Through the muggier climate of Behind My Mind and the similarly intense crawl of The One, Tombstones In Their Eyes brought new dramatic shades to their album’s evolving landscape and thicker pleasure to ears, the latter verging on the predacious as harmonic radiance sweep turbulent mercurial skies. Among many major moments within the release, the song especially stands out before I Believe leaves its infectious mark on the album’s imagination permeating body. As with all tracks drama accompanies craft and imagination, this song especially potent with this mix.

I Can’t Feel It Anymore saunters through ears as it draws the listener into its ethereal embrace, keeping itself grounded with dark and heavy textures to compliment the seducing with the following Up and Down providing a seductive kiss on the senses whilst weaving a post rock nurtured terrain of barb carrying textures.

As it began, the album leaves gripping hold of attention through final track Dreams. Its synth pop opening has a Visage scented breath to its electronic mist from which intimacy soaked shadows and rock grounded volatility brews. The song is pure mesmerism, evolving note by note to never let the listener assume or the imagination settle as it brings a simply spellbinding album to a truly thrilling conclusion.

Maybe Someday is out now via digitally and on limited edition CD through Somewherecold Records; available at https://tombstonesswc.bandcamp.com/album/maybe-someday

https://www.facebook.com/TombstonesInTheirEyes https://twitter.com/tombsinthreyes

Pete RingMaster 12/12/2019

The Gaa Gaas – Self Titled

Dec6

There is no sense of understatement when we say that the debut album from UK outfit The Gaa Gaas has been one long awaited and highly anticipated release, to the band as much as fans, but now finally here there is no sense of an anti-climax in its arrival and triumphant presence.

We admit we have been hooked on The Gaa Gaas sound since discovering the Jersey hailing, often Brighton/ London based outfit over a decade ago, the band itself emerging from the imagination of vocalist/guitarist Gavin Tate and co in 2003 after meeting at a garage punk club night called ‘Bomp’ in St Helier, Jersey. Subsequent singles, EP’s and live shows across the UK and Europe have only brought greater acclaim by the year and richer reputation by the creative escapade but as all artists know it is a perpetual struggle to realise the next step or ignite greater attention. The Gaa Gaas have met all obstacles and hold ups with resistance as the years have sneaked by but the determination to release their album and breach major spotlights has now found its moment with the latter of the two surely to deservedly follow.

The Gaa Gaas sound is as individual in its character and enterprise as it is unique in its voice. It is bred on the nutrients of post punk, punk, psych rock, noise and much more but as suggested emerges as its own senses menacing, imagination seducing sonic virus. From within a drone enlivened nagging, hooks bite with creative rabidity as rhythms tease with serial killer like intent. That alone proves an irresistible trespass but add the infernal melodic toxins which the band just as easily conjure, it all makes for one rapacious addiction which is no more enjoyable and compelling than within their self-titled debut album.

The album opens with Close Your Eyes, a lone strum of guitar providing a lingering scent of sonic jeopardy from within which a rhythmically swinging clamour bursts. Instantaneously it is a contagious affair, the bass of Jamey Exton leading the rhythmic infection further driven by drummer Stewart Brown’s bold strikes. The sonic smog escaping Tate’s guitar smothers as it seduces, his vocals dancing with almost contempt on the wires within that enveloping incitement. Resistance to the track’s bounce is non-existent as the track manipulates limb and spirit alike, a glorious start to the release firmly declared.

In its own Bauhaus hued architectural landscape, Statues proves just as gripping, bass and beats setting a virulent lure as guitar and vocals express their twisted psych breath upon industrial and post punk honed intimation. Tate’s keys are just as invasive and animated as the ravening sounds escaping his guitar, the track as magnificent as its predecessor and indeed the following V.O.L.T.A.I.R.E. A track we devoured years back, it is still as powerful and irrepressible now, from its first citric sighs through the rhythmic stroll which invades every instinct to move, and the tart melodies which wrap its pure contagion, the song devours ears and appetite like a swing loaded creative plague.

The Type Of Mood is just as insistent in its groove and infection, the keys of Peter Hass a tangy sweetness in the more caustic but no less tempting commotion expressed by Tate’s guitar. Again there is a vocal eighties post punk air to the track, a cold nostalgic din given greater depth and adventure by The Gaa Gaas’ senses trespassing imagination while the ever rousing Hypnoti(z)ed provides a less intrusive but equally as overwhelming and manipulative not forgetting delicious incitement. The bass of Ali Cooper is at its core temptingly harassing as beats bite and Tate’s vocals holler, everything off kilter and bewitching like an especially devious cobra before it strikes.

C.U.T.S. is built of the same devilment, every aspect niggling at the senses and each strand of its web crawling under the skin before unleashing its predacious rabidity and sonic fermentation. Drowned in its tide and blissful in its maelstrom, the track just had us lost in our own physical and emotional eruption before The One Eyed Stranger took ears and imagination on a stroll through dark avenues of enterprise and addiction. The sax of Luke Georgiou lights the way with delicious drama, its enterprise echoed in the tones of Tate and the persistently swinging rhythms of Cooper and drummer Matt Maguire. Once more Bauhaus come to mind in many ways across the track and though there is no real comparison to The Gaa Gaas’ sound, Pete Murphy and co are the closest to give some inkling of its identity.

In the 2018 version of Entertainment which graces this release, punk rock is the fuel to its discontent and creative agitation, the track biting back at a landscape as prevalent now as any previous time as the beats of Maguire take lethal pot shot. It is a song which in its early writing hints at the eventual wonderfully nagging quality of the band’s sound which is fully employed by next up Perception within its scuzzy senses haunting, habit forming rapture.

The album concludes with Indian Giver, a beguiling psych rock nurtured instrumental as potent on the imagination as it is the ears. There is a Cure like scenting to the track, especially in its rhythmic saunter, and dour breath which manages to be as radiant in beauty as it is dark in suggestion. It is a fascinating and enslaving end to a release which even with our already in place eager expectations of pleasure left us basking in richer joy, invasively impressed, and expecting the band to finally find deserved recognition in far broader and intense spotlights.

The Gaa Gaas album is out now on Movement-2 Records; available @ https://thegaagaas.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled-album

http://www.thegaagaas.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/TheGaaGaas https://twitter.com/The_Gaa_Gaas

Pete RingMaster 05/12/2019

Rational Youth – Cold War Night Life

Dec5

photo by Marc de Mouy (1982)

This December sees the release of a deluxe expanded edition of Cold War Night Life, the debut album of Canadian synth pop outfit Rational Youth. It is the second time the acclaimed album has had a fresh outing since its original unveiling and with rare memorabilia and photos, new extensive liner notes, and a host of extended remixes and singles related to the original full-length it provides nothing less than rich and thick pleasure.

Formed in 1981 by Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn, the Montreal hailing band was as notable as releasing one of the first all-synth pop albums released in Canada the following year with Cold War Night Life as they simply were for highly flavoursome songs. The following years only saw their music and releases find more success and further afield alongside arrivals and departures in personnel. Even so Rational Youth came to an end in 1986 but twice the band has returned, the first in 1999 seeing third album To the Goddess Electricity released with the 2009 re-uniting of Howe and Vorn leading to the extremely well-received Future Past Tense EP seven years later when Gaenor Howe stood alongside Tracy. It is fair to say though that throughout, Cold War Night Life has continued to be an inspirational moment for new fans and artists so it will be no surprise if its fresh return finds new appetites and plaudits feasting.

Kraftwerk was a major inspiration upon both Howe and Vorn and openly embraced within their early sound though still no more than a rich spicing to their own imagination as revealed across Cold War Night Life. The band’s second gig was supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and it is easy to suggest they too provided a strong influence listening to the album, especially in moments like City Of Night, a track which dances with ears and imagination half way in to the release. Melodic hooks flirt like cousins to those found within the UK duo’s Enola Gay, luring and seducing with inevitable success such their infectious potency highlighting why the track was one of the bands most memorable and successful.

Before it within Cold War Night Life, opener Close To Nature sets the tone and electronic pop landscape, its dark air and alluring shadows draping the instinctive catchiness of the track’s enterprise and heart. The song has a certain Fad Gadget-esque breath to its breath and character which only adds to its swift beguiling of ears before Beware The Fly strolls in with a more Thomas Dolby meets Landscape like personality and infectiousness to match its success.

With both alone proving that good songs can be fresh and current to newcomers no matter when they were written Saturdays in Silesia soon joins the pair in casting synth pop contagion as melodies and nagging rhythmic enticement reign over ears and imagination. The track is pure virulence before drifting off to allow Just A Sound In The Night to share its richly emotive air and drama within a less urgent but just as magnetic pop embrace which lies somewhere between the John Foxx and Midge Ure fronted eras of Ultravox.

The likes of Le Meilleur Des Mondes with its darkly lit almost menacing instrumental and otherworldly laced intimation and the Visage evoking Ring The Bells further reveal the broadening landscape of Rational Youth’s emerging sound, its own fertile enterprise and suggestiveness an easy involving of the imagination while Dancing On The Berlin Wall, a song which only eclipsed its original success around Europe with its re-release as a single when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, breaths cold war drama and sinister intrigue within its infectious theatre.

For all its pop agility and prowess, the album is just as notable and potent in its instrumentals, Power Zone another almost sinisterly too easy to immerse within and have the imagination conjuring with its disquieting air and haunting electronics. We have many favourite moments within the release but this remains one of our big pleasures and soon rivalled by the equally ominous and haunting Coboloid Race. It too is soaked in a dark magnetism while suggesting a DAF like influence and only captivates from start to finish.

With the album offering Cité Phosphore, the French version of City Of Night, a Danse mix of City Of Night, and an extended versions of Saturdays in Silesia and City Of Night, as well as the crystalline radiance of the band’s debut single, I Want To See The Light, the ever thrilling Cold War Night Life only confirms itself as one of synth pop’s finest moments as it delights fans and newcomers to Rational Youth alike.

Cold War Night Life is released December 6^th on CD and digitally via https://rationalyouth.bandcamp.com/album/cold-war-night-life-expanded-and-remastered with a vinyl version available to order via Music Vaultz.

https://rational-youth.com/ https://www.facebook.com/RationalYouth https://twitter.com/tm_howe

Pete RingMaster 05/12/2019

Rainium – Sounds Of Berlin

Dec5

Having thoroughly enjoyed their new single, the offer from Rainium themselves to check out their debut album was easy to take up. So with thanks and help to guitarists Rainer Krenzke and Jay Parmar we did just that and discovered in Sounds Of Berlin another of this year’s pleasures.

Rainium is an Anglo/German endeavour created by Krenzke in 2017. With a swift link up with vocalist Michael Voss (Mad Max, Casanovo, ex-Bonfire), the emerging project was soon the host of new songs, demos, and a line-up subsequently completed by bassist Marco Tardanico (ELA) and British lead guitarist Jay Parmar (Eden’s Curse, Iron Knights, The Inner Road). Musically, Rainium weave a sound bedded in a fusion of classic and hard rock and alive with individual craft. As that first single and its title track revealed, the album revels in a blend of familiar and wholly fresh ingredients though across a dozen tracks Sounds Of Berlin quickly and firmly unveils a far richer adventure of sound and enterprise.

The brief attention luring invitation of ET (Et Toujours) leads eagerly into the waiting arms of Two Friends which welcomes ears with big swinging beats amidst rapacious threads of guitar. Quickly it opens up a web of melodic threads and vocal incitement, both as persuasive on ears and body as the continuingly infectious rhythms. Edging on the side of snarling, riffs drive the song’s catchy stroll whilst the melodic prowess of Krenzke aligns with Parmar’s skilled intricacies and invention until it all rousingly unites with the anthemic incitement of the band’s combined vocals.

It is a potent start to the album which the band’s current single wraps itself as it shares its own individual enticement. From the enclosed theatre of the subways, Sounds Of Berlin hits its catchy stride with a boisterous appetite, setting up classic rock nurtured riffs and hooks in a catchy and tempting embrace at the same time. Tardanico’s bass throbs magnetically under the song’s skin as Parmar’s stylish weave wraps a body teasing with almost industrial hued flavours at times though its chorus is pure eighties rock natured.

In The Dead Of Winter strides in next, confident in its temptation and indeed it takes mere seconds to get under the skin as rhythms pounce and vocals hook. It is a wicked start which softens a touch as its equally contagious chorus shares keen energy, the cycle just as virulent the second time around. With Parmar again enthralling in his craft and enterprise, the track lays down a strong best track claim before Farewell slows things a little but adds greater intensity and emotion in its metal infused canter. Melodically haunting as drama lines every moment entangled in the emotive intimation of the guitars, the song makes for one of the album’s most absorbing moments.

Another big highlight of the release comes with Right Here Right Now, a song which starts with almost predatory intent as its initial riffs strike but soon simply seduces attention as the instantly captivating tones of Ilo Schnittchen (Isle Of Rock) nestle in the melodic embrace of the song. With rousing eruptions in the heart of the temptation, the track proved increasingly irresistible and firmly one of our favourite moments.

Both Just The One with its open nineties rock seeding and the wild almost salacious antics and suggestiveness of Gypsy had the body bouncing if neither could quite rival the success of its predecessor while Wake Up stakes its own claim on one of the album’s major moments with its prowling intrigue and drama. From the compelling throaty lures of Tardanico’s bass to the subsequent almost new wave nurtured melodic captivation which wraps the imagination, the song enthralled and embroiled us in its gentle swing.

With Parmar’s steel strings as poetic as ever, it is a fine close to the collection of seriously engaging and forcibly memorable songs though Sounds Of Berlin still has the pleasure of three bonus tracks to please ears with. The first is another version of Right Here Right Now which sees Schnittchen and Voss in more of a duet across its highly magnetic body, its treat followed by an instrumental demo of In The Dead Of Winter and a demo take of Just The One.

From the moment an idea, which was to become Rainium, escaped Krenzke’s imagination it has been three years of inspiration, passion, and endeavour from all members, traits shaping and fuelling a release we can only suggest needs a lusty checking out.

Sounds Of Berlin is available now.