Repost- Techno Takeover Episode 15

“Around the World”

ATC

Hello wonderful people!

While playing Beat Hazard's chill out mode, a song I completely forgot I had, came on called “Around the World” by ATC and as I was listening I got the urge to review it so here I am.

ATC stands for A Touch of Class and consists of four people, they are a pop band from Germany that formed in 1998 and disbanded in 2003. The members are all from different countries so they went with the option of basing their band out of Germany because Germany is where all the cool kids are from, (as well as Ireland.) Joseph, Livio, Sara, and Tracey are the four members of the band and they are from, New Zealand, Italy, Australia, and England. Their first album called Planet pop was released in February of 2001 and charted number 56 on Billboard 200, despite it containing their first single ever released, “Around the World (La, La, La, La,).”

Around the world contains samples from “Pesenka” by a Russian group called Ruki Vverkh. It was released in Europe in 2000 and then two years later in the United Kingdom and was produced by Alex Christensen; it reached number 1 on the top 40 charts in 2000. It is the second track on Planet Pop, and is considered to be the group’s signature song. The song has been covered by everyone and their mother and sampled by Auburn's song “La, La, La” which features Lyaz, it's also been covered by a German hard rock band Naked 'Round The Block in 2000 and a German Pop Group beFour in 2007. Now with formalities out of the way on to the song review!

Verse one:

“The kisses of the sun - Were sweet I didn't blink
I let it in my eyes - Like an exotic drink
The radio playing songs - That I have never heard
I don't know what to say - Oh not another word”

Alright this has to be one of the weirder first verses of a song I've seen in a while or that I have been made aware of... I also think that putting exotic drinks in your eye is a really bad thing to do. Well if you stare at the sun for too long your eyes do begin to hurt and I assume putting an exotic drink in your eye would do about the same in pain levels... oh and take a shot as another song that uses cool music to hide the absurdity of the lyrics.

Verse Two:

“Just – la, la, la, la, la - It goes around the world
Just - la, la, la, la, la - It's all around the world
Just - la, la, la, la, la - And everybody's singing
La, la, la, la, la, - And now the bells are ringing”

This is actually part of the chorus, so you'll be seeing this a lot in the next few verses... it's sad...

Chorus:

“La la la la la - la la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la la la
La la la la la - la la la la la la la - la la la la la - la la la la la la la”

That's the actual chorus... talk about lazy or really creative lazy creativity I like that better than just lazy or creative. Then again this is just a dance song... no there's no excuse for that, if Tom Shear can create awesome lyrics for his songs then ATC can too even if they are just dance tracks.

Verse three:

“Inside an empty room - My inspiration flows
Now wait to hear the tune - Around my head it goes
The magic melody - You want to sing with me
Just la, la, la, la, la, - the music is the key”

That's nice that you felt the need to describe how you came up with this song, but really don't tell me what I want or don't want to do. I hate when songs just insist what the people listening want to do. Maybe I don't want to sing just enjoy the music that I am hearing. People can’t hear what’s in your head while it’s still inside your head so this fragmented sentence thing they have going on is not working.

Verse four:

“And now the night is gone - Still it goes on and on
So deep inside of me - I long to set it free
I don't know what to do - Just can't explain to you
I don't know what to say - Oh not another word”

Does anyone else see possible sexual undertones with the fifth and six lines if you look at it out of context? Then again you can take anything out of context and it would look different from its original meaning. Except this song's chorus it can't be taken out of context or in context and mean anything of importance. The chorus happens again and did I mention there's a music video that nothing happens in it? Yes there's a music video and nothing happens in it worth mentioning except really awkward dancing... The beginning has a cool illusion with the whole arm thing but it's not that impressive. The second chorus contains the awkward dancing that happens for some reason unbeknownst to me then after the awkward dancing comes the slightly interesting arm choreography... and a random outfit change...

I am really curious as to if the floor is water. I think it is but at the same time it could just be an illusion. There are some scenes that the band members look like they were forced to do this. They also seem like they're trying way too hard in the video during the close-ups. Seriously the girls look like they are thinking about how they could be doing something better with their life at the moment, but the song is popular so they had to do a video so they sucked it up and looked happy to make more money.

Enough of the negative, the song ends with the same mallet riff that opened the song I absolutely love that choice of instrument for an opening of a song. I think that's the one thing this song has for it is the mallets then again this isn't even ATC's song. It's in all honesty a remake of the Russian version only the lyrics are different. So all the credit for anything interesting goes to Ruki Vverkh because they just borrowed the instrumental part and put new lyrics to it... That's becoming a common theme, take those lyrics out, put new lyrics in, and call it a day (but getting permission to do so first because not doing so would be illegal.) After asking around, someone replied to my tweets about a translation (an accurate one not from Google) for the Russian song. (http://cka4ai-ka.ru/news/ruki_vverkh_pesenka_slushat_onlajn_tekst_pesni_perevod_english_translate/2011-09-28-87)  You can see there that the lyrics aren’t the same in English as they are in Russian, so ATC does get some creativity points but not much…

Sampling is just bits and pieces of a song appearing in a different song, not the whole thing. A cover song is the song sung by another band… So what do you call the instrumental track of another song put to lyrics of an original song?

I am Pugsly and the world is a confusing place.

** I don't really care for Pesenka I listened to it and I didn't find the singer's voice that appealing, and no I am not biased against anything that isn't in English I have songs (Most likely not techno) that aren't in English and I haven't even looked up the lyrics to that I enjoy very much. “” by Chemistry, “Let it out by Miho Fukuhara, and “I am Eve” by The Mediæval Bæbes (The Medieval Babes) are awesome songs and although I have the lyrics to Period I don't know them in English just Japanese, and I Am Eve is in Irish Gaelic... which I've been trying to learn for three years and gotten nowhere with it. **

In The Dark Mini Review

In The Dark – Dev

Mini Review

Hello wonderful people

I have two questions, One, has anyone else noticed how the popular songs have similar sounds or instruments in them? Two, does anyone remember the song “Like a G6,” if so do you remember that random girl from the song? 

If don't remember, her name is Dev, and she has a song called “In the Dark,” and I should hate the song but it has an infectious sax solo that I absolutely love and it’s always in my head. I do love the riff, as well as two other songs that blew up a few summers ago and not only is the saxophone popping up in random genres of music on mainstream radio, another artist I reviewed a while back, introduced a handful of people to the amazing sound of the accordion, if you weren't already a Weird Al fan and had never really heard an accordion before, you might have heard it from a song called Stereo Love, I know that was the song that made me love the accordion. I'll touch on that a in part two of my trendy song reviews.

This song is on her 2011 album ‘The Night the Sun came up…’ it’s her debut album. Is it good? I don’t know, probably not because I find her voice to be blander than plain yogurt. Dev claims to have made the song because ‘she wanted to make a sexy song to show she’s a grown woman.’ You don’t need to release a sexy song to prove how mature you are. There’s plenty of other ways to prove you’re mature this just seems like the default theme to go to when people think they need to mature themselves.

There’s a music video and it has absolutely nothing going on other than a bunch of hands holding her naked body at random times. Dev said, “I wanted the video to be sexy as well. I wanted it to reflect all the dark aspects of the song, and initially we went in thinking that we'd have an Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burton type of feel.”

Well I can safely say the video she put out doesn’t look like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland at all. In fact, the two couldn’t be farther apart from each other.

The lyrics are boring, her sing-talk style isn’t interesting and there’s not much to comment about the music video. I’ve been negative long enough, here’s why I like it. Someone working on this song knows how to make a semi-interesting beat. Not just the saxophone riff on the chorus, but the verses while they are bland, are slightly interesting. You have to build up to the drop and yes, I just said it was bland but it works. Overall, the verses are obviously not the important part of the song, the chorus drives it and once you’ve heard it, at some point in time it will be stuck in your head. One might say it’s great to hear a saxophone in an electronic song, she’s smart for using variety, well I say do your research because other artists have done this before. For example, Calabria by Enur and for the people who never heard Calabria, Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night,’ and “Edge of Glory,” by Lady Gaga all have Saxophones in them.

Dev, aka Devin Star Tailes, wanted to write a sexy song, and indeed, she wrote a sexy song. A boring one but it still exists with the only thing standing out in the song being a ‘current’ music trend “In the Dark” won’t last long despite how well it did. It has over 44 million views on YouTube and it peaked at 11 in the US charts. Dev has two strikes against her, the first one being “Like a G6,” the bland and boringness of “In the dark,” is number two. I hope she can work with her production company, known as the Cataracts, that’s why she always says something about Cataracts in her songs, to produce something amazing. Right now, I don’t have much faith in her although their ability to capitalize on a trendy sound and put it in a place not often heard was a smart idea.

Somehow, despite the fact I should hate the song, I can’t get over the awesome saxophone. It saves the song and gives it some good points in my book.

~Pugsly~ 

If you're wondering, I know two songs that are sexy songs done ten times better than "In The Dark"

Cold- VNV Nation:

Shut Up And Sleep With Me - Sin With Sebastian

Okay this song isn't that great but it's hilarious.

Repost- My Obsession and Guilty Pleasures 2: Soil And Eclipse Review

** A Rrepost  from My Bbsession

and Guilty Pleasures Blog

with an update at the end...**

Soil and Eclipse Review

Hello wonderful people

Have you ever heard of a band from San Francisco named Soil and Eclipse? If not you should (attempt) to look them up because they’re kind of hard to find especially my favorite album of theirs, Archetype, is damn near impossible to find. Putting that nitpicks aside, I’m reviewing the album Archetype and other songs I’ve heard while browsing the interwebs.

They don’t have a Wikipedia, but they do have a Facebook, which has a bio page that I am going to use to tell you about the band. Jay Tye is their vocalist; G.W. Childs IV are the members of Soil and Eclipse. They formed in 1996 under the name Oracle of Delphi in Hawaii when Jay and Childs started collaborating to fill their local music scene with the goal of filling their local music scene with more eclectic music. Fun Fact, they were in the army when they started up their band, they performed live shows on their downtime and gained a following in the Hawaiian Goth enthusiasts. In 1997, COP international heard their demo tape and wanted to meet the brilliant minds behind the band, and after the magical time of negotiation, they were signed to COP International. They changed their name due to random debating over the way it sounded so someone came up with Soil and Eclipse, Jay and G.W. thought it suited the band’s style of music better than Oracle Of Delphi so that’s the origin behind the name of Soil and Eclipse.

Their discography is short but impressive, their first album recorded shortly after COP International signed the band to their label, has the lovely name of Necromancy. It was co-produced by Rommel Regulation, (Razed in Black and Transmutator) and G.W. Childs the album was quick to get positive response from the world due to tracks like “False Prophet” and “Rejoice,” they received extensive air play across clubs and radio programs throughout America and Europe. Their second album, Meridian debuted after their time in the military ended with honorable discharge, sending them back to their respective homes of San Diego and Dallas. For a year, they worked on writing new material and when they met up in San Francisco, Maurice Jackson from Nerve Factor helped produce their new album. Four weeks after its release Meridian went to the top ten in German charts and stayed there for two weeks, the album shows Soil and Eclipse in a more emotional light and ‘showcases the vocal talents of Jay.’ 

There’s a peak at why I love this album.

        How can you look at that picture and deny how awesome that is?   

Their third album, Archetype is a mix of original works and remixes by Rommell Regulation, Audio Paradox, and M.O. Archetype contains very diverse content as well as sound and this has to be the hardest album to find anywhere. Itunes doesn’t have it; certain songs are hard to track down as well, like “Whispering trees.” I’ll get into that later… 

In the year 2002 Purity, the album that introduced to the world to their version of O Magnum Mysterium debuted. The album also gave the world songs like ‘Bridges’ and ‘Sentence me’ the material benefits from the near perfect production done on the album by Count Zero and the remixes by once again Razed In Black’s Rommell Regulations, Cassandra Complex, M.O., and Deathline International. “Pretend” and “Chains” provided the sensitive side of the band while providing the awesome club tracks.

Last of their discography (until they release a new album) is 2008’s “the Mirror.” This album depicted as a more emotional album, drawing from within rather from the outside.

My Opinions and

A mini review for Archetype’s Whispering Trees

My opinion of the band, they’re awesome. Why are they awesome? Vocal layering and the Razed in Black remixes. I absolutely adore vocal layering and they utilize that technique to the best of their abilities in songs like Whispering Trees, Sentence me (Razed in Black Remix), and Exile (Return 2 Glory mix). The second technique used to make my ears squeal with joy is their musical abilities and the awesome production work of the various producers on their albums. They do a great job creating interesting beats and melodies to accompany their vocal harmonies and melodies. To sum that sentence up they know how to create an interesting song with great lyrics and backing music to lead it.

The shining star that exemplifies that previous paragraph would have to be Whispering Trees, one of the difficult songs to find because it is on their Archetype album and that album seems to have disappeared from the internet. The verses start out rather quiet, but it builds until the chorus happens and unleashes what might be the most painfully inspiring lyrics ever.

“Reaching up for the sun

They say I shed my fame

For a world full of solid dreams

Take your judgment and cast it aside

I chose my fate in a world full of prophecy.”

When I first encountered the song, I was highly discouraged that I couldn’t locate it on the internet and I nearly forgot about it until AOL radio reminded me that I indeed know who Soil and Eclipse are, and I like them a lot. I went hunting around and found the album and I happily listened to it for a week straight before I realized there are actual lyrics. That’s the only real downside to this song; the lyrics were very hard to hear at first. Moving on from that, after the first chorus it calms down and then rebuilds the suspense into the chorus again. As tricky as it is to find this song is the one I would introduce people to because of how amazing it is.  I did some digging around (asking them on Facebook) if the song is supposed to be sad, and they said yeah it’s supposed to be sad.

“You’re pretty spot on with whispering trees. I penned the lyrics at kind of turning point in my life. I think g. was experiencing something similar so it’s really has a sense of melancholy. At its core, for me it’s about leaving the past behind accepting my faults and realizing the potential the future holds.”

The response I got from Jay Tye via facebook message when I asked a while back about the mood of the song because there was a point in time where I had no idea the song had lyrics. I don't know how I didn't hear them at first but I didn't and then when I did I realized they're slightly depressing. While we’re on the topic of Archetype, I’ll address the whole album hopefully in one whole paragraph otherwise I’ll never stop. 

Is Archetype my favorite Soil and Eclipse album? I don’t know because I don’t own all of them yet. I only have Purity and a few songs off of Necromancy. My recent purchase of Women and Satan First (Wumpscut’s new album) has left my account short of money and I’m not going to bootleg albums I found… even if it means dealing with Itunes and their crappy services. Archetype however is a decent album compared to Purity. Now there’s nothing wrong with Purity, in contrast to that statement, Purity has the Sentence Me remix done by the amazing Razed in Black. It also has O’Magnum Mysterium, which happens to be the first song I heard from Soil and Eclipse on AOL Radio. I can’t compare it to Necromancy and the Mirror because I don’t have those albums as I previously mentioned, but replay wise Archetype wins and it’s not because of Whispering Trees, the remix for Exile (return to glory) is my second favorite song on Archetype. My third favorite song is King of Lies, because it has one of my favorite things in a song, some kind of chanting thing in the beginning that send my ears straight to cloud nine. I listen to that album more than Purity. With that stated, I should move on from Archetype and to the next album that I have more than two songs on my Itunes list.

My Thoughts on Purity

Purity contains the song that introduced me to Soil and Eclipse, O’Magnum Mysterium. It also contains an amazing remix of Sentence me by Razed in Black. The original version is also on the Purity album and it’s a good song but the remix makes it slightly better with the slightly faster tempo and added beats going on following the buildup in the beginning of the song. As of right now, I own “Sentence Me,” “Sentence Me (Razed in black mix),” “Chains,” and “O’Magnum Mysterium” and with how often I find myself listening to these songs, it should be better than Archetype, but that is not the case. It has nothing to do with the quality of the songs; they’re great I love the four that I have currently heard. Yes, Chains is the sad song of the four but it doesn’t have the same effect as Whispering Trees.

My conclusion on the album itself is incomplete. It will remain that way until I buy the rest of Purity so I can transfer it to my IPod and listen to it while I’m not concentrating on reviewing it. That’s when I form my ideas and insight.

Conclusion

Listen to Soil and Eclipse they are a great band and deserve all the exposure they can get. I hope Archetype goes back up on Itunes at some point in time because it is amazing. Soil and Eclipse have a very promising future in remaining a band I listen to for a long time, right next to Assemblage 23, Wumpscut, and Enya because my musical tastes are highly diverse.

~Pugsly~

** Update, as of 12/2/12 Archetype is back on iTunes as far as I know. I saw it a while back so it should still be there. GO BUY IT do not bootleg even if the money is going to some grubby company this album is too good to bootleg.

Also I now own a few songs from The Mirror and they are amazing, if you can find a copy BUY IT because very few songs are available on the internet. Elysium Rain is the best thing ever however there are no lyric websites that recognize it's existence which is sad because it's beautiful and I don't know Latin well enough to translate by ear. Violin makes me want to learn how to play the Violin which I might start doing one day. I love the violins in that song and it's also in Latin however I might have found the translation or the lyrics for Violin somewhere in the world of the internet. I have reviewed Elysium rain despite the lack of lyrics on the internet, I did my best to play it by ear. It is on my Anniversary blog. I might upload it here as well.**

My Obsession 3: "Heretic" - Soil And Eclipse *Repost*

**Originally from:

 My Obsessions and Guilty Pleasures blog 

that next to no one knows about because I never update it... Enjoy. ** 

“Heretic” -

Soil and Eclipse Review

( http://soilandeclipse.bandcamp.com/track/heretic
they put the song on their website)

Soil And Eclipse: Jay Tye and G.W. Childs IV

Hello wonderful people, I just heard a song called Heretic on AOL’s Gothic Radio. It’s from Archetype, and I’ve listened to the album all the way through a few times but for some reason this song didn’t leave an impression on me until now. I don’t know how that’s possible either because holy crap is it dark compared to well… “Whispering Trees” don’t act like you didn’t see that coming. Random fun fact time, although Jay does about 85% of the vocals on the songs, this one features G.W. on the verses and Jay on the choruses and embellishments. I don’t know what embellishments are exactly, but I’ll assume they are the other vocal parts of the song.

It wastes no time in letting you know something’s about to go down, that opening, while subtle, is the audio equivalent of a creepy guy in a dark alley, trench coat and all trying to sell something to some naïve idiot out at the wrong time of night on the wrong side of town.

At first glance, I literally had no idea what was going on with the first verse:

“Father says you say
To start again
There's no redemption here
It never ends”

Someone’s asking their father for forgiveness and the response is that there’s no redemption or forgiveness for whatever this person has done. That’s harsh they really messed up most likely why they’re being called a heretic.  

 If that’s not doom and gloomy enough here’s the second verse:

“There's no love first left
That can save the world
You destroyed long ago
I feel no pain as my head explodes

I won’t let it go”

Revenge song time, that verse just screams revenge on the black sheep of something… that’s currently a mystery to me. The chorus is cool though.

Chorus:

“Heretic
I feel your heart stop
I will be your angel of death
That can guide you to Hell

Heretic
I won't back down
I won't forget
The promise you made
Heretic,

Heretic”

That first part of the chorus is nothing but an angry held back whisper and it’s eerie as hell. I thought Rudy Ratzinger’s had a tendency to be creepy, the second Heretic is somewhat yelled and it gave me the creeps. This is an angry song and you can hear it all in the forcefulness of the “Heretic.” Good job Jay you’ve convinced me you’re the silent rage type of person and I know to avoid pissing you off. Just kidding but the anger just oozing out of the chorus is insane. 

Right before the third verse starts there’s an amazing little vocalization bit that completely kills the mood but sounds amazing. It doesn’t take me out of the song at all but it’s not angry or forceful like the previous parts of the song. Moving on to verse three:

“There’s no second place
Rest assured
Leave without a trace
Nothings pure”

I don’t have any comments for this verse so onto the next one, verse four:

“There's no shooting star
You can wish on now
That your life's astray
I feel a sense of redemption
And I won't let it go”

I’m not sure who feels the sense of redemption, the heretic or the person punishing the heretic. I would assume the heretic is feeling the redemption and doesn’t want to let it go but then the song just switches views randomly for no real reason. That end of the verse threw everything out the window… not the anger though, the anger is still there but all sense of ‘narration’ is gone. Well there is one more chorus but that’s the same as the previous ones so there’s no need to talk about it again.

Heretic is going as my second favorite song on the album, I don’t know why I didn’t love this before, but I sure do now. 

-Before I officially end the  review, I'm going to explain why Soil and Eclipse does not belong on my Techno Takeover blog. They're not electronic heavy in their songs from Archetype that I end up reviewing. They have elements of it in places and they have a bunch of remixed version of their songs (on that album) that are electronic in nature, but until I review one of those electronic heavy songs, the reviews focusing on the band will be here in the My Obsessions/Guilty pleasures page... until I find a new home for their reviews.-

Seriously if you're not listen to Soil and Eclipse yet go do it you are missing out on epicness by not listening to them. I'm serious, go listen to them now.

From Pugsly

Techno Takeover: Trendy Sounds

** I reviewed this around May of 2012, I know the popularity of this song might have faded by now, but it'll be a while before I review anything new**

In The Dark – Dev

Mini Review

Hello wonderful people

I have two questions: 
1: has anyone else noticed how the popular songs have similar sounds or instruments in them? 
2: Does anyone remember the song “Like a G6,” if so do you remember that random girl from the song? 

If don't remember, her name is Dev, and she has a song called “In the Dark,” and I should hate the song but it has an infectious sax solo that I absolutely love and it’s always in my head. I do love the riff, as well as two other songs that blew up a few summers ago and not only is the saxophone popping up in random genres of music on mainstream radio, another artist I reviewed a while back, introduced a handful of people to the amazing sound of the accordion, if you weren't already a Weird Al fan and had never really heard an accordion before, you might have heard it from a song called Stereo Love, I know that was the song that made me love the accordion. I'll touch on that a in part two of my trendy song reviews.

This song is on her 2011 album ‘The Night the Sun came up…’ it’s her debut album. Is it good? I don’t know, probably not because I find her voice to be blander than plain yogurt. Dev claims to have made the song because ‘she wanted to make a sexy song to show she’s a grown woman.’ You don’t need to release a sexy song to prove how mature you are. There’s plenty of other ways to prove you’re mature this just seems like the default theme to go to when people think they need to mature themselves.

There’s a music video and it has absolutely nothing going on other than a bunch of hands holding her naked body at random times. Dev said, “I wanted the video to be sexy as well. I wanted it to reflect all the dark aspects of the song, and initially we went in thinking that we'd have an Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burton type of feel.”

Well I can safely say the video she put out doesn’t look like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland at all. In fact, the two couldn’t be farther apart from each other.

The lyrics are boring, her sing-talk style isn’t interesting and there’s not much to comment about the music video. I’ve been negative long enough, here’s why I like it. Someone working on this song knows how to make a semi-interesting beat. Not just the saxophone riff on the chorus, but the verses while they are bland, are slightly interesting. You have to build up to the drop and yes, I just said it was bland but it works. Overall, the verses are obviously not the important part of the song, the chorus drives it and once you’ve heard it, at some point in time it will be stuck in your head. One might say it’s great to hear a saxophone in an electronic song, she’s smart for using variety, well I say do your research because other artists have done this before. For example, Calabria by Enur and for the people who never heard Calabria, Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night,’ and “Edge of Glory,” by Lady Gaga all have Saxophones in them.

Dev, aka Devin Star Tailes, wanted to write a sexy song, and indeed, she wrote a sexy song. A boring one but it still exists with the only thing standing out in the song being a ‘current’ music trend “In the Dark” won’t last long despite how well it did. It has over 44 million views on YouTube and it peaked at 11 in the US charts. Dev has two strikes against her, the first one being “Like a G6,” the bland and boring sound of “In the dark,” is number two. I hope she can work with her production company, known as the Cataracts, that’s why she always says something about Cataracts in her songs, to produce something amazing. Right now, I don’t have much faith in her although their ability to capitalize on a trendy sound and put it in a place not often heard was a smart idea.

Somehow, despite the fact I should hate the song, I can’t get over the awesome saxophone. It saves the song and gives it some good points in my book.

~Pugsly~ 

If you're wondering, I know two songs that are sexy songs done ten times better than "In The Dark"

Cold- VNV Nation:

Shut Up And Sleep With Me - Sin With Sebastian

Okay this song isn't that great but it's hilarious.

Techno Takeover 1: Breath Of Ghosts - Assemblage 23 (repost)

** This is my first review I did over a year ago. I'm quite proud of it because I got the artist to read it :) that's why I want it to be the first post I introduce everyone on Broken Infinite to my Techno Takeover Series, also I have a YouTube channel but it's from my middle school days and I was a weird child.**

“Breath of Ghosts”

By

Assemblage 23

By Pugsly

Hello all you wonderful people taking the time to read this,

My name is Pugsly (as you can obviously tell since my name is attached to this lovely review) and I have finally decided to join the world of reviewing, sort of... Reviewing in the form of writing since I do not have a working camera or a working (properly) computer to save videos and stuff on so I am limited to writing for the current moment. On a lighter note, I have joined the world of reviewing! I hope to spread my love for random types of music to the world

This review series is for techno and any of it's sub-genres I feel fit into the Techno umbrella. (What you feel is techno- shut up I don't care what it's grouped as I am putting in the techno group!) 

The song I have picked an industrial gem is one of my all time favorites by an amazing man named Tom Shear aka Assemblage 23, he 'started' A23 in 1988 but was previously known as Man on a Stage for most of the 80's. In the beginning of his career he made mostly 'instrumental' tracks. He got into the electronic music industry when he was an opening DJ for Depeche Mode. Assemblage 23 was mainly a hobby at first but in 1998 he'd become so popular he'd attracted the attention of record label. (Gashed record company)

The song Breath of Ghosts is the sixth track from the album Addendum released in 2001. Addendum was mainly a remix album; however Breath of Ghosts is not a remix song. Sadly as much as I love this song with ever fiber of my being, it is not well received amongst the A23 fan base. In fact it has been so overlooked; Tom hasn't done the song in any live shows.

(That's Tom Shear)

So enough back story, here is Assemblage 23 review to the best of my reviewing abilities.

The intro (which could have been long drawn out and obnoxious) only lasts thirty three seconds and is the hook into the song. (But why did you have to comment on it? It’s awesome that’s why!) It’s not just the same thing over and over again it’s quite interesting Click the link and you can hear it's awesomeness. 

Verse one:

“I hear the breath of ghosts

Hiding behind the wind

Like an icy choir exhaling

A promise to rescind”

No I have no clue what the word rescind means... TO GOOGLE I GO!!

According to thefreedicionary.com rescind means “To make void; repeal or annul.”

So that lyric makes sense, the ghosts are smart they don't just yell out they're message, they disguise it in the wind, what are they repealing annulling or voiding? I don't know quite yet but it sounds like an icy choir exhales... that sounds bone chillingly creepy... I’d really hate to be this guy right now I might be a huge paranormal fan but if I heard a voice like that I’d be scarred possibly for life.

Oh look! Here comes verse two:

“I hear the breath of ghosts

Escaping from their lungs

Calling for the names of those

That took away their tongues”

Well if that's the message their message they are hiding behind the wind, that's not a very brilliant way to get your voice heard! They want the people who took away their ability to speak and live... but they sound like an icy whisper in the wind... eh I'll leave it alone I love this song too much to nit pick.

And I spot... THE CHORUS!

“A temporary permanence

A fortress of onion skin

With motives so transparent

With no means to an end”

Um “A temporary permanence...” something can't temporarily be permanent. A fortress of onion skin... I think Tom's just seen the ghost along with hearing it. With motives so transparent with no means to an end...

Moving on to the music interlude thing that lasts a few second... and I must add, when the song starts up until the chorus Tom is whispering something and I think it is genius. It adds to the song somehow making it slightly creepy despite it already being (at face value) about the paranormal. The whispering comes back after the chorus, and it stops obviously because it wouldn’t fit with the change in melody. (You'd think a song categorized under techno wouldn't have any depth to it but guess again! There are plenty of electronic songs with messages; you just have to find them)

Music interlude thing over now here's the third verse:
“I feel the breath of ghosts
Like fingers on my skin
Tracing senseless patterns
Revealing nothing in the end”

This poor person, being tormented by ghosts hearing their (assumed) cries of vengeance for the ones who took their lives and he somehow is being used as a medium (probably not voluntarily) and now they're touching him giving him even more chills. 

This next verse doesn't help much either...
“I hear the breath of ghosts
Whisper in my ear
With every drooling syllable
It preys upon my fear.”

I don’t think he is the brave person who would to try to solve any paranormal unsolved mysteries. If he ever heard an EVP saying help me, he's probably run and never look back...

This is where the chorus to break up the story a little and have another awesome music interlude thing again. There's no need to comment on it again so moving on!

Onto verse five:
“I hear the breath of ghosts
Blowing through the trees
Hissing out a warning
Awash with its disease”

… Awash... well before I check the dictionary, it sounds like the ghosts are sending some warning but it might not be a good one … or is it... TO THE DICTIONARY I WAS USING BEFORE!
Awash is an adverb and an adjective, also a nautical term but I doubt that's the actual usage of the word in this sentence. Washed by the sea, no I don't think the warning was washed by the sea if they were just talking about trees... Washing about... Their warning is washing about with disease... It could work... The last adverb definition is “In such a position or way as to be covered with or as if with water.” …no that's not right... here are the adjective definitions “
1. Level with or washed by waves.
2. Overflowing with or as if with water: Some of America's big cities are awash in vacant office space" (Ross K. Baker).

3. Floating on or as if on waves.”

I think I'll go with the second option; the warning is overflowing with disease... Well which ever meaning it is I don't think the ghosts are looking out for Tom's best interest. 

Moving on now...

(Verse six)

“I hear the breath of ghosts
Slowly fade away
With ever decreasing frequency
As colors change to gray”

What colors? When was he seeing colors?! Has the onion skin he was talking about to describe what the ghosts look like now turned to grey? So there are a bunch of gray blobs floating around tormenting him? But on the brighter side the voices have now dropped down to a lower frequency that the audibility is slowly dropping so he can't physically hear it with his own ears... I guess that's good.

And then the final chorus brings us to the end of the song while epic music plays until the end.

I don't see why this song isn't popular even with A23 fans... It’s an amazing ‘club song’ if you will, which seem to dominate radio today (it’s why I’ve stopped listening to it.) Whether or not there's a deeper message than a paranormal experience, I'm not sure yet but to me it's just an amazing song that feeds my love for the paranormal and my guilty pleasure of techno well this isn't a guilty pleasure I enjoy Industrial/Synthpop/Futurepop/Darkwave and songs under that wide umbrella of genre. Industrial is amazing it doesn't go in guilty pleasures.

So this was Techno Takeover... if you like it come back for more if not oh well I don't know what to tell you... 

Oh and I almost forgot, I'm on youtube, one day out of boredom I reversed this song and posted it because I was bored.

(That is my video) 


So a while ago I emailed Tom Shear the link for this review...

In case you can't read it, it says 
"Cool Thanks for sharing, glad I could make you crack a dictionary a couple of times :)"