Techno Takeover 30

Bulwark Bazooka - Wumpscut 

Casual reminder this was written earlier in the month and I just had horrible writers block and didn't finish it until now...

I really wanted to review this a while ago but school kicked me in the butt and I was way too stressed to form any sort of opinion on this album other than my original fangirling response. It's been almost three weeks since Bulwark Bazooka was released and my general opinion has not changed much. I really enjoy this ten song album and the stuff I don't like isn't that bad.

"Bulwark Bazooka," is not for the faint of heart, which is why I've come up with alternative meanings for most of the songs on here. I have the lyric booklet, fought iTunes tooth and nail for it and all it did was make me question life. "Rubber Corpse," has two of the most horrifying choruses out of any song I have ever heard in my life. Yet if you listen to the the catchy beat, don't have the lyric booklet, and can't understand some of the words because (insert reason here) that fact wouldn't be known. Curious as to what the lyrics are well here are the verses:

"I got a deal for you, I got a clue. I got a dead one oh yes it's true.

I got a corpse down there with a bad smell.

I reserved human flesh oh I can tell."

"Downstairs at Eric's I put it in wax, upstairs at mommy's I erase the tracks.

Of my latest fancy of my latest joke.

To late to revive it to late for evoke." 
 

That is set to a catchy beat and chorus, but the chorus is addicting as all hell and it is why I decided "Rubber Corpse" is about taxidermy... clearly forgetting about "upstairs at mommy's I erase the tracks," and the fact that someone might have murdered someone as a joke and the person thinks it is funny.

In all seriousness, "Rubber Corpse" is on my list of Wumpscut songs new listeners should listen to. Lyrical content aside, it's not too crazy musically and it's catchy. If you're new to Wumpscut, it is definitely a song to check out. Also if you're new to Wumpscut, how the heck did you find this album first and how are you not scared out of your mind?

If the first song didn't scare you, then "Furunkel Lolita," will probably make you feel a little weird... Because most people know what the term Lolita means. But I don't know how Furunkel fits into the meaning of it. It means boil. Those two words can not mean the same thing thrown together in this song's context. It can not be a person who looks like an underage child, or is underage with boils being found sexually attractive. That's horrifying, the giggling children in the beginning don't help either. This is also my favorite song from "Bulwark". It grabbed my attention and kept hold of it with just a short piece of the last chorus all those weeks ago. It was this song that made me determined to review it.

Tress means a lock of a woman's hair.

"Hell is what awaits me if (when) I touch (all) your tress." Not hell is what awaits me if I touch your dress, hell is what happens if and when this persons touches someone's hair. Their hair is that tempting, not the dress, the piece of clothing that would be most tempting to touch or maybe their cheek, the tress. This isn't meant to fit a rhyme either.

"I can not resist your young charm, come to me to find my true warmth.

Heaven is what your young body flesh promises, Hell is what awaits me if I touch all your tress" or "Hell is what awaits me when I touch your tress."

The hair has been touched okay, and this is weird. I am not okay with the weird. But this will never stop being an awesome song. Nothing about these lyrics are okay. But it has to sound amazing, it has to have the amazing electronic horns happening, and the crazy nature of the chorus with a small throwback to "In The Night." "Furunkel Lolita" is creepy, intense, and it is my favorite song. The struggle is real.

Skipping Cross of Iron, Atrocity Dancer, and Heresy, because "Supergurl" "Vienna," and "Flesh Trench" need to be discussed. "Supergurl," is growing on me. This song (and "Rubber Corpse) features vocals by Aleta Welling (she's credited on a bunch of Wumpscut songs, one of them being "Death Panacea" from Woman and Satan First.) I had mixed feelings about this. I thought it was kind of annoying as well as "Flesh Trench" and "Vienna," but with time I changed my mind and now I like it. The lyrics aren't up on websites yet which is strange, and I am terrible with hearing lyrics and understanding them without the words in front of me. If I understand anything it's in pieces and I can't make sense of it, sometimes not all the time. This song was one of those cases, and the lyrics are sort of sad at first and then it gets dark, really dark. This is song almost reaches Furunkel Lolita levels of not okay, but it seems to be the most obvious song out of all the songs with actual lyrics. There is a woman, out of someone's league, and I'm guessing she's an independent woman who don't need no man, and she ends up killed. Or... it's one of the songs that is 'if I can't have you (no matter what the reason is' no one can have you,' and I am not okay with this fictional premeditated murder being thrown in my face.

"Soon it is too much how you thrill me,

With a touch too much, you will kill me,

Soon a glancing touch, it will thrill you

With a lethal touch I will kill you."

With that out of the way, "Flesh Trench," is confusing as all hell and I decided it is about discovering a kink you didn't know you had before with a partner that enjoys said kink as well and they both think they are nothing and they want to share the nothing.

"You are nothing, I am nothing, you are nothing, let's share."

You can't share nothing, nothing is just... well nothing. It isn't a physical thing. You'll just be left with more nothing and how does this relate to having a strange kink?

"Come be a flesh trench only a sex mensh,

Come and submit to me."

That's the first chorus of the song. A mench is a person. Urban dictionary says so. The word is spelled wrong in the digital booklet?

Anyways, I thought this was annoying at first as mentioned before. I can't put my finger on what changed it for me, maybe the way it sounds like he's growling the verses, or singing into a fan that is silent. Also as strange as the chorus is, I love it, the music is perfect, and his accent kind of comes through in certain spots and it's kind of attractive...

"Vienna" is a song made entirely of samples from things I can't find because I don't speak whatever language it is in. It might be German, it isn't mentioned in the digital booklet where any of the samples come from. And to be honest this was a very boring song until it got stuck in my head. That is the only reason I can tolerate "Vienna," and the one sound effect that happens at 1:48 is pretty cool.

Pagan Crusade is the one song I was COMPLETELY wrong about originally. There are lyrics, and Rudy is singing said lyrics. It is not instrumental like it seemed to be. I feel silly for thinking it was completely instrumental. Other than that, the song is just kind of there. It doesn't really stand out it never grabbed my attention like "Furunkel Lolita," or "Rubber Corpse," did. I don't listen to it as much as those two songs either.

And then there are the songs I don't particularly like or feel like I want to like but can't seem to care for. "RTL Hariti" the song about is an Iranic ogress and Bactrian (Peshawari) mythological figure who eats your children or then feeds them to her own children, then one of her kids goes missing and she converts to Buddism when a monk shows her the error of her ways. And she vows to protect them as a result. There are not enough lyrics for this song to be nearly seven minutes long and have the same music looping once the lyrics end. Something has to change in order to keep me interested but nothing changes drastically and I quickly lose interest in "RTL Hariti."

Don't ask me what the RTL means, I'm still waiting for some sort of answer to all my annoying questions I ask Wumpscut in his facebook fan page.

"Atrocity Dancer" and "Heresy" are the other two songs I don't care for, but they are far from terrible. All I can say about Atrocity dancer is that it is the only song I found the source of one of the quotes. It is from the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence. Also why is the C-bomb dropped for the sake of a rhyme? For real though that word always makes me uncomfortable... but that's just me being weird. I feel bad for "Atrocity Dancer" because I really love Rudy's vocals on the verses, but I hate music and everything going on in the chorus.

Heresy has a great start but it gets boring halfway through. There are no set lyrics and Google has no idea what the quotes are from so I'm back to where I started. The sad part is the audio clips are in clear English for the most part. "Ejected from the communion of (something like a holy mother charged) as a disciple of Satan." Google has no idea what I'm talking about and I don't understand why, it's not hard to hear at all except for a few words. Anyways, The song feels too long and boring for how many times it loops without something different. The song goes until 2:47 before "What's the difference?" is repeated a few times and then it just kind of ends awkwardly after the quote from the beginning of the song shows up again.

If anyone is curious I just wasted four pages getting this silly review out. So here's a brief summary of what I actually thought of the album. Wumpscut's always been creepy but the creep meter was cranked up on this album and I like it. If you're already a Wumpscut fan you're well aware what is in store for you. If you're not, this is not an album to listen to as your first exposure because it probably will scare you away before you realize how awesome some of his previous stuff was, unless you like creepy, then this album is for you.

Techno Takover Episode 26

Evoke – Wumpscut

Originally I decided to review one song from the Evoke album. But there’s not much to work with on the song alone, so I’m reviewing the whole album.

Churist, Churist Review

So I’m diving into this review pretty much blind. The song is in a language Rudy made up and despite the puppy dog eyes via Facebook, my attempt to get a translation failed. So I’m going to try to review the amazing force that is the one song I’m obsessing over from the Evoke album.

Evoke came out during that awkward slump of albums I really didn’t care for because they only had one good song and the rest were boring unfortunately. I say unfortunately because I’ve really grown to love Wumpscut over the past year or so. Evoke was different though. Evoke decided to throw a curveball in the form of a random woman singing on some of the tracks and I don’t know what to do with this random guest vocalist. Hell I’m still decided whether I like the first track, “Maiden” because I just don’t know what to do with it. It’s not bad but it’s definitely confusing.

However track number two does a complete musical whiplash and throws Churist, Churist at the listeners. It’s just significantly better than Maiden because I instantly knew I loved it the minute it started. If there’s one thing Rudy Ratzinger is amazing at doing as an artist he can portray an emotion or feeling very well in his songs. Even without the translation this song sounds like something intense is going on with a slight hint of chaos about to take place. When the chorus, or what I can only presume is the chorus, rolls around the song turns ominous as hell. I feel like there’s a warning in this song but since the song is in a language he made up I’ll never know what he’s trying to say.

This song has proven to be the one mystery of my life I will never have the answer to. I wish there was a translation to the song somewhere, but Rudy has confirmed it twice and it would be pointless to ask for a third time. I even tried puppy dog eyes this time, but I got the same answer as the first time. No translation anywhere, but the puppy dog eyes were appreciated.

One last thing about Churist, Churist, I feel like there’s an overall tone of ‘shit’s about to get real,’ but since there’s no translation anywhere I couldn’t tell you if I was right or wrong, just that something’s about to go down.

Evoke Album Review

 (Maiden)

Before I get into the actual review itself I'd like to start out a little positive and say, the demon thing on the album cover is really coo. I like it a lot. 

Now for the start of the review: Evoke is a really boring album. Nothing matches the energy Churist, Churist or even comes close to it. It’s like all of the energy was put into that one song and then the rest were ‘filler’ in my opinion. The only exception would have to be “maiden” the opening track from Evoke. The only issue with Maiden, is the woman singing, I don’t know who she is, all I know is I hope I don’t encounter her again on any other albums. I don’t know if it was just the style of the song but her voice is so piercing it goes right through me. I was in physical pain after listening to the first minute of the song. Rudy’s part was fine though.

Despite that major annoyance, in my hunt throughout Google I came across other reviews stating that the vocals on Evoke are ‘cleaner’ than other albums. In other words it’s not as ‘mechanical’ as the other albums. I noticed that long before I read anyone else’s opinions on Evoke and can I just say, if that’s what Rudy’s voice sounds like with minimal effects on it he has a sexy singing voice. I like a little growl every once in a while and he perfected it.

That’s about all Evoke has going for it. It suffers the curse of the boring repeat, but is only saved by the fact I think the worst Wumpscut song ever has to be “You Are A Goth.” Nothing on Evoke reached that level of terrible I could throw maiden in that category but that’s not fair to the song because it had a really interesting concept. You are a Goth, had nothing for it other than a possibly interesting style to it but it was just butchered by filters and stuff until it became the pain in the ears that it is.

(Don't Go)

Speaking of pain in the ears, that woman comes back on track number three “Don’t go.” I swear that song is a trap, it starts off awesome, I think it’s some kind of drum being used, and it has a pretty awesome opening beat to it. Then once you think I wonder what the verse is going to sound like, she starts singing and I almost punched my computer. She’s even worse than she was in Maiden!

Moving on from “Don’t Go,” the album’s title track “Evoke” finally a song that is just Rudy singing. But that doesn’t make it any better, because the lyrics are silly.

(Evoke)

For example, here’s verse one:

“I'll wait for you
To make it true
I take your bones away
Here on your last day”

First off, you’re going to do what now? How the hell are you going to take my bones away? That’s physically impossible unless you’ve skinned the person first. On that note what the hell are the first two lines about? They don’t relate to the lines that follow it.

And then the chorus:

“And evoke
When I get evoked”

That just makes no sense. There’s a lot I’m willing to put up with in the realm of ‘lyrics that don’t make sense’ and this is not in that realm.

Verse 2:

“Innocent like a lamb for me
You can't feel the danger
You can't see

In context of the song, this is literally my response: Well as we already discussed, you plan on taking my bones away therefore my skin is gone so I’m just bones. I can’t feel danger because I’m dead and have no skin. I also can’t see because like I stated before I’M DEAD.

Chorus:
“Here in the darkness
Evoke”

Evoke what? What is being evoked? We will never get that answer.

Evoke tries it’s best to sound like something’s happening but it falls flat. It’s not creepy it’s not intense; it’s just a bunch of bland. It disappoints me more than “Don’t go” and “Maiden,” did. This song fails miserably at being a song it goes on for five minutes when it should have ended in three. 

(Tomb)

Tomb has no lyrics. It has no spark, nothing interesting; it just exists on the album. I can say no more about it other than it’s a relief from the previous tracks. Can I go back to listening to Churist, Churist?

Hold signals the return of an annoying woman singing again. The first time I heard this song I wasn’t sure if she was even singing words I just knew I hated her voice. Then I went to Google and realized, yes she is singing actual words. I think the song is about treasuring loved ones before their time, or your time has faded. Great concept except I can’t listen to her sing. 

 (Krolok)

Krolok has no lyrics, I don’t know if that word even has a meaning to it. Part of me doesn’t really care either. Does the same job that Tomb does, it exists. However it just sounds creepy because of the random clips from something. I want a penny for every time a song shows up with an audio sample from something that does not have a definite source. 

(Breathe)

Breathe has no lyrics, it starts with someone talking I don’t understand what is being said. Then it gets silly because it’s just breathing in and out set to some sort of randomness and is passed off as a song. I seriously laughed the first time I heard this because I pictured someone having this ‘song’ stuck in their head. There’s no way to singing it except breathe awkwardly and hum the music parts. 

(Rush)

Rush is a confusing song. It sounds like it’s about someone being hunted but I feel like it’s also about getting high… Don’t know why I just feel like it screams that’s what it should be about. Not like a drug high but like an adrenaline junky high. For a song called rush it’s rather sluggish and sounds like it doesn’t even care.

Also here’s verse one:

“Hide in a dirty hole
Run from pole to pole
Who is the hunted one
There comes the danger from”

There might be a dirty joke in there somewhere. I don’t feel the need to find it.

 (Perdition)

Perdition for some reason reminds me of “You are a Goth” and it angers me. It isn’t bad but it’s not good by any means. The first thought I had when I heard the chorus was it sounds like “You are a Goth.” However it doesn’t sound that bad.

“Afraid of all the things to come
We lose ourselves
Praying for the one
That helps us out and we adore
To go on like we did before”

This is really the only interesting thing the song has going for it.

(Obsessio)

Obsessio is not in English and I have no idea what language it could be in. I thought it was in a Hispanic language at first but then I also thought it looked French, then I realized I’m terrible and guessing languages at first glance.

“Res no te sentit els ulls en blanc
La ment buida sense llum

Res no te sentit els ulls en blanc
Mirada sense color l'ansia interior
La meva obessio no te un final
la ment buida sense llum

La meva obessio ets llum”

If anyone feels the need to translate that for me, go ahead, I have no interest in doing so because this album is a pain.

The last two songs on the album are remixes of Maiden and Churist, chruist.

I normally hate remixes of Wumpscut songs; I have not found one I enjoy at all. This proves that Wumpscut songs were not meant to be remixed especially ones with annoying female vocalists. The remix of “Maiden,” what little I heard from Amazon’s sample provided on their website, was worse than the original. Chruist Churist is available on YouTube which is where I listened to it and am disappointed to say it’s terrible. Rudy’s voice is gone and someone else is singing it. I'm not embedding them into the review Google them if you want but take my word for it, they're not that great.

Evoke had potential. A woman ruined that potential in my opinion. If Rudy had sang the whole thing it would have been better. If not Rudy than a woman with a better voice should have sang. Maiden wouldn’t have made sense if Rudy sang it from a male point of view and it might not make sense if he sang it from a woman’s perspective. Actually if Rudy had sang “Maiden” from the attacker’s point of view that might have made it twice as interesting. I don’t really know it could have made it worse, but I’d like to think if we got a double perspective on the song it might have done some good.

So there are my thoughts and feelings on Evoke. I didn’t like it one bit. Also if you have Audiosurf play Churist, Churist on Audiosurf because it’s amazing.

Pugsly's 2012 Halloween: Special Review

Soylent Green Double Review

 

Part One: The song

It is that time of year again; time to pull out my slightly more Gothic music and my paranormal stuff for reviewing. This year, I am reviewing a movie that has a song loosely based off of it. I will get to the movie later since I have to watch it but I can review the song “Soylent Green” by Wumpscut.

“Soylent Green” comes from the album “Music for a Slaughtering Tribe” originally released in 1993. The song has become a frequently played song at events and clubs in the Goth and industrial subcultures, in Germany, United States, and the UK. "Soylent Grün” is the German version of the song that I don’t feel like reviewing because it is the same song but “the German Version is more dramatic on words,” a quote from Rudy Ratzinger.

“Soylent Green” contains audio samples from the German dubbed version of Soylent Green (known as 2022 — Die Überleben Wollen in Germany) and contains samples from some of Charlton Heston aka Detective Robert Thorn’s lines from the movie. “Soylent Green” is indeed loosely based off the movie of the same name. Rudy confirmed it via Facebook.

The song has an acquired taste. You'll either love it or hate it and if you love it, the vocal distortion might drive you away. At first I never really cared for the song but over time I've warmed up to it. The opening is the best part of the song. That was the hook for me, I heard that first minute of the song and I loved it then the vocals happened and it confused me. I'll elaborate more later... Oh and the song is also six minutes long...

Verse one:

Welcome to the worlds of dreams

Where people have to satisfy the need to sell their means

Don't look back in anger

You're not the only one

To choke on all this madness,

Cause all you get is none

All you get is none

I have to say the more I listen to this song it gets better and better every time. However the vocal distortion still annoys me but it isn’t terrible in this verse. I get the feeling I should have watched the movie before reviewing the song but it’s not heavily based off of the movie. I know the basic plot of the movie and I did spoil it for myself by reading Wikipedia’s plot synopsis for the movie. That happened a while ago though so I don’t remember every little detail it mentioned. This verse sort of sums up the movie and the themes inside the movie, which the Wikipedia article sums up the plot as:

The film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green"

Verse two:

All you get is none

Don't look back in anger

You´re not the only one

Live for, die for

the substance of your life.

You cannot chain your misery

Just seal it in your life

moving in circles, the anger emanates

the madness all around you

the healing hands of Fate.

Verse two contains very muddy vocals. It starts out clear and then somewhere towards the middle the music and the vocals just collide and melt. As awesome as the music playing behind the vocals it’s awkward when they are randomly drowned out.

Chorus:

“Soylent!

This is right.

This is the truth you prayed for

This is the fruit you die for

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Can't get away

Get your anger…

Can’t get…

Get your anger away"

Soylent green seems to be a really big deal if people are legitimately dying for it, I don’t think it sounds like the good thing it might have intended to be. I’m guessing it was marketed as something good but it can’t be all that great since it is the title of the movie and said movie seems to revolve around it.

Random German Verse 1:

(Translated by Aaron because he’s awesome and knows German)

"Rindfleisch, miss shirl"

"Haben Sie ein Solches stück schon mal gesehn?"

"Wie oft kann ich denn schon einmal meiner Kundschaft etwas anbieten, was derart Phantastisch ist?"

"Nun ist es also soweit"

"Richtig ist es nicht doch, notwendig"

"Für Gott"

"Für Gott"

"Für Gott"

"Für Gott"

"Für Gott"

"Geh mit Gott"

What this translates to:

(The first verse of German)

“Beef Miss shrill?

You seen this cut before

how often can I offer costumers something so posh (fancy)

Now the time has come

right, but is it not necessary

for god

for god

for god

for god

for god

go with god”

Verse Three:

“Run!

Soylent Green

Soylent Green

Soylent Green

Soylent Green

Soylent Green

Soylent - this is the way to resurrect

The hope, the fear

The bodies are littered”

Screaming and repeating one word tends to get really annoying really fast. Especially when you have to backtrack to certain verses of songs because you haven’t formed an opinion or thought of anything coherent to say about a verse.

Verse Four:

“God and religion,

Religious in vain

Religious in vain

Religious in vain

God is Religion, religious imprisonment!”

The irritating screaming and heavy distortion is hard to listen to one time let alone constant repeating due to how I go about reviewing songs. The lyrics aren’t muddled in with the audio but the distortion and the range make my brain malfunction and deciphering it by ear was impossible so I was rather shocked to find out that verse six is yelling about religion being terrible. Okay not shocked that it’s saying religion is terrible but I wasn’t even sure if it was in English at first.

Random German Verse 2:

 “Ich kann ihnen nicht helfen, leider verzeihen sie mir”

"Was hat er gebeichtet?"

"Gott möge uns schützen"

"Ich hab gesehn was sich dort abspielt"

"Die Ozeane sind leer, das Plankton geht zugrunde"

"Es dauert nicht lange und sie werden Menschen züchten zur ernährung, wie vieh"

"Die menschheit muss es wissen"

"Es ist Menschenfleisch"

"Soylent grün ist ein Produkt aus Menschenfleisch"

Translation:

(Also translated by Aaron and it contains spoilers which I didn’t know about until he translated it…)

              

“I can't help you, they forgive me unfortunately

"what did they confess?"

"god bless us"

"I've seen what there happens"

The oceans are empty the plankton rot"

"it does not take long they breed people like cattle"

Mankind must know this"

it is man flesh (human meat?)

soylent green is a product of man flesh (soylent green is people)

RUN

god bless us

soylent green is man flesh”

Well I guess that ruined the movie for me… I knew I should have watched it before listening to the song… Oh well, too late now since I already know what the whole mystery of the movie will be about. And I’m not shocked in a dystopian future the dealing with overpopulation issues turned to turning people into food and selling it to the rest of the world. I’m not shocked in the least bit at all. Have you seen how stupid politicians are now! What do you think they’d be like if the world turned into the state the world from the movie Soylent Green?

Well that’s the last verse of the song, if it counts as a verse since it is technically dialogue from the movie. It doesn’t sound like its being sung either and that kind of sucks because there’s a quote from Citizen Kane in the song “Fear In Your Eyes” and it sounds like someone is singing it even though no one is actually singing. Maybe some quotes are more rhythmic than other quotes. The ending would have been amazing if it ended with just the major movie spoiler part repeating to a fade after the last what sounds like 32nd notes. I might be wrong my musical knowledge isn’t that great… anyways that last bit right before the ‘Soylent grün ist ein Produkt aus Menschenfleisch,‘ the little awesome part happens muscially and then the line happens and fades. That’s how the song should have ended, that scream is torture and it feels like it lasts forever. Also this might be a nitpick and completely pointless to mention because you have to end a song somehow but I feel like once the dialogue happens some of the momentum dies and it flatlines and then a loud scream that lasts forever.

Overall I think this song is decent, I’m not exactly sure how or why it is super popular in industrial cubs but I won’t complain about it gaining popularity as well as maintaining it. Now to watch the movie, that’s already been spoiled for me... as well as anyone else who hasn’t seen it yet.