iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....................For fans of My Chemical Romance apparently which begs the question why should that sell this lot to Goths but to give them a fair chance this lot can do Evanescence atmospherics pretty well even if they do start slipping into Black Parade territory at times and even WASP circa Crimson Idol. Guitars can even get a bit Maiden but of course that’s a good thing
IcehouseIchor
That very mid 90s sound of squelchy synths, almost break beat drums and slightly distorted chorus where the guitars kick in pretty much sums it up.
Icon
Waste
the opportunity to do a decent euro-beat cover of “Tainted Love,” which
short of picking “I feel love,” must be about as easy as shooting Nuns
in a Nunnery.
My copies a promo and I don’t ever recall hearing it out so perhaps WEA
did the decent thing.
Idol, Billy
Had
been happy to ride the coat tails of punk in a similar manor to Sigue
Sigue Sputnik basking in the odd cameo such as “Wedding Singer” but
“Cyberpunk,” was an attempt to re-establish himself as important in the
alt-music scene. To be fair he missed by a good few miles and the album
comes across as derivative.
Still no-one can deny “White Wedding,” was ace.
Ikon
Proper electro but with very apocalyptic folk vocals.
Illumina
Another band signed to Nightbreed in the early noughties Illumina are perfectly listenable even catchy at times electro Goth.
Tend to crank up the tempo of the arpeggiators but the vocals remind me of the twee indyness of Derriere le Miroir creating an almost Schmoof like sound without the comedy lyrics.
Illuminate
Assuming it is a band photo on the cover of “Kaltes
Licht,” Illuminate are a male/female Human League esque trio, all Germanic
Garden of Delight style male voxs and guitars over Moonchild style female choral
parts and synths. Works very well. Distribute through SPV.
I’ve just read the sleevenotes, I think the cover
photo is mainman, Johannes draped in models, having said that sleeve notes are
in German so I might be mistaken,
“Bittersusses
Gift,” suddenly goes a bit Derriere Le Mirreur.
Image Transmission
Blistering hardcore apparently. Good bleepy industrial but not game changing in my opinion.
Imbue
Sleazy industrial rock and roll that reminds me of Zodiac Mindwarp and their ilk.
Impakt
It appears that Advanced Art
offshoots are like
“We own the night,” reminded of the
Lost Boys for reasons I can’t quite place but in a pretty ace electro
euro
disco way but with a nagging Inspiral Carpets thing going on in the
background.
“Tie your wings down,” reminds me of something in an equally nagging
king of
way but I haven’t quite pinned that down. Both are equally ace and
certainly
justify checking them out.
If Finland are looking for an entry
for the Eurovision they could do significantly worse than this, unless
of
course Camp Electronique are up for it in which case the best thing I
can think
of is full AA reunion. It certainly did Lordi no harm in the record
sales
stakes.
Full album due later in the year I understand and a website available here http://www.impakt.fi/PICS.html
Imperative Reaction
That very familiar poppy electro industrial/goth that sounds very mid-90s.
Periodically
this lot really remind me of Manuskript and slightly of Wolfsheim. What
is slightly alarming is that it is generally at the same time
Cover a fair range on ruined though from quite soft female lead vocals to grating shouty stuff
Implant
Quite endearing dark bleepyness, Belgian probably but quite sample and remix-tastic so not always easy to work out what the live band would sound like. Indifferent Belgian electo industrial. Has a good beat and a seemingly random, to these ears at least, selection of samples that sound like they are probably from films.
Implosion
“Berserker,”
sadly has nothing to do with Clerks but is a bit of blink and you’ll
miss it dark atmospherics on "Extreme Jenseitshymnen 3". I’d like to hear
something they’ve done that stretches past a minute and a half though
as this shows promise.
Impressions of Winter
Impressions of Winter sound kind of how you imagine they are going to. Ethereal, a bit medieval. I think they might be German, use the words of a Dante Gabriel poem as the lyrics to a song. What’s not to like?
In
Absentia
I
believe this lot might be Danish, they certainly have Scandinavian
sounding names and “Absence” was put out on a tiny Danish label so it
kind of figures. I’d always assumed that Court of the Star Chamber
would be the only electro Goth band to sample a python film for musical
effect but I was wrong with this lot pre-dating their effort by a good
12 years.
Musically there is a very Sheep on Drugs feel which is partly explained
by the era
Inanna
Really minimalist dungeon stuff, “State III” is more Raison D’etre than the RD track that precedes it on Death Odors
Inaura
Early efforts were a little more up tempo in a noisy Jesus Jones kind of way but any spark was soon snubbed through over production into sub-Depeche Mode bleepy electro.
In the mid 90s Goth really seemed to have lost its
way (at
least in the
There were still underground bands plodding along as they always had but it was bands like Inaura picked up by EMI that came closest to wrestling Eldritch’s crown from his head at the time- and its fair to say they didn’t come very close at all.
I never really worked out what made them stand out from an admittedly very shadowy pack but something must have caught the behemoths eye (or ear.)
Inca Babies
another cabaret grumpalong that wants to be Tom Waits
Index
Appears to be a solo project for a chap named Eric. To be fair if I was called Eric and I was knocking out this high octaine intense synth driven industrial I would probably pick a Nom de Plume. Hails from Albuquerque I gather and at least two of his albums are released via COP. Nice wobbly vocalled cover of Kraftwerk’s “the Model.”
Indicas
Indicas are kind of like the Gothic metal Vixen. They are clearly very talented musicians and the songs more than hold their own all be it in a slightly AOR proggy kind of way but you can’t help thinking the label, the excellent Nuclear Blast in this case didn’t fail to notice the band was made up of some rather glamorous young ladies who are certainly more likely to grace the cover of vogue than Creaming Jesus or ENDG ever were. They are also the only band I have come across offering a branded USB stick through an insert in the CD booklet.
There’s something quite fairytale about both the songs on “A way away,” as well as the artwork in the booklet. Prolific in native Finland having started early this their first attempt at writing in English was something of a challenge but the results are worth it with vocals sounding quite Kate Bush in places.
Inertia
Nightbreed might as well have added electronic to their logo for Inertia’s benefit. The absolute epitome of late 90s early 00s electro-Goth. Robots in Disguise should sound like these although better – sadly they don’t. Does highlight though how little things have progressed since Sheep on Drugs or even Die Krupps.
Even when Nightbreed aren’t putting together their own compilations they seem to have an ability to infiltrate other peoples. Given that “Dark Salvation” appears to be the handy-work of brother Neill I suppose that isn’t surprising but the mid noughties track they donate to the compilation (slow motion) is pure Nightbreed, competent but uninspired
In ExcelcisInformatik
Apart from looking like Eisbrecher’s Saturday boys at the car lot Informatik sound like Depeche Mode. Or at least they appear to on “Arena.” However given they say that “Arena,” reflects their new rock sound and it sounds like a guitar would run away in fear if they started up who knows what the previous stuff sounded like. Theremin and Stylophone duets presumably.
Instinkt
Not sure
how they would react to the
Goth tag as I discovered
Instinkt
at a folk festival
but this Danish
outfit can out world-serpent world-serpent with a doomy but
hypnotically
foot-tapping sound that has a strong medieval feel but according to my
Danish
next door neighbour doesn’t capture traditional Danish folk.
They even
use a hurdy gurdy which is
almost synonymous with wanting to be a WS band.
They have
released 2 lps as far as I know
and the one I have “Grum” is excellent.
Co-funded
by the Danish arts council can
anyone imagine the
In Strict Confidence
7
½ minute track Morph the ??? has a bubbly bleepy intro to rival FSOLs
Lifeforms. Halfway in and little has changed to the point you begin to
wonder if they have put the wrong track on the CD. Babylon the title
track from single where the aforementioned is taken is rather more
traditional electro fare. Kind of like Colony 5 with a bit of a
Malaise feel to some of the melody but with quite a guttural German
vocal.
Interlock
Hail from Romford. Not inspiring. A bit electro noisy or it might be my stereo didn’t like the format.
Intermix
Imagine if industrial did world music. Frontline Assembly signed to Real World
In The Nursery
A pair of brothers with a fondness for percussion who helped invent dark ambient, ItN have chucked out a fair few albums during their periods of activity having even taken to scoring soundtracks to films that have already been released.
Hailing from the quintessentially industrial city Sheffield, ItN can still hypnotise a crowd two decades after inception as evidenced at 2005’s April Whitby Gothic performance.
One feels World Serpent and their acts would have struggled to find their niche if ItN hadn’t trod the boards before.
In this Moment
The
Blood album was advertised on the back of the recent Goth magazine that
was floating around in your average high street newsagent so we decided
to give it a go. Its quite epic sounding albeit at times in quite a
RATM style and with some shouty alternative rap thrown in. Quite sleazy
in a way that you could imagine someone like Christina Ageulara
covering some of this stuff but enough of a Lacuna Coil shouty bit
singy bit thing going on to be worth a listen
In2a0
Formed from the ashes of the short lived “Getting the Fear,” themselves a splinter of the Southern Death Cult, Into a Circle as they later became known, Presumably much to the relief of typesetters everywhere, were introduced to me in the good “Goth pile” of records a friend once leant me. The only thing in the “Bad Goth,” pile I can recall was an early Nosferatu 12”.
Musically the sound is not dissimilar to March Violets whilst the kind of vibe is reminiscent of the Church. At times there are Gene Loves Jezebel vibes going on which given their visual similarities (Albeit without ribbons,) is not unsurprising.
Pretty much their entire output (3 12”a and an LP as far as I know) is available compiled on the Anagram collection found
Into the Abyss
“Crystal Eclipse,” is a real acoustic strummy ballad that
has a touch of Mike Oldfield about itbut with a ery slightly
Intra-Venus
When I said I had got through all of the CDs and records I had to compile for the site that was a very slight untruth. Their is one band I had consistently overlooked because I was never quite sure what to say.
Intra-Venus were a duo signed to Nightbreed (in part because Guitarist/Composer Mark co-owned the company) formed by Mark from the ashes of Suspiria, who I always found overrated, adding Apollos later of Method Cell on vocals. Musically it was Suspiria without the hooks and live Mark could perform really rather badly. He was also an arrogant dick and from what I could ascertain a twat personally and professionally.
Mark did do a moonlight to Australia but last seen walking through the Broadmarsh in Nottingham.
Inure
“Subversive,”
is mostly harmless thick synthed electro industrial with a bit of a Suspiria
feel to the arrangement..
Ipso Facto/An experiment on a bird in the air pump
Two band I will give a joint review to not because they don’t warrant separate entries but because they both ignited the same spark in me when I got a chance to play their respective debut 7”s. Both seem to be ploughing the same furrow independently which has not happened in goth for a long time.
Listening to IPSO FACTO you can picture Noel Fielding crying his black tears into his fountain of youth as he wished he’d picked these rather than Robots in Disguise as his house band.
More organ driven than AEOABITAP although the Airplane/Siouxsie comparisons are still relevant. Signed to the more recognised Mute one can’t help thinking in a Blur vs Oasis type face off IF will emerge victorious.
AEOABITAP create a menacing dark sound with vocals that would not be amiss on surrealist pillow or anything Siouxsie released before 1989 whilst musically they are everything the horrors should be but aren’t.
Their four track debut reminds me why 7”s should hold some kind of protected status via English Heritage. A cover of 100% by Sonic Youth keeps the Kim Deal goth connection alive.
Irfan
Ethereal neo-classicism
Iron Fist of the Sun