REUTOFF - ReuTRauM V - 7" - 2 tracks - Divine Comedy Records - 2003

Here is an highly awaited release: the fourth piece in the ReuTRauM series. The ambitious and almost already cult project of the Russian industrial formation Reutoff! It may be useful to recall that a series of seven 7" should see the light, each record (released on different labels in different countries) symbolising an area of the city and the feelings that the specific place evoke in Reutoff's minds... After the 'ReuTRauM IV' released on the German label Drone Records, the 'ReuTRauM III' on the Austrian label HauRuck! and the last 'ReuTRauM VI' on the Italian label By Blade, the French label Divine Comedy Records 'enters the dance' to bring its contribution to this original project.

Two rather long tracks compose this 7".
'Das Gift' begins on noisy bases with a combination of strange sound elements such as repetive electronic signals and reverbs, drone waves, loops, some sampled Russian male voices, discussions and laughter, a melancholic wave of keyboards progressively present... All these elements create a very oppressive (but living) and rather menacing atmosphere... that brings to mind curious pictures...
I will just advise listening to this track at a high volume to catch the multitude of elements and little sounds to plunge deeply into this universe.
Whereas the Russian male voices sampled on the first side evoked some possible moments of life, the second track 'Todeslied', mixing sounds proper to ambient-ritual-post industrial music, expresses an even more desespairing atmosphere, close to the 'carceral' pictures that feature on the cover. It seems that human elements have disappeared to leave place to an abandon area...
Dark, atmospheric, ritual are the best terms to describe both music and ambience... a repetitive hammering in the final part of the track suggests this was (maybe) once a place, that definitely belongs to the past, for an unique thought, work, life...
Definitely, a feeling of despair, abandon and oppression shrouds the whole atmosphere of this excellent 7" that is, in my opinion, the darkest and most oppressive release in the series so far…

The disc comes in a sand-coloured sleeve, bearing - as usual - two photographs of the place thus explored. This 7" is limited to 500 copies in black vinyl; 50 copies in sand coloured vinyls also have been pressed. No need to say this 7" already is a collectable item...

A new chapter has been added to the musical guide for a soul trip through Reutoff's native city. I can just advise you not to miss it...

Nathalie F.
Summer 2003

Contact:
e-mail: reutoff@industrialmusic.ru
web: reutoff.industrialmusic.ru

Divine Comedy:
divineco.records.free.fr