'My bivouacs in your bunkers' is not only the eighth instalment of Cynfeirdd's Eye for Eye series but also the eighth release from this cult iconoclastic French industrial act. By another unfortunate coincidence, it is also the last release from what was one of the most interesting French industrial projects in activity the last few years.
Contrary to the previous releases, the music on this record is not the expected full-on blast of harsh industrial loops. Of course, they still form the core of the music only this time the results are more subtle sounding. No doubt because Frater St Pierre has crafted these tracks from material submitted by a host of famous luminaries of the industrial scene like ClauDedi, Melek-Tha Skin Crime and "Big Jim" the Egg. Flavio Rivabella, the famous post-industrial trumpeter from DBPIT, also makes a noticeable contribution with his trademark snazzy trumpet sounds that add a touch of Italian easy listening to the grim proceedings.
Although not as predominant as before, some track titles still retain the ironic twist that gently makes fun of the timeless clichés of the industrial genre. Frater Saint Pierre's tongue in cheek humour will be sorely missed...
'My bivouacs in your bunker' is probably the most accomplished album from this now defunct act. A fitting, if somewhat ironic, way to put an end to an unjustly miss-estimated project...

All good things come to an end... 'A handful of dust' is the final instalment of Cynfeirdd's Eye for Eye series. As it was often the case for this series, I had never heard of the Polish act Horologium before and I think that this is their first official release.
The music is based on repetitive sound patterns made up of harsh industrial sounds, dreamy piano passages, sustained percussions, field recordings and sampled vocals. Although these sonic ingredients are not particularly new or innovating for a project operating within the martial symphonic genre, they are nonetheless well assembled, and succeed in building up a disquieting apocalyptic atmosphere.
Judging by the quality of this first release, I would not be surprised if Horologium rapidly became a household name in the industrial symphonic martial scene. They already have an album planned for release next autumn on the French label Divine Comedy Records and 'A handful of dust' is a nice way to discover this act before the masses...

This ultra-limited mini-cdr is the first release of a new label from Genoa and, fittingly, their first release is from Ianva, a Genoa-based collective regrouping musicians from many different horizons. The purpose of these three tracks is to present the two main protagonists of 'Disobbedisco!', their forthcoming concept album about the tragic love affair between an Arditti officer and a femme fatale/spy during the ill-fated conquest of Fiume in 1919.
The music draws its influences from the rich legacy of Italian underground, film-score and even mainstream music of the last four decades with a dose of folk noir added for good measure. On paper, this rich musical cocktail may at first seem impalatable, but it actually works out quite well when played on the stereo and it is refreshing for the ears.
This is a pleasant foretaste of a promising project, that should interest the broadminded and/or Italian music enthusiast.

Released by the new German label :Skuld:, this cd single is the first 'proper' release from this persevering Roman one-man neofolk project after two cdr albums and several online compilation participations. Those expecting romantic folk-tinged ballads will come in for a bit of a surprise here, as the title track is a thumping electro-martial stomper that will probably go down as a storm on the iron youth dancefloors. The rest of the mcd is fleshed out with two ritual pieces, a low-fi folkish ballad and two alternate mixes (one acoustic) of the title tracks. The summer hit for the trendy military-chic clubbers?
This mcd comes with a 4-page booklet in a carton sleeve and is limited to 726 hand numbered copies.

Even in a scene that seems to generate 10 times more copycats than originals, I never thought I would ever fall upon a wanna-be 47 Ashes project. Well, I now have... 'Der Trübe Klown', the tenth instalment in Cynfeirdd's Eye for Eye series is the work of an unknown, but obviously French, parody project.
The music is a series of rough assemblages of cheap techno beats and repetitive basic percussions to which have been added a sprinkling of mandatory war samples and worn-out historical speeches (no doubt lifted from other industrial music records). The tracks are so basic that you have the distinct impression that the author downloaded fruityloops and assembled this record in about as much time as it takes to listen to it. I imagine that the author(s) of this record see this a statement of sorts, but this thin conceptual pretext hardly redeems the overall lack of musical quality and gross French humour of this release. However, despite all this, this joke record still sounds a notch better than a certain number of current day French industrial projects that take themselves so much more seriously than this musical Klown.
Although it seems pretty obvious that 'Der Trübe Klown' is a one-shot joke record, I can't really see who could possibly be interested in this release. Apart from the Frogs, of course...