LIGHTS OF EUPHORIA – Krieg Gegen Die Maschinen (LTD)

Is it a synth-pop?
Is it an industrial?
It’s Lights Of Euphoria!!

“Krieg Gegen Die Maschinen” could have easily been categorized as compilation: Gerrit Thomas of Funker Vogt, Grendel, Feindflug, Ronan Harris of VNV Nation, HECQ, NamNambulu…
Multitude of styles and ideas.

But there’s a cohesion factor – Torben Schmidt. So, this is still a LOE album – genuine DJ treat of easily mixable tracks, variety of tempos and moods. ‘Press play and dance’ roller coaster: from synth-pop ‘True Life’, over Ronan Harris' vocal signature on ‘Consequence’, to tougher ‘Nothing At All’. And this is not even a one third of songs checked just this “segment 1”.
Let’s go back and discuss the tracks:
Hits? Yes, of course. Lyrics good? Yes. Cohesive? No.‘Consequence’ is not glued properly – vocals don’t match the music! Chorus layers over melody that’s too low in tonality. Ronan Harris sings with his signature style of course, and Torben Schmidt follows with his recognisable music. Bad union. ‘Nothing at all’ – the same thing. Vocals by Mr. Iversen are more appropriate for goth/dark song, not Gerrit Thomas’ electro-spiced ‘combat rock’. Lyrics? Even worse matching. Superb production though… too bad…

Beginning of "segment 2" is signaled by ‘Interface I’. Yes, we know what’s coming –killing time! Track after track: adrenaline, energy and flowing bass lines– ingredients of good night-club fitness session. ‘Aggression Pact’ is not only amazing drive - it contains good lyrics as well. 3D joy! ‘Wings of time’ is all that one magnificent goth/dark track should be; with gloomy atmosphere amplified by excellent voice of F. D’Angelo and updated (modernized, technified) music. Quite a contrast to ‘Interface II’ – brutality at it’s best: all with samples in German of course!
And this is not all. Pinnacle of the album (why it’s not a single??) must be ‘Fly To Target (shellshox rmx)’. Grendel treated music easily takes you to highest energy levels with it’s harsh vocals and beats.Amazing!!!

You heard something about ‘covers’ on “Krieg Gegen Die Maschinen”? Wrong. I’d rather call them re-works or tune-ups. Two of them in total, both superb. First of all, the choice is magnificent so is the reshaping. Can you wreck ‘Shadows Merging’ anthem by Run Level Zero or ‘Dyskonnect’ by God Module? No. They’re too good. Ruining them would have been a criminal act, punishable by law.

And then – decline. Bonus tracks for limited edition are far from good.
Maybe I’m wanting too much by asking for "segment 2" to continue. ‘True life (HECQ version)' is a free fall. Deep vocals should NEVER be paired with breakbeat style. Trend continues. Well, luckily not the breakbeat, but unsuccessful remixing; couple of boring tracks follow.

Now pure arithmetic:
We have one segment with excellent acting but bad direction, followed by an ‘Oscar’ winning piece and closed by B production remixes (NamNambulu remix excluded). So, equation looks like this:

Ltd. Version: (JOY+NEAR DEATH SYNDROME+BLACKOUTS) / 3 = ADDICTION

Std. version: (JOY + NEAR DEATH SYNDROME ) / 2 = HYSTERIA

Here you go. Numbers don’t lie. :-)