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Reviewed
by: Darklight
CTRL
has matured quite a bit on this release leaving the extremely distorted
sound and overall poor recording quality from earlier efforts behind.
Unfortunately, while the production and sound quality of this album
is much improved, the songs themselves just aren’t that interesting.
There really is nothing on this
disc that grabs me and makes me want to take notice. Everything is quite
basic without a lot of creativity or interesting elements.
The music is a combination of electro-pop and darkwave making for a
rather strange hybrid that just doesn’t really work for me. There’s
a touch of experimentation and orchestration as well mixed with frantic
drum and bass beats blended with electronic sequencing and melodic keyboard
harmonies.
The vocals are slightly treated and sing in a somewhat high pitched
whisper that never come off passionate or powerful. They just sing along
with the music without ever adding any real emotion.
Basically, this music just isn’t that entertaining. The songs are rather
tame and mild never including an aggressive edge. This is melodic dark
electro-pop music with an alternative vibe.
While some people might find this music appealing, it just doesn’t do
a lot for me. I would recommend it to fans of darkwave music. However,
fans of electro-industrial and EBM will probably want to pass on this
as it’s lacking the energy and clubfloor appeal of those genres of music.
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Reviewed
by: Darklight
This
band creates a mixture of different styles into the songs found here.
While for the most part this is energetic electro industrial music,
there are elements of coldwave and goth present as well. Combining these
different genres into one make for some entertaining music. The music
delivered here is constructed with dark orchestrated synth melodies
overlayed by electronics, noisy distorted effects, sampling, guitar,
bass and drum programming. The singing is slightly distorted with a
bit of a high pitch to it. Some songs feature melody while others are
more aggressive. It all comes together quite well to add variety to
this album. Songs such as "Faqt", "Never Ever" and "Test Department"
especially stand out in my opinion with their tight structures and overall
catchy feel. There really isn't anything bad to be found here, but the
extremely slow and cold darkwave style songs, while well done, are a
bit boring and out of place. This band shows their true potential when
they're angry and aggressive with songs that could work out on the dance
floor.
My main complaint here is that everything
is kind of buried by irritating scratchy distortion. So while the band
has obvious talent, it's the recording quality of this album that holds
them back from sounding their best. This album is still good as it is
now, but it would be even better if it was cleaned up. What this album
does prove is that the band makes songs with structure, but still get
very creative in the mix as well. They keep everything interesting
for the most part to prevent the listener from getting bored. But a
cleaner and clearer sound without all of the distortion would really
make them stand out.
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