Album: "Pheonix" (2001)
Label: Doppler Effect Records
Style: Electro-Industrial/ Experimental
Songs: 17

Reviewed by: Darklight

This CD is a collection of previously unreleased New Mind material. And after forcing myself to listen to this CD from beginning to end a few times in order to write this review, it’s painfully obvious why most of these tracks were never released.

Basically, the majority of music found on this CD is electro-experimental instrumentals void of any structure or vocals. And any fan of a Jonathan Sharp project will tell you that it’s his angry snarling vocals shouting out his well written in-your-face lyrics that give his projects an edge. I have never really been fond of his sample-laden instrumentals, and compiling an entire CD of them is just too much to take in my opinion. And to add insult to injury, these instrumentals are completely experimental lacking the driving club floor rhythms and beats that are usually found in New Mind’s instrumentals.

These tracks consist of noisy malfunctioning electro sounds and effects over dark ambient music littered with voice samples. I have been listening to New Mind for a while now, and I don’t know of anything done by New Mind in the past that even remotely resembles what some of these tracks sound like.

There are a few traditional New Mind songs offered here including the dark electro-industrial sound with Jonathan’s angry vocals. But there’s not enough of them to save this disc.

Fans of experimental music will most likely enjoy this CD. However, those who are expecting this recording to offer the usual electro-industrial New Mind sound will be sorely disappointed.

Album: "Deepnet" (1999)
Label: Gashed!
Style: Electro Industrial
Songs: 15

Reviewed by: Darklight

Jonathan Sharp has once again managed to deliver another outstanding album. Every one of his projects (Bio-Tek, Hexedene Hyperdex-1-Sect, New Mind) is quality in every way possible. He never disappoints his listening audience. This "Deepnet" CD is no exception. It's an incredible electronic journey from beginning to end. This album is pure electro bliss with extrememly layered programming and creative sampling. Electronic sounds surround you and fly off in various directions coming and going at different rates. Distorted guitars are also placed into the music perfectly adding another element. Jonathan has a unique way of including his vocals into the music. He sometimes alters his voice to sound robotic, as well as distorting it at times. Instead of singing, he tends to talk the lyrics out with aggressive anger. The lyrics are rather well written, and are delivered with passion. The music is very intense and powerful. It creates a lot of emotion and mood. While it does offer solid rhythms and beats, it's not dance music. It plays at a rather medium pace with creative sounds and beautiful atmospheres. It's meant to make you think, not move. You will most likely enjoy listening to this music for how diverse and well crafted it is. There's plenty to pay attention to here. You definitely won't get bored. Most of the tracks do include vocals. There are a few instrumentals that are good as well. Everything blends well together and flows smoothly from start to finish without any snags along the way. If you like electro-industrial music, this New Mind "Deepnet" CD is a must.

Album: "Forge" (1997)
Label: Off Beat
Style: Electro industrial
Songs: 11

Reviewed by: Darklight

There is a lot of variety to be found on this album. Song one "Providence" is kind of just an intro to the album with scratchy malfunctioning electronics, samples and some angry shouting vocals all in the mix. Song two "LD 100" is medium paced and melodic with electronics, synths, piano, samples and whispered vocals that sing along perfectly. Song three "Furnace" explodes with dance energy with techo electronics combined with sampled guitar and angry distorted screaming vocals. The singing is a bit off key at times, but the singer still growls with enough intensity to get his point across. Song four "Forge" has more of a Cyber-Core sound to it with rapid fire drum attacks, guitar and malfunctioning electronics in the background while angry distorted growling vocals shout over it all. Song five "Spiritshield" is a rather repetitive funky electro instrumental that I myself just skip past because I find it to be annoying. Song six "America K.I.A." has a slight hip-hop beat combined with guitars, electronics and distorted angry shouting vocals. Song seven "Stone Hate Steel" is a a pure electro song with a sci-fi techno vibe combined with a mixture of both robotically enhanced vocal treatments and clean angry growling. Song eight "Surge" is another hard and heavy aggressive song with electronics going haywire and guitars thrashing while angry yelling vocals complete the package. Song nine "Fusion" is a dark and dreary song that combines electronics, piano, guitar and female background singing with angry distorted male vocals. Song ten "Purify" has kind of an 80's synth-pop sound mixed with noise, electronics, samples, guitar and a combination of both whispered and yelling vocals. Song eleven "Falling In Love Again" is very slow, melodic and ambient with sci-fi electronics mixed with synths and whispered female singing. I guess it's a good way to end the album even though it does seem out of place in my opinion. The overall sound of this album is very noisy and aggressive. Most of the music seems to be missing something. I personally feel that greater uses of synth harmonies would have helped a lot more. Also, the vocals are pretty much just distorted yelling for the most part. The singer can't really carry a tune. If he can, he doesn't prove it here. I do like this album because it's different, but I don't think that it's for everyone. If you like noisy, angry and aggressive electro industrial music that features guitar, then you will like this album.