Various - Living For Music 2 mp3

This is mainly (if not all) an album collecting together live versions of various (mostly European) groups' songs. Overall the sound seems to tend towards the Euro-breed of post-Goth Goth - mostly combining a medium-weight guitar sound with electronics and sombre voices. Certainly SILENCE GIFT and ESCAPE WITH ROMEO fall squarely into this category, with tight, strong songs. DAF's sound seems to have some influence here, with STENDAL BLAST sounding similarly raw and frenetic, and E-CRAFT like a Goth-coloured version of their sound. SECRET DISCOVERY sound more a mainstream crossover Dark Rock than Gothic: ONEIRIOD PSYCHOSIS performing a growly low creature of fuzzy guitar with a Gothic pedigree - a great classy slow-mover of almost evil proportions; FORTIFICATION 55 build on a typical chugging electronic baseline - a solid little song which might be called Cyber-Goth - light electronic medium-fast rhythm over which sombre deep male voice growls out his words. SUICIDE COMMANDO play a raw medium BPM'd electronic distortion over which throat-ripped simple lyrics are spat. LEÆTHER STRIP are their usual ebullient selves, sounding even more in-yer-face live, growling "You Wont Get Out Of This Alive" as if they really mean it. SUNGOD's track is a riotous driving, unrelenting tsunami of electro-tribal-dance-music - hot, sweaty, feverish, setting your pulse racing and your body gyrating. ENDRAUM's track is a warm, soft Folk-like ballad with washes of organ & piano - ethereally charming, seeming bright and lulling simultaneously. For better or worse, the IKON track needs a mention separate from the above. To say that they MIGHT have heard JOY DIVISION / NEW ORDER is very much an understatement - the music sounds very similar to JD immediately preceding CURTIS's suicide - and the vocalist copies him tone, depth and inflection. Which isn't to say this is bad - it's almost like discovering a lost track by them - it gets my vote and deserves further investigation, as 'Stars-In-Their-Eyes'-like as it may be. SECRET DISCOVERY's piece is medium-paced, light bodied dark dream track with electronic fronds washing in waves over a fuzzy simplistic rhythm structure. Simple, yes, but effective. For me though, the three best tracks on this collection are the ones brought to you by ATARAXIA, NEITHER/NEITHER WORLD & CHANDEEN. It's unusual for us to sing ATARAXIA's praises (not) - here they give us a nice Medieval Summer Dance; an instrumental featuring mainly percussion and flute. After a somewhat disappointing debut CD, this shows them back on form. NEITHER/NEITHER WORLD with their Goth ballad - vocalist WENDY VAN DUSEN sounding like a soft feminine KURT COBAIN at his most melodic, moving into PATTI SMITH territory, with the music sounding like Goth-tinted Folk-strumming. the other track which stands out from the pack is CHANDEEN's "Strawberry Passion" which paints a beautiful colour-splash of European underground pastel pop - somewhere between ENYA & POESIE NOIRE with a vocalist whose voice has cold fresh air clarity. An interesting, entertaining quality cross-section of mid-90's Euro-music.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.