Track Listing: Auf Dem See, Amongst the Trolls, Assiki: Divine Messenger, Regeneration of the Damned, Trapese, Eidolon, Ophelia’s Mechanical Wings, Puzzelbox, How Love Remembered Lavender.

Tendrils of Pretty, The Synthetic Dream Foundation’s (TSDF) latest release, is a decent listen. The percussion is solid and the composition is decently thought out. I can comfortably say that those who like ambient darkwave, electro-industrial and the like, will like this release. It’s solid EBM from start to finish, except for this one quiet, classical/Tori Amos sounding number.

What I liked most about this CD was that in many songs, over the driving percussion, there is this floating synth presence which is a nice break from straightforward bang-bang-bang. It’s a nice juxtaposition of precise beat managements and emotional synth and even though it doesn’t always mesh perfectly, which might be intended, it does really work.

Vocals are provided by several guest artists including Summer Bowman, Aaminha Kerdelen, Hannah Fury, Samantha Bouqin, and Tamara Kent. Because TSDF has such a strong control over his/her work, there is no consistency lost. It’s thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.

Tendrils of Pretty is the third offering from TSDF. Prior releases include A Rain of Things Which Happened in Flashes (2003) and Translations of the Heart (2001). If those are anything like this release, they are worth checking out as well.

For more information, please visit www.tsdf.net

Track Listing: Album Version, Synthaurai Mix, Coroded Mix, Kurrel the Raven’s Wings of Darkness Mix, Detoxify Mix, Organic Mix, Synthaurai Vocal Mix.

How many times can one mediocre and lackluster song be remixed? Let me count the ways. Unfortunately, Zeitgeist answers that questions, and not much else, on the release for their single, Horoscope.

On the one hand, it’s interesting to see how different musicians interpret any given song. Every musician up to the challenge could technically yield a completely unique result. In this case, the six remixes stretch the original song’s dynamics to their breaking points. Some of these interpretations are not half bad, considering what they had to work with. But there is only so much any musician can do. Perhaps if they had left the original off, I could have mused on how bad they botched what certainly must have been a decent song to begin with given the idea that it needed to be remixed six times.

It’s not that your ears will bleed. It’s just super sticky, pop-tart gothrock. Pointless really. The lyrics are sophomoric and remind me of something akin to bad eighties pop music. The vocals, sexpot chicken stratch, certainly isn’t a voice you want to bring home to mother.

However, this is one song. This track could belong to an album somewhere that’s completely listenable. It’s good to be optimistic.

Contributing artists on this release are, Lifespan and Pulse, Mechanised Convulsions, Kwook, Dravenious Night, and Nimheil. Zeitgeist is Dryne, Shayn, Matt, Cindel, and Troy.

For more information, check out zeitgeistaustralia.com

Track Listing: A Restless Sleep, Duisign, Tieg O’Kane and the Corpse, Encased in Madness.

Oh my goth! Imbolg’s debut is a hodge-podge of every cliché goth music riff used in the past ten years. The compositions aren’t all that bad but they lack imagination. The addition of synth does nothing and since their live instruments are solid they might have just concentrated on that. I hate to be negative but this pre-release mini CD sounds like something left over from a goth-rock band, circa 1989.

The composition is jumbled. Too often I wonder if they just left the mistake in, which I do myself every so often. But since this is a finished product, you have to wonder what producer didn’t tell them to try it again. Of course, in the age of electronic perfection, this raw gritty-ness might just be welcome for some old schooler’s ears. On the up side, it sounds like they practice an awful lot since most of the live instruments sound solid. They’re probably a bunch of really nice guys who just have bad timing. 20 years ago when we were all 15, this would have been fabulous stuff.

The vocals are the weakest point, often muddled and too quiet. With measures for quality set by the likes of Andrew Eldrich and Peter Murphy, you had better wail if you’re a goth-rocker. Unfortunately this barely merits a whimper. Imbolg is Nate Del Cais (vocals and guitar), Tobin the Beholder (drums), and Malacoda (bass). For more information and to listen to their music, please check out their Myspace page.

Track Listing: Somniferum, Khemicameliana, Cross the Line, Someday, Broken Promise, Soma Incidious, Drip Line.

In our short tenure as music reviewers, I am happy to announce that Frank has gotten his first bit of direct correspondance. Inside a stunning bit of black stationary, we found some gothy goodness. Somniferum is the latest release from The Red King and contains seven tracks ranging from normal verse-chorus type songs to compositions of epic proportions. The name of this album comes from the Latin for a distinct type of poppy plant, whose product more than alters the perceptions of reality for the partaker. I can hear the overt correlation. Fabulously macabre, this release sounds like the sountrack to a derranged carnival, one from which you don’t come back.

At times, I felt that certain musical motifs were repeated a little too much. However, there are tracks which I feel he is presenting as songs as opposed to more experimentally arranged pieces. I certainly found the overall effect moving enough to grant a fair amount of leniency. Frank loved this release. He said the point of such pieces are to really build up a mood and if you listen long enough, you begin to hear all the subtleties lying just beneath the surface. We both really liked how he applied sampling to the compositions. Frank felt that everything was very well arranged and seemed very thought out. We also give the use of assorted ambient noise, such as rain, screaming and the like, four big thumbs up.

The first and last tracks, being quite lengthy, are the more experimental works off the album. In between, there are quite a few decent songs capable of bringing both the rivetheads and the goths together in one big musical orgy. Frank says he hears a little of Bauhaus, Sisters, and Skinny Punny lurking about. I definitely hear a little Ohgr in the vocals which are screaming and gritty. My favorite track is “Someday” which is nicely layered and goes from hard driving rock, to a mellow synth breakdown. It’s almost jazzy and very nicely executed.

Overall, we really like this CD and are intrigued by his other releases, which if like this one, are worth checking out. There is nothing halfway about this release and it’s best listened to loud. Even the art, drawn by Benjamin Vierling, is stunning. As a side note, his concerts are apparently quite the spectacle and worth seeing if he ever comes to NYC. The Red King is Johann Bran Cleereman. For more information, please visit The Red King website.