Genre: Old School Industrial / Synthpop

This is their second EP released under EaVil’s own NERV imprint and consists of the duo n.VI, who “creates projections and visuals as well as composing the music. “ while E.IV “creates vocals, lyrics and abstract noises.” This is a rather tricky beast to slot under any one genre, although I would say that they are largely reliant on old school industrial, synth pop and related genres, although touches of everything from ambient to EBM surface at some point.

The songs essentially consist of an underlying elementary beat, some usually processed vocals, a few effects and that’s it. Some may say that this is a minimalist approach and that it is hypnotic, but I cannot agree with this sentiment.

Minimalism refers to a stripped down approach which is nonetheless capable of expressing a great deal, and is a definitive element of both ambient and black metal, albeit in a different manner. Here, the music simply sounds too basic. This is not enhanced by its repetitiveness, which can work if the purpose is to draw in the listener through inducing a hypnotic-like state but here it’s just monotonous, with me wondering if it is ever going to end. (This is certainly not a good sign for a 23 minute, six track, EP)

Although this review has been overwhelmingly negative up to this point, there is an important caveat: EaVil claim that the visual elements are no less important than the audio aspects and they present what they call a ‘multimedia’ live show, unusual in a genre given to the most lacklustre live performances! It is not beyond the realm of possibility that in the live setting, together with multimedia aspects and the atmosphere generated by a live show, this music, as simple and repetitive as it is, may actually work and work damn well. (In their own words they claim that “their “audio / visual performances are best suited for galleries and small spaces.) Having not seen a live performance, I obviously cannot say comment on whether it works, I can only state the possibility. But in the absence of any visual stimuli, EaVil are found to be wanting on this EP.