Genre: Experimental / EBM / IDM /Ambient

Track Listing:

01 Cry For Help
02 Left At The Station 1
03 Plug Me Back In
04 Jetee
05 The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes (Remixed By Pandora's Black Book)
06 The Past Remembered
07 Dead Set On Living
08 Left At The Station 2
09 Euthanasia
10 Pull The Plug On Your Faith
11 Strangle(_D)
12 The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes (Blindsided Mix By Lucidstatic)
13 Left At The Station 3 (Remixed By Terrorfakt)

The odd moniker of EBM industrial music has created so many bands with such a huge amount of transformations and subgenre additives that is mathematically ridiculous to think about it, exponentially massive. Nevertheless the appreciable evolution within the genre is simply vertiginous and easily observable in bands such as Totakeke when compared with bands from 5 years ago, not to say the two and a half decades the genre more or less has. Totakeke is a band where all the extremes and actual possibilities within the genre (and other electronic freaking music) converge, to exemplify not only an excellent creation but an overly interesting development and variety, incredible conformation of rhythm flow and versatile sonorities. “Forgotten on the other side of the tracks” comes as the missing link from “At the train station on a Saturday night” and the praised “Elekatota”, a compendium of thirteen unreleased tracks evidently lost in the transition between the two albums, seamlessly mixed to create a continuous aural blast and authentically dark atmospheric formation. Totakeke is entirely conceived as a sideproject from Syth-Etik the main project from Frank Mokros, father and commander in chief from the two, there is no trace of the rhythm and noise abrasiveness and frenzy found in Synth-etik, or the much elaborated application of the “Elekatota” album, instead we have an entirely instrumental, overly atmospheric release with a marked rhythm proliferation and seemingly melodic constructions. Very distant from the later album and absolutely abysmal from the main project, Totakeke consolidates its aura of greatness and well deserved fame.

Above all we have an undercurrent progression of highly intelligent EBM, strongly fused with the rich variety that IDM’s unlimited rhythm possibility can give, creating a continuous sense of movement and transformation, avoiding beat stagnation and permanently focusing on the affluence from melody. The general overview shows this is an album that confirms a puzzle in which the pieces are the apparently different songs that were used to create the totality from it, this gives the album a remix quality that maintains the aural transition in continuous succession and relentless transition but at times gives an odd linearity (specially when tracks of similar tempos join together) that is for me the only flaw point in the album as for the rest is incredibly satisfactory and cleverly made. Several included features give this album not only a special touch but position it ahead of the pack also. The drum & bass along with break beat incursions overload the listener senses with its multitude chops and brakes, abruptly cuts and strong sense for rhythm. The current of bleeps and analog drones overflow the channels in an incredible and vast display of cold dark intensity, these melodic lines via synthesizer are highly technoid sending us back to the old school EBM sound, this is perhaps the more orthodox side of the work and while prominent and exemplifying the typical EBM sound is accompanied by short tribal innuendos and mysterious spoken samplings, short stabs of rhythmic noise, industrial minutiaes and more atmospheric parts that demark a rhythmic dissension from the rest of the work. These ambient aspects serves as contrast amidst the storming progression of rhythm and acoustics that conforms the base of the work, there is no vocals other than the spoken samplings so this is a rather atmospheric album, powerfully progressive, utterly intense and malignantly dark.  Another noticeable and special characteristic is the complexity of the compositions, highly technical without losing an apex of power and preserving the course for atmospheric cinematics.

Although composed by 13 tracks, the album maintains a constant progression that makes it sound like just one massive song that constantly mutates. Being highly atmospheric the rhythmic momentum takes special prominence as it appears, as examples are the tremendously addictive “Jetee” with its classical EBM beat stomping accompanied by an incredible array of industrialized textures, cold pads, and obscure analog drones full of metallic textures and cyber visions, transforming melodically and gaining beat power till coming as a highly catchy aural attack. In that line there is also “The past remembered” with its paced start to the frenzied drum & bass psycho madness, or the tribal power condensed in “Left at the station 2” where the song transmutes from tranquil drone layer to an increasing beat mix that rapidly takes a ritualistic orientation and also the overly powerful piece “Strangle(_D)” with its acidic techno lines evolving through a wall of constant beat pulsations peaking aural(rgasm) in no time. Latest two songs are remixes, the first by Lucidstatic and the second by Terrorfakt. While the first takes a more closed and conservative approach, focusing on the typical beat orientation, opening the space for the dancefloor, Terrorfakt instead takes a more rhythmic industrial sonority full of dirty and harsh connotations although giving relevance to beat and power.

All in all a very solid release, something I would call visionary and futuristic at the same time, able to connote past and present in a same line of sound, constituting something we could call Progressive instrumental EBM. Very cinematic with the ability to bring visions on desolated and merciless lands where machinery and cyborg rationality, inhumane logic and cold death of the self lives unquestioned. Extremely dedicated to structures and details, the work stands as a solid creation without mattering its actually a recollection of tracks not included in previous works, finally balances well the atmospheric tranquillity with intensity of the beat pulse. The capacity to experiment with textures and diverse genre additions is what gives this band its particular speciality. Tympanik Audio must be proud to have it as part of its crew.

Totakeke is the future of EBM today, a highly intelligent electronica conscript! Very interesting.