Janosch Moldau - Redeemer

This is the debut album by the German artist Janosch Moldau who describes himself as an unconventional electro-pop artist. Janosch Moldau is responsible for the writing, composing and production of his debut.
The music by Janosch Moldau is highlighted by calm beats, very melancholy melodies and Christian lyrics as alluded to by the album title. The compositions are very empathetic and convince with their unbreakable quiescence. Only the third track 'Bleed On' includes more aggressive elements and a faster beat which results in a kind of atmosphere of departure. In my opinion it's the strongest song on this album. With the following instrumental track 'Baptized' Janosch Moldau regains the quiescence and retains it for the rest of the album.

In spite of the slow composition the music never sounds laboured as the melodies are cleverly based on a slight electronic meshwork, sometimes supported by electronic strings (e.g. I'm Falling From Love, Reloved, My Father) and is improved by well-selected electronic effects. Also his chary vocals perfectly fit the sensitive melodies.

On the whole this album delivers gentle music including a lot of melancholy without being too dark, always having a slight cone of light that shows the right way.

Liberté - Romantique

The story of Liberté began in 1998 in the north German city Rostock. The German trio have continuously increased their skills in making dark romantic electronic music. Now their debut album 'Romantique' is out and lives up to Libertés promise in producing melancholic music which consist of classic electronic arrangements, drums and warm guitar sounds combined with a smooth and sensuous female voice and additional male vocals.
The musical line is accentuated dark and slides on imperturbable rhythms (e.g. Without Any Name, Forever, Dedicated To .). The gentle voice of Ines is in stark contract to the almost diabolic voice of Steffen for the first moment, but as the song progress' it works perfectly as contradiction. Ines has a real ethereal voice which emphasizes the darkness and fragileness of the melancholy mood this album is able to create.
'Sehnsucht' is one of less tracks where Liberté uses German lyrics and is highlighted with transported on a rotatory 'uptemp' and slow bass line. This song also convinces with a remarkable melody. The acoustic elements, like guitars, are kept in the background but are able to effectively reduce the synthetic nature of the electronic compositions (e.g. Endless).
The final bonus track 'Take Another' works with fast rhythms generating a catchy melody and is accompanied by playful sounds and guitars in the background.

On the whole Liberté were able to release a real dark romantic album where you have to listen to the songs repeatedly until they create the desired effect. I would prefer more melodic songs with a catchy melodic line. So I have to recommend this release to person who likes slow and dark electronic music which sometimes lends itself to sadness.

After three single releases from their debut album 'Tenant' Lowe asked their fans for a final single release and the fans chose 'Simplicity'. Many people might believe that a fourth single is redundant and unexciting, and that it won't help with selling more copies of the album but in this case, I have to say that Lowe did a great job as this single release includes excellent remixes of the previous singles 'Ahead Of Our Time (extended version)', 'Hear Me Out (maximedia club remix)', 'The Vanishing (alternative version) and three alternative remixes of 'Simplicity'.

For the single version of 'Simplicty' Lowe totally revised the album track and give it more kick with an accelerated beat and catchy vocals that are much less melancholy. The 'hakan lidbo remix' transforms this song into a club-friendly dance song and finally in the 'complexity mix' drums & bass elements come to the fore.

Lowe really understand how to release a final single with a respectable value to satisfy their loyal listening fans.

The Dignity Of Labour is the debut album of the one man band of the same name. The band features Kirk Taylor who does all the song-writing and production. The limited edition also comes with an additional disc which includes five remixes of tracks on the album.

The music by TDOL is characterized by very melodic compositions combined with vocals that are both smooth and clear. Commonly electronic compositions are largely built on mid-speed rhythms; however Kirk cleverly applies trance elements, for instance in the opener 'Liquid'. This is also one of my favourite songs it has a memorable electronic core and a melancholy vocal track. It combines both elements of classic Synth-Pop music and modern trance sounds and represents a perfect 'up-to-date' Synth-Pop song. The following two tracks 'Simplicity' and 'Hide' continue in the same manner as 'Liquid'. After this very harmonious mid-speed tracks, TDOL increases the speed with the still very romantic song 'Utopia' followed by 'Relative'. For the chorus of 'Relative' Kirk demonstrates his wide-vocal range and makes use of his falsetto.
After the ballad 'Satellite', the second single release 'Chant' is a club friendly song. In 'Chant' I have the feel that the subdued vocal track is being thwarted by the heavy beat. In my opinion, the vocals do not really fit the instrumental background. This relative weak track can be over looked though because of the excellence of the songs preceding it as well as the ballad 'Cliché' and the single release 'XRV'. 'Cliché' convinces with its clean melodies based on a very melancholy and calm backdrop. The final ballad 'Seconds' brings this debut album to a romantic end.

The remixes are done by Silca Gel, Capsize, Eloquent and others. Except 'Simplicity' the original tracks ('Liquid', 'Chant', 'Utopia' and 'Relative') got upgraded with heavy beats and trance / techno elements to make the more songs club-capable.

On the whole TODL created a little Synth-pop jewel, where the vocals play a very important part and the instrumental compositions represent modern Synth-pop music as opposed to copying the old Synth-pop sounds. This release is a must for all those people who want to romance someone with Synth-pop music. The additional remixes effectively transform the romance of the song into dance-floor power tracks.