Customer Reviews

Between the Devil

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I heard Douglas McCarthy was doing a new project, I was overwhelmed with interest since his dissappearance from the music scene many years ago. This project proves to be worth the wait - it would appear Douglas has gotten back to his roots and found once again what he was born to do: use those pipes of his for screaming! Some of the tracks remind me of classic Nitzer Ebb, maybe a project that would have been best described as a stepping stone between 1986's "That Total Age" and 1988's "Belief", yet that just doesn't say enough. Douglas is in top form with song lyrics that are deeper than the aforementioned albums, but still maintain their rawness. Terrance Fixmer's driving beats compliment a time long past, with pounding rhythms and a faint percussive kling-klang that makes one want to believe there are people standing next to Douglas with drum pads lightly striking away (Fixmer used Ableton's Live and a UC33 controller for most of this album's production). The production is low-fi on this album; most of Douglas vocals are under-processed, despite the presence of fx over the tracks. This lends to the record's rawness, and makes one believe that the "DIY" feel of the album holds true to a punk-rock attitude of "do it once, and move on". You wont see a perfectionist attitude of 300 vocal takes for each track on this album; no sir - and that only plants the authenticity of this brilliant project into your CD collection. For fans of good old fashioned hardfloor-angst-dance madness fun or someone looking for a refreshing take on electronic, I highly recommend this album.

This CD impressed the hell out of me. Like many, I was a big fan of Nitzer Ebb's pioneering early work, but was disappointed in their later albums when they seemed to lose their edge. So when this disc came out featuring the Nitzer Ebb vocalist and some other guy doing the music, I didn't have very high expectations.

But just one listen to this awesome disc and my fears were put to rest. This is what the last two or three Ebb CD's should have sounded like, and it's a very welcome return to form. The music is fast, intense, minimalist electronic/EBM; it's very, very muscular and beat-oriented, similar to That Total Age era Nitzer Ebb, but Terence Fixmer brings his own sound and it's good. Douglas McCarthy's vocals are exactly the sort of cathartic, angst-filled screaming and repetitive slogans that you would expect from a classic Ebb track - the guy is back in top form and it's a pleasure to hear him shouting his head off about god-knows-what. It sounds like these guys had a blast recording this album, and I hope there's a follow-up soon. The world needs more Fixmer/McCarthy.

If you like electro/Terrence Fixmer this might be a good addition. I had Fixmer's Muscle Machine and I got tired of him after a few listens, so it's not much different here. McCarthy's vocals are great, beats are pretty standard, but I think the music background itself could use more imaginitive melody/buildup for listening to instead of just looping argeggios. Ebb fans should listen to a few songs first though before jumping to get this.

Terrance Fixmer and Douglas McCarthy are two names synonymous with electronic music. Fixmer is a well known Techno artist whose releases sell out in stores faster than they can be ordered, and McCarthy was the front man in the Industrial/EBM pioneer band Nitzer Ebb. To say that when these two got together to do electronic music it would be incredible is a violent understatement. With their combined musical knowledge, Fixmer/McCarthy are poised to unleash their electronic assault on the unsuspecting masses. Corrosive, explosive beats, infectious sequences, and aggressive melodies are sure to disintegrate any dance floor.Buy or die:)

This is average stuff at best. The whole thing is very repetitive and has tired beats. Granted this review is a knee jerk response from only listening to it a few times but, it's still below par in my book . McCarthy's vocals are good and without him I would have only given it two stars. If your looking for something good in this genre, try listening to the Cyber-tech project.