Customer Reviews

Gelb

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Despite what's overplayed on the radio and MTV, there is still awesome music to be found out there, you just have to look for it. Neuroticfish are one of the better synth bands out today, and they continue to improve with each new album. Gelb is great from start to finish, although I didn't like this album as much when I first listened to it as I do now. There were 3 songs that I instantly liked: the Bomb, I don't need the City, and Suffocating Right, and eventually, I ended up liking all the stuff in between also, it just took some time to grow on me. What I really enjoy about NF are Sascha's vocals. At times he almost sounds like Dave Gahan---very mellow and soothing. At first some of the more dancier songs kind of turned me off. It was almost a blurred line between synth-rock and straight foreward dance music, a line which is certain death for me if it's crossed, but I soon decided this was a whole lot deeper and darker than your average crappy club music. This is the best NF material that I've heard to date, though I don't have a lot of their earlier stuff. This is really a good album, and if you love 80's bands like Depeche Mode, OMD, New Order, Fad Gadget, or Kraftwerk, this is for you. The only complaints that I have about this are some of the corny voice-overs and samples at times are kinda cheesy, and the run-of-the-mill cliche keyboard sound thats prevelant throughout most of the songs, but by no means do these things ruin this album at all, it's really quite good.

When one gets into electronic music, they usually either embrace everything that is remotely electro in sound, or they become very picky about what they like in the genre. Unfortunately for me, I became the latter. I can only embrace electronic music that shows me something I've never experienced before, and it's very hard to find new music that I like. But Gelb is flowering before me into an album I can embrace, and place at the top of my "comtemporary favorite" list. The first initial listen may sound like another dark electro album, employing many of the commonly used techniques in the techno/EBM/synthpop scene. But it doesn't take long to realize there's something deeper at work here. The brilliance of "I don't need the city" is what initially pulled me in, musically and lyrically, and the rest of the album opened up to me as a result.
Much of the genius of Neuroticfish, in my opinion, is the wide range of the vocals. They can be quite mad in one tune, and beautifully emotive and sympathetic in the next. "They're coming to take me away" was a total surprise to me, as I've never heard a gothy techno song sung that way, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.
To the EBM fan, this ablum is a gold mine. To the picky electro fans like myself, this album is worth a listen at the very least. It is different--refreshingly different--and a fine piece of art.

It has been a long while since I last submitted a review on amazon because I have been calmly waiting for that divine inspiration to catch me off guard when I least expect it. You see, I had been in a bit of a funk lately, as I'd found myself in what was shaping up to be a sizable drought in regards to finding some new music that really moved me, both inside and out. Enter: Neuroticfish. As menacingly delicious as Mr. Sascha himself, this fish has one potent bite.
Honestly, who knows what genre this type of music truly fits into; synthpop, future pop, new wave, darkwave, ebm, industrial---it's all electronic and good from my perspective. However I must also admit that like one of the previous reviewers, I am quite picky about what I will listen to and enjoy. It takes a lot more than a few 'hot beats' blasting out of a subwoofer to make me happy. The comparisons to Apop, VNV, etc are all relevant, but while I am familiar with and respect those so-called "Top contenders of the EBM scene," I feel that Neuroticfish music posesses a depth and vibrancy to it that is fresh, exhilarating and immensely satisfying, which is more than what I can say for any other "EBM" band.
The music pumps and throbs with all the seasonings of top notch dark, dance club beats and is also MELODIC, which seems to be a commodity that often places it into the classification of synthpop, which of course automatically gets the label of being too wimpy, poppy, sappy to be labeled as EBM(And I thought goths were picky.) But alas, it's not until we hear Sascha's deep, butterflies-in-stomach-inducing voice that the magic truly begins. He sings with a variety of colorful emotions that range from heart wrenching and tinged with animmosity to tastefully demented("They're coming to take me away" is a song that my mother described as being freaky, disturbing music of a carnival gone quite wrong, ha ha) and melodic(Yes, that deep baritone DOES sometimes resemble David Gahan, which is the highest compliment that one can possibly get from me.) This music has the intense, catchy, and emotional clout of first rate synthpop combined with the deliriously ecstatic dance riffs of EBM. Standout tracks are the intense "I don't need the city," "Waving hands,"The bomb," "They're coming to take me away," and "I never chose you."
Pretender and not a contender? I doubt Sascha is trying to distinguish himself as a product of any 'scene' anyway. Afterall, EBM is dead =)

5 Star No doubt. 10 OUT OF 5 for programming. This guy is amazing and I cant believe it took me so long to stop and listen to Neuroticfish. I would see them floating around my favorite bands with internet searches or they would have a remix of one of my other bands. I even got a copy of this in a bundle of cds I won on ebay but never put it in and gave it a real chance. So glad I did cuz it has got me so back in to music. 100% EBM. Guess there not still making music but everyone of there albums is worth a try if you love EBM. I would compare them to Assemblage23 and I guess kinda VNV... GLEB is my favorite Neuroticfish cd so far...Try it. You will be glad you did.

This is a great album. I bought it for one track, but ended up liking them all. Highly recommended.

I love this CD. What else is there to say? This is a great industrial album.

Short and sweet: Neuroticfish caught me by surprise when I downloaded a couple of songs off of LimeWire. One was "Waving Hands" - perhaps one of my favorite electronica songs of all-time. That song, along with "The Bomb" prompted me to buy the CD (a rare thing for me being the picky music listener that I am). I highly recommend this album for any electronica music fan. Put this one alongside all of your VNV Nation, Assemblage 23, Apoptygma Bezerk, Rotersand, Icon of Coil, Cut.Rate.Box, Ayria, Flesh Field, X Marks the Pedwalk, The Azoic, Covenant, Angels & Agony, God Module, Decoded Feedback and Iris albums.

ok, do yourself a favor and pick this album up. it is so incredible! Sasha is a genius and a madman. this is really dance-friendly and also very enjoyable, so if you are looking for a solid album, full of aural splendor...score this cd.

This is a WONDERFUL CD. It's very rare that one can sit (or dance) and listen to each and every song on the album and not skip over a single one. Each track is maserfully done and perfected with haunting beats, emotional lyrics and sweet synths. Okay, if you appreciate VNV, APop, A23 and Covenant, GET THIS CD! I mean it! It's PERFECT for you! Mmmm I love EBM.
Goth is dead.. it always has been. ;-)

~DJ Raven~
KBGA