Customer Reviews

Polarity

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Polarity is probably Haujobb's most structured and commercial release to date. It sounds a lot like their 1996 hit album, Solutions For A Small Planet with hints of their last album, NinetyNine. I feel that this is the perfect fusion of laid back minimal electronics with moments of fast-paced, harsh techno. Dan Myer has also improved on his vocals and added some emotion. It is very obvious that Haujobb are the true leaders of the EBM sub-genre in the dying world of industrial music. Great songs are: Boom Operator, Subsonic, Unseeing, and my personal favorite, Violator. The only song I don't care for is Your Pilot. This is the perfect album for newcomers to Haujobb and devoted fans like myself. Next, try Solutions and NintyNine. Even though this album will never get radio or TV air time, this artful band will always continue to release great music under the ever so fabulous Metropolis Records.

I haven't heard other Haujobb CD's, such as Solutions, but I have had a lot of experience with the genre's blended here. I have to say, this CD is amazing. The vocals are strong in almost every song, and same with the tunes. The production is great: no clicking, popping, tons of great twists, effects, and sounds. The lyrics are great in my opinion, and the vocals match well. Altogether the CD can range from dark to rageful, such as in Last Hero, where Myers seems generally ticked off. The amount of ingenuity and creativity I found in this cd is phenominal. This is now one of my favourite CD's.

id have to say this is the one haujobb cd that i like generally all the songs off of. solutions for a small planets had some really good songs but some really awful ones as well. i like the balance of mysterious strings and minor notes that really put you in another curious world. however my one complaint about this is there could be a little more originality in variations between the different tracks. though the album is well rounded, it doesnt have as quite as many mind blowingly extravagant songs as their earlier albums such as freeze frame reality. intros and interludes were better on the earlier albums as well. nevertheless still an excellent album.

I think this album is really good. To compare it to old Haujobb doesn't do anything much justice because it's not the same thing. Granted, albums like Homes and Gardens and Freeze Frame Reality were kickass, you gotta face it, times and bands change. Look at Front 242, for example. They've practically lost their minds! That being said, I have to point out to the music fan(s) from Denmark, I suspect it's the same person doing this, because it's all bad reviews and his (?) only complaint is bad singing (which I don't think it's all *that* bad) and it's not old Haujobb. As I said, bands change, and if it's the same person person posting all those messages, ignore him.

The title is deeply ironic -- this is the album that polarized Haujobb fans, with the supporters on one end and the detractors on the other. Ignore the detractors. They're wrong.

The difference between Polarity and older albums is that he has toned down the distortion on the vox and is alternating between speaking and singing, and if you're not listening carefully it can occasionally come off as being slightly out-of-tune. But the composition of this album is nothing short of masterful, even if most of the early songs are just William Gibson sentence fragments. He does have a misstep or two -- the otherwise excellent "Demon" has an annoying vocal effect that takes some getting used to, and "Violator" is a pseudo-ballad with lyrics that make me cringe. The highlights are more than enough to overlook these faults, as every other song is a full masterpiece. If you like Haujobb and you're amenable to some drum n' bass influences, then there is no way you could resist this.

Intelligent Industrial has never been done better than these guys right here. The complexity, wierd sounds, and Daniel Myer's attracting voice will make this album you're new audiotory drug. I never ever have or will get bored of this album. Its on my top 5s! You won't regret it spend every penny on it, its worth more than the price shown above.

Haujobb seem to continously fascinate me with the albums they release for you never really know what you are going to get. "Polarity" has shreds of "Solutions..." and "Ninety Nine" thrown into it's intelligent mix and is a breath of fresh air amidst all the overcliched EBM releases out there. More vocally formal than any previous Haujobb release, "Polarity" has some really great moments in it's futuristically stark world. "Subsonic" has a most memorable chorus along with some excellent choir strings and breakbeats to boot, "Boom Operator" has an almost eerie funk element to it, and "Violator", perhaps Haujobb's most loungy song, is quite nicely done and features guest vocals by Steffen Keth from De/Vision. Between each song (the "sects" as they are called) lies interludes of knob tweaked sequences, hints of what's to come in the next song. Lyrically it's very similar to "Solutions..", "Freeze Frame Reality" and Meyer's more dance oriented project Cleaner; visions of an Orwellian utopia and a mega high tech world. Haujobb fans will probably like this, and newcomers to electronic music in general should definitely pick this up.

Not quite five stars, but safely above four. With Polarity, Haujobb once again does what Haujobb does best; Haujobb creates an unique soundscape. Somehow, in spite of being original, this album is accessible and cohesive. Somehow this album has an epic feel to it in spite of Myer's fragile vocals, and in spite of generally obscure lyrics, and in spite of all the experimentation. Some industrial "purists" will doubtless balk at this album, and techno-heads won't get it, either, but Haujobb has never been about doing what everybody says is cool. Haujobb is about vision.

I've been a fan of Haujobb from the late 90's and when this album is definately the best of all. I like the interludes leading into the next song as you go through the album. The atmospheric melodies mixed with the vocals you've grown to expect and industrial beats at the speed of 150+bpm all thrown into some kind of urban dance mutation make it so interesting. Its by far off the original stuff but is such a good album. If your one thats hard to please, I recommend listening to it two or three times over and you will grow to love it very quick. This album is well worth the money.

I had never really gotten into Haujobb before downloading "Unseeing" and listening to it a couple times. Oddly enough, I hated the song when I first heard it, but somehow it got stuck in my playlist, and I soon began humming along and enjoying the song. I decided to purchase Polarity, and when I first heard the CD, I was extremely disappointed. At the same time, I wanted to give the rest of the songs the same chance I gave the song "Unseeing", so I kept it on my rotation all night long, while I worked away. Soon enough, the songs began to unravel into labyrinths of melodies and rhythms, which I began to understand more and more as I listened. The whole CD is now one of my favorites, and Haujobb is one of my favorite artists. The vocals are different, and may not sound fitting, but like the rest of the parts of the music, it begins to work in your head, and now I wouldn't be happier with any other style. Haujobb's Polarity is one hell of an album. Just make sure you give it the same chance I gave it.