Syntax

Informatik | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 18, 1998)
• Original Release Date: August 4, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Metropolis Records
• ASIN: B00000A8L1
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,399 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Boston-based industrialists Informätik follow up their competent (if somewhat derivative) debut with essentially more of the same. It's good, straight-ahead electro, but it doesn't take many risks, preferring to remain well within the barbed-wire fence that separates much of the industrial dance music populace from all the other sampler-and-drum-machine-toting hordes. Vocalist Da5id Din's heavily processed vocals growl about war, loneliness, and human suffering, but emotion is lacking, and there aren't enough original musical ideas to catapult Syntax out of the overcrowded prison yard of industrial mediocrity. Still, it has its moments: "Nil" sports a nifty synth line (shades of Skinny Puppy's "Testure"), and "Retrogradation" piles the atmospherics neatly atop menacing, slow-moving percussion. More of this, and parole is definitely within Informätik's reach. --Steve Landau

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy addition to any industrial fan's collection, November 3, 2000

By 

"neomurtle" (Acworth, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syntax (Audio CD)

Informatik uses purely electronic music to create songs that are both calm/atmosphereic and fairly fast-paced. If you are a fan of industrial music, you will probably like this album...especially if you like Decoded Feedback. There are a couple tracks on this CD that seem a little bland, but for the most part it's a solid buy. Also, check out the releases by Informatik's side project band, Din Fiv.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Damn Good Cd, August 6, 2000

By 

Kevin McBride (Weatogue, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syntax (Audio CD)

Syntax was my first Informatik cd. I'm glad I purchased it becuase it turns out to be an awesome cd. Da5id has a unique style of singing. His vocals are very distorted and makes him show a lot of aggresion in his voice. The music has a style similar to that of Front Line Assembly, but with more high pitched beats. The songs Entropy, Retrogradation, and Nameless are my favorites. I highly reccomend this cd as a part of your industrial music collection.

5.0 out of 5 stars Watching You Watching Me, February 14, 2003

By 

TastyBabySyndrome "Matthew Lewis, author of M... ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syntax (Audio CD)

Within the confines of the rather dark, sometimes seething chronicles of the depraved side of EBM rainbow, Informatik is, by far, one of the more exotic flavors to awaken my mind and produce feelings of excitement within me. That's because their BPM counts stay high in most of their songs as they sculpt something that many might find offensive for a variety of reasons, plus the contents of their songs drift down byways considered by many to skulk the alleyways of estrangement while making political statements on many a subject (warfare, the state of the world and its depravity in general). This isn't a new thing they begun to develop, either, for their stamp has been on the musical industry for some time now. They actually been some of a powerhouse since their initial release, Direct Memory Access 2.0, with even the early inner workings of Da5id's workmanship shining through in hits that touched on the rather depressive sides of the sometimes diseased interaction of humans within their social bindings and their world. This upgraded into something towering within the confines of Syntax, coupling the sounds and sensations of sampling and the depths of that almost inhuman voice with an upgraded outlook, and then into the very different approach of Nymphomatik (combining a different approach to vocalization with some sounds that are reminiscent of Front Line Assembly and some that are reminiscent of a modified version of themselves). Even the side project of the band, Din Fiv, holds heavy acclaim within this reviewer's mind, approaching the same subjects in perhaps a more surreal, calmer temponic rendition of visionary tactics.

Many people misunderstand the use of heavily distorted, machinelike voices that can be seen standing upon a pulpit and speaking to the masses, thinking that the sounds of within the music always have to be flooded with vile, brooding subjects. While this is sometimes the wonderfully delicious case, it isn't the trend that bands like Informatik stick to. "Things to Come (War changes nothing Mix)" focuses on the futility of the conflicts that man has decided to inflict upon themselves, taking a stance on the side of nonviolence with most scathing results. "Nil" has a little to say on the realms of metaphysical philosophy and the uselessness of it all, using samplings to illustrate the views taken pretty well for an audience that might have trouble with the vocals. "Entropy" covers the bonds of mortality and the fact that there is no escape from these ties, with life being a pool in which we swim alone with "no lifeguard to save our soul." There is also the proclamation sounded in "Innocence and Blood," echoing how we lose a freedom a day and one day we'll away to wishes that we were all dead. It has its darker, more wondrous moments as well, as is the case with the stalkeresque lullaby "Watching You Watching Me," which pulses and writhes down the darkener corridors echoes the words "watching you watching me" as an adorning anthem to demise.

This is only a sampling of what is contained within these brooding fields that are sculpted, too, planting bleak trees of thought on horizons dark and brooding but that say many a subject. So, if you find yourself in love with EBM entertainment, the dark sounds of voxed lyrical content that has a message within much of its refined approach, and beats that can make the body move all the while, then Informatik would be a band that I would highly suggest checking out because of what it has to offer. They have many hands to play when they infest the waking mind, sometimes speaking from worlds of insight that many might find disturbing in their own rights. Recommended.