Words And Actions – All The Joy, All The Pain (CD Album – Detriti Records)
Genre/Influences: EBM, Minimal EBM.
Background/Info: Words And Actions is a Berliner EBM-driven band that has already released a few cassettes, vinyls and CD(R)s. I honestly have to say I can’t remember to have heard this band before so I didn’t know what to expect.
Content: The album features only 9 songs taking off in a pure old-school EBM way reminding me of DAF. The sound is dark, the production unpolished and the vocals pretty cavernous. You now and then will notice some cool bleeping sequences while the unavoidable dry bass lines and metallic percussion passages are quite familiar elements for this kind of music.
From the fifth song on the sound evolves into a more minimal kind of EBM, which might remind you of artists like Terence Fixmer and even David Carretta. It remains EBM-orientated, but spiced with some cold, technoid elements, which totally fits with the somewhat spooky way of singing.
+ + + : Words And Actions composes two kinds of body music. You first have the pure old-school driven format where they excel on “Win The War” and next a more contemporary and minimal inspired approach, which definitely is their best side. Songs like “You Need What You Want” and the title song both are great and alluring danceable body cuts.
– – – : “All The Joy, All The Pain” sounds a bit schizophrenic. This must be one of the few bands dealing with a different EBM approach. It’s not bad, but I would have preferred to discover an entire album dealing with their strongest minimal side. The global sound production is (probably intentionally) unpolished and that’s an element that could have been improved.
Conclusion: Words And Actions is a real cool discovery that will appeal for lovers of EBM. It sounds simple, but that efficient so I want to hear more from this band!
Best songs: “You Need What You Want”, “All The Joy, All The Pain”, “United Again”, “Win The War”.
Rate: (7½).
Band: www.facebook.com/wordsandactions
Label: www.facebook.com/detritirecords
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