XTR Human – Interior (Album – Blackjack Illuminist Records / No Emb Blanc)
Genre/Influences: Cold-wave.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Six years after the “Atavism”-album XTR Human strikes back with a new full length featuring ten songs. The Berlin based project tries to mix 80s post-punk together with contemporary UK indie-rock.
Content: The main influences emerging from “Interior” are clearly driven by 80s ghosts and more explicitly by the darkest hours from the cold/dark-wave movement. The deep, growling vocals only reinforce this feeling. Nevertheless the work also moves towards more evasive passages. But next to these dark-relaxing tracks you’ll also notice powerful parts.
+ + + : The 80s cold/dark-wave movement remains a great inspiration for contemporary artists. It resulted in an honest work dominated by the outstanding “On Miracles”. This song is a perfect summary of the “Interior”-influences; it has something dreamy-like and yet powerful. An aspect I like on this album is the production of the vocals, injecting an obscure touch to the work, which is already dark-minded.
– – – : I think it’s a pity there are no more real highlights featured such as “On Miracles”.
Conclusion: XTR Human isn’t setting the world alight, but brings a fairly representative cold-wave inspired sound.
Best songs: “On Miracles”, “New Dawn”, “Darkest Side”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.xtrhuman.de / www.facebook.com/XtrHuman
Labels: www.facebook.com/Blackjack.Illuminist / www.facebook.com/NoEmbBlanc
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