Filament 38- Unstable

Artist: Filament 38
CD Title: Unstable
Label: Negative Gain Productions
Reviewer:Mattew Johnson
Date: 7-3-05

On first impression, Filament 38 sounds like run-of-the-mill club stuff: not bad by any means, but nothing special, either. On closer examination, though, all sorts of tiny details emerge that make this album really work. The cinematic little keyboard phrases on “Relapse,” the atmospheric pauses on the otherwise hard-driving “Suffocate,” the old-school synth-bass on “Uplink (TerraFirma)…” It’s these little touches, rather than the more obvious standardized EBM elements like harsh beats, sampled voices, and digitized vocals, that really turn this into something interesting. Sure, there are the occasional repetitive moments on tracks like “Dissect (Infekt),” but every time things start to feel predictable, up comes a track like “Interface,” with its infections beats and dark melodies, or the irresistibly aggressive anti-religious screed of “Ideology,” complete with eerie synth choirs and chopped up samples. While this doesn’t exactly break new ground, it’s an extremely well executed EBM album, and as a bonus, Imperative Reaction, Cruciform Injection, and Terrorfakt all contribute remixes. Frankly, Terrorfakt’s relentlessly dark, noise-influenced mix of “Uplink” is more than enough reason to pick this one up, but any fan of early Front Line Assembly will enjoy this a great deal.

Visit www.filament38.com for more information.