Zentriert ins Antlitz- Genozid

Artist: Zentriert Ins Antlitz
CD Title: Genozid
Label: Cop International
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 7/8/04

This mainly instrumental electro album falls somewhere between the techno-influenced rhythms of NoiSex and the more orchestral work of Last Rites-era Skinny Puppy. Ordinarily, I’d be all over this kind of thing – instrumental arrangements often bring out the best elements of dark electronic music, like Beta’s excellent debut on Coma-Dose. Unfortunately, while the music of Zentriert Ins Antlitz is sublime in some places and competent even at its worst, Genozid too often verges into cliché territory with unnecessary sampling. “Dark Ritual,” for example, uses not only samples from the Hellraiser movies, but also the Aliens series. While this might’ve added some eerie, futuristic vibe ten or fifteen years ago, in this day and age it comes off like a student project from the Imaginary College of Generic Industrial Music. The only song that shows much creativity here is “Elektronendammerung,” in which wordless ethereal vocals sail over layers of ambience and muted tribal beats. There are songs on here that are perfectly fine for dancing – the German samples and driving beats of “Ob die Engel auch Beine Haben” or the ominous keyboards of “Define Tracing” would do fine in either EBM or power noise clubs – but overall this is better in the background than the foreground. A more focused listen, and you end up realizing how nondescript this music actually is.