X Marks the Pedwalk- Inner Zone Journey

ARTIST: X Marks the Pedwalk

ALBUM: Inner Zone Journey

LABEL: Metropolis Records

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 6-13-10

After over 11 years, Sevren Ni-Arb has returned with a brand new studio album from his legendary EBM project. For all intents and purposes, this may as well be a new band; though the driving sequences of "Runaway" recall classic EBM, there's little old-fashioned about X Marks the Pedwalk these days, and fans looking for '90s retreads would best look elsewhere. Ni-Arb's new work is thoroughly modern, incorporating elements of glitch and electronic experimentalism on the unexpectedly quiet "Satellite," techno on the incredibly addictive "Clean Hearts," and new school breakbeats on the punchy "Winter Comes Tomorrow." Fans of Haujobb's mechanized layering and rhythmic complexity will enjoy the subtleties of "Human Scientists," while "Seventeen" is the album's guaranteed club hit, all high-BPM kicks and catchy sequences. Some of the album's best tracks, though, are its quietest; "Lifeline" subsumes the rhythm in multiple layers of vocals and pulsing electronic sounds for an effect that's more cerebral than dance-oriented while still operating from an EBM framework, and "Snapshots in a Dark Room" is nothing short of epic, with sparse piano-laced ambient building into cinematic synth strings and eventually moody electro fronted by second singer (and Ni-Arb's wife) Estefania. It's rare that a band's comeback is worth a wait of more than a decade, but if X Marks the Pedwalk's early material helped to define German EBM, this long-awaited release goes even further, redefining and expanding the genre in a way seldom seen.

Visit Ni-Arb's website at www.xmtp.de.