Netz- Exit Marchenland

Artist: Netz

CD Title: Exit Mårchenland

Label - Anti-zen/Sonic-X Records

Website: https://www.netz01.de/

Founded in 1992, Netz is a German industrial act which mixes elements of pop and EBM. Members, Felix Baumgatner, Angelino Ferrino, and Thommas Leeb work from a diverse palette of influences from Kraftwerk to Clock DVA. The listener will also here more modern flourishes familiar to fans of acts like Das Ich and Velvet Acid Christ. The music is dark and beat-heavy with some very nice sequencing and some very ethereal elements. As a live act, Netz has performed with L’ame Immortelle, Suicide Commando, and Terminal Choice. Netz is a multi-media project which incorporates the visual arts as elements in live performance.  

The album opens with the track “Clockwork Orange.” The track mixes heavily vocoded vocals familiar in harsh electro with some surprisingly poppy synth patterns. “Die Menshenfiend” has a more melodic vocal line that brings a dance elements into an electro EBM song. The resulting song has a somewhat hypnotic quality. “Die Blechtrommel” sometimes draws on surreal elements and is a somewhat meandering instrumental track. “Dune 2k12” has some very poppy and new wave elements and is similarly dream-like. “Emotionmaschine” has a similar quality, very erie with its vocals chanted low in the mix, and a robotic chorus end even choral elements.  “Metropolis” is another instrumental track, the synths here sound jarringly discordant, and in the the background are clicks and electronic beeps that give the songs a very robotic quality.  Among the best song(s) on Exit Marchenland are the two versions of the sprawling title track. The separate takes are pretty dissimilar, but both are ambitious and full of great uses of sampling and synth programming.  

Although not all of Netz experiments are equal in their effectiveness, Exit Marchenland recalls and era of industrial which was not a formula, but an experiment. The album’s thirteen tracks eschew genre and celebrate the diversity of EBM and industrial. In its finest moments the album blends the richness of its source material with a modern sound aesthetic.

Take a Listen: