Douglas J. McCarthy- Kill Your Friends

Artist: Douglas J. McCarthy

CD Title: Kill Your Friends

Label: Pylon Records

The problem in reviewing a solo album by such an established front man such as Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy is that all people really want to know is if the album sounds at all like Nitzer Ebb past catalog or not. Well, the answer is both yes AND no. Douglas McCarthy's debut solo album Kill Your Friends on Pylon records does have touches of Nitzer Ebb all over songs like "Death is King", "Hey" and "Demon Prophet", but with the exception of "Move On" the BPM's are slowed down and the synths are not as cold and calculated. As a matter of fact the vocals seem almost soulful in parts. Nitzer Ebb has always been a genre bending group that has fit in nicely with EBM, "Industrial", House and Techno sets. Douglas's solo effort is no exception to that rule as he seems to find a little something to please everyone including the use of a lot of 80's techno sounds on the song "Taken". Part of this may be due to the fact that LFO's Mark Bell (Bjork, Gusgus, and Depeche Mode) served as producer on the album. As a side note there is a limited red vinyl edition that is available off of Pylon's website that comes with a bonus disc that contains 6 remixes. This is an album worth seeking out and shows the growth in Douglas McCarthy's songwriting. It will be interesting to see what the next Nitzer Ebb album sounds like now.

Take a listen to: "Move On"

Buy- Douglas J. McCarthy-Kill Your Friends