Heartland

1 Passive, Aggressive
2 Re:Con
3 Humour
4 Namenlos
5 Jack in the Box

Available for streaming here (3 tracks, individual mp3s) and download here (all 5 tracks in a zip).

After just about a year of silence on the linkwhore front, here's the product of this Summer's musical diversions. For those who've heard Venn or my previous solo material and formed any kind of opinion on it, this is not in the same vein, so please come with an open mind. The writing and sentiment obviously bear a passing resemblance (no teen angst here), but </comfort> is a strictly electronic project, allegedly influenced, amongst others, by Neubauten and Radiohead (whether that comes through on record or not is a different matter). As a brief overview, it's strings and wind over (sometimes) abrasive bass and percussion with the occassional sensibly growly vocal.

And the last track apparently sounds like The Pet Shop Boys doing a Bauhaus cover. You know you want to listen now

In all seriousness, I hope you like it and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy.

*downloads*

Just listened to the EP and I’d figure I’d post my opinion:

‘Humour’ by SlashComfort begins with marching drums, plodding bass and sinister synth-riffs, all highly repetitive, and then doesn’t shift gears for the rest of the EP.

Although I’m sure ‘Humour’ would have been something special if released in the mid-seventies, for modern times it’s just another EP flogging the same old synth-punk style done to death by the early eighties. It doesn’t expand on the basics laid down by classic acts such as ‘Suicide’ and David Bowie; it simply wallows around in them - repetitively.

Featuring first-class production, ‘Humour’ would make a high-quality soundtrack for a movie; on its own, however, it doesn’t offer anything special, except the track ‘Passive, Aggressive’; featuring Motz’s vocals at their most Johnny Thunderish, there’s something about the lyrics and the ear-deafening synth-riff that work for me.

Whereas ‘Passive, Aggressive’ has grown on me, although perfectly enjoyable easy-listening, the rest have not. Perhaps I simply haven’t given them enough time.

7/10

edit - I just realised it hasn't come off that way in the review, but I actually like repetitive music.

Cheers for the feedback Nick, much appreciated and glad you sort of like it

I listened to "Passive, Aggressive" on the MySpace page. It reminds me of Marilyn Manson's "Smells Like Children" album.

I'll download the whole thing later, but so far so good

Motz wrote:Cheers for the feedback Nick, much appreciated and glad you sort of like it

I knew I should of waited before writing up a review. The album has grown on me; been listening to it all morning.

Change it to a 9/10.

Downloading as we speak

And I'm really curious about your review of our new album Nick!

We are as repetititititive as it comes....

IZ.

Listening now, and I like it already!

First song 'P,A' sounds very Fad Gadget-y maybe a bit more FX on the vocals, but a nice little song.


'Re:con' reminded me a lot of 'Movoco Syntaca' by Nacht & Nebel. Which is always good very nice and catchy tune, which keeps standing up, even with the lack of vocals. Would have become a club-hit in the eigties for sure...

'Humour' starts nice, but lacks something, maybe a bass instrument. Vocals are good, very basic, the synth line is too much in the fore, I think, with some dissonant notes that may be on purpose, but distract from the song.

The 'Nameless' song, start off very nice too, with some nice broken glass samples (or whatever ). Very hypnotic. Nice sounds. Especially the reverse in the middle, and then the very low drone is just plain Huuuge!

Last song 'JITB' starts with an ..erm... accordeon song. But when the drum kicks in, this is a very nice sound to use as a low-key instrument. Very weird-sounding, hence to my liking

It really surprised me, because I heard some stuff of yours on MySpace, and it wasn't bad, but it didn't get me hooked long enough.

This small EP does, for one reason or another.

Maybe because it reminds me of the early eighties electro nonsense like Neon Judgement and Nacht Und Nebel and Tovey-boy.

Very nice effort there! I never give marks, but I guess it will be rather high above the 50 percent

IZ.

Just listening right now. It does make quite an interesting change of direction, considering I'd also heard your MySpace stuff.

First impression: have you ever listened to these people ?

Nothing wrong with that, it's pretty good stuff. Me likes so far! Will post more when I've listened more.

Thanks for listening, all, I really appreciate it :-)

mh: I've not heard them, no, but I'll be sure to look into their stuff.

downloading now...

Motz wrote:Thanks for listening, all, I really appreciate it :-)

mh: I've not heard them, no, but I'll be sure to look into their stuff.

If yr happy enough to wait till next week