CD, Artoffact Records, 2004
www.artoffact.com
With the release of “Uturn 3: The Dark Side of the Beat”, record label Artoffact continues the development of the Uturn series. Whereas first two of it were trips into the areas of techno and trance areas, this third installment of the series proposes a tour of dance electro/EBM, decorated with modern musical boons, that is to say the same techno, trance and some times drum’n’bass. As you may guess, this series comes as another help for DJs which specialize in one or more of the musical areas focused on these discs.
The explorers for the first Uturn “expedition” were Massiv In Mensch and Negative Format, with Headscan and Implant on the second. On this latest instalment, the featured projects are Blank and Moonitor projects.
Blank is an Italian project which, along with Syrian presents this country in the creation of modern dance music. Their appear to draw inspiration from the works predecessors such as Pankow and Templebeat as well as famous European discotheque kings as Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto. Last year’s “Artificial Breathing” was Blank’s first full length release. Moonitor is a side-project of Sebastian Komor from Icon Of Coil.
In this context, Blank gambles on explosive, forceful melodies with higher BPM, raising the beatrate level up to 150 BPMs. There are clear EBM influences well mixed with explosive modern techno-trance elements. Slightly contrasting with Blank’s music, Sebastian Komor relies rather on techno, house and trance his compositions becoming a little bit slower by comparison. In the background we can hear in large quantities atmospheric keyboards. Those who are looking forward to get a debut album of Moonitor can satisfy their hunger and get a good taste of this project’s sound. In any case Sebastian is, without a doubt, a talented composer.
In conclusion I want to note that this split-album can be interesting for those who are tired of “common” trance and EBM and who are looking for modern incarnations of electro/EBM in different mixes with modern dance music.
[8/10]
— Igor