Longplay love 17.0

Instrumental trio Diario consisting of Jan Roth, Gunar Labs and Jan Barich had officialy scheduled their third album named crypticly entitled "Things In The Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are" to be released on Velocitysounds in mid-april. Now postponed to may 1st it is still an album to look out for if you're feeling instrumental music based on Rock'ish structures but heavily influenced by a genre named PostRock with multi-layered, effect-loaden guitars and kinda pillowy, hypnotic feel that does not neccessarily exclude Pop'ish attitude as track number five, the "Well Tempered Situation", perfectly shows. But there's also uptempo stuff like the final "Various Lights" to be found on "Things In The Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are" here that'll keep specialists dancefloors alive.

Washington, D.C.-based trio Ostinato have their new album "Chasing The Form" on Exile On Mainstream scheduled for march 24th which is their third longplayer after 1998's self-released "Unusable Signal" and early 2004's massive "Left Too Far Behind" which put Ostinato on many peoples map and on mine too after I reviewed the album and saw them playing live in Hamburg and Esslingen. They'll also be touring Germany in may to celebrate the album's release live on these dates:

08.05. Hamburg, Fundbüro
09.05. Offenbach, Hafen 2
10.05. Köln, Kulturbunker Mülheim
11.05. Dortmund, FZW
12.05. Düdingen, Café Bad Bonn
13.05. Regensburg, Alte Mälzerei
14.05. München, Cafe Kult
16.05. Zagreb, Uni
19.05. Leipzig, Frühauf/ PopUp Messe

Defo I'll be checking their Hamburg gig and I'd highly recommended to attend one of their concerts when those guys are hitting a town near you. But back to music - once again there's deep relaxing textures featuring echoed guitars played solo or - in more energetic tunes - as epic, multi-effected, layered walls of sound which are often accompanied by ultra-precise high energy drumming. As on "Left Too Far Behind" Ostinato do use vocals and lyrics up to a certain amount which is small and even if they do Jeremy Arn Ramirez' voice functions like another instrument instead of being brought to the front of the mix. There's also a new facet to Ostinato's sound cosmos to be mentioned: the use of a cornet in "Antiaircraft" played by guest musician Paul Watson adding a slightly jazz improv-flava to the tracks melancholia. Cool one. Check!

Gothic-/ EBM-/ Dark Electro-project :Wumpscut:, founded by former Gothic-/Alternative-DJ Rudy R. back in 1991, have their new album "Cannibal Anthem" piped for april 4th on Betonkopf Media which will tear up dark dancefloors worldwide. As the title suggests the album is dealing cannibalism, a topic which is more discussed in Germany these days due to the strange case of sexually motivated murder on demand happening in Rothenburg a while ago. This, the fact that in 10 of 11 tracks lyrics are written & sung in german and will be understood by parents plus the ultra-dark artwork by Je Wagner also picturing cannibalism and dead human flesh might cause some rather unwanted attention of authorities so I wouldn't be surprised if this album will be rated as not to be sold to under-16s in the future. Dancefloorwise there's a fine mixture of slow ballad-esque tunes and dark bangers to be found here, especially "Jetzt" has the potential to be a massive anthem due to the blend of uptempo beats, anthemic stadium-like vox and a perfect thrilling hookline which - if the genre was Underground Pop and not Dark Electro - would be able to break into mainstream success.