Psideralica - Neophobia
CD Info
2010
Self Released / Spain
Ravenheart Music
11 Tracks
English Lyrics
Female fronted metal goes in a lot of directions, from Nightwish to Lady Gaga to, well, to Psideralica. This is not your average symphonic, operatic Gothic style. The band is from Spain, the sound is from the dance floor. I guess we’re closer to Guano Apes here, maybe a little KMFDM, you get that Industrial direction, an electro pop thing runs through it. The band has a previous release, Engel Der Nacht in 2005, for this one they dropped the German. I had some trouble getting the CD, seems a certain someone at a higher pay grade than mine got hold of it at SC and I was on my own for procurement. For a while, we were referring to it as "The Precious". But the band came through with a download and some assistance so I got to spend some time listening, and this stuff pretty much takes the place of a cold Red Bull late in the afternoon. Or some other things if you’re from Miami.
The sound is a diversified one; you get a lot of things coming from the synthesizer. That synth is done by LS, and it pounds out some interesting material. Guitars are handled by Toni Kernel, drums by Haritz and the vocals are attributed to Lady Marian, who is Kernel’s wife. There is a pretty heavy guitar line on most tracks but you get so many different sounds that no two tracks sound even remotely the same. The vocals are not typical of the sounds we get on this site, but they sure do approximate the best you’re likely to get on any dance floor in Western society. . . or anywhere else for that matter since most of that material comes from the west. The electronic sound drives the action and the featured vocalist does that musical direction that drives the dance floors at millions of watering holes in every municipality on earth that don’t embrace rap, in other words, the ones that still prefer music.
One of the things that define Psideralica is their live act. After all, this is music to boogie to and an act like that has to sound pretty good live, and they do. There are a few videos out there, several focusing on music from this CD. Disturbing Dreams provides an introduction to the sound, and the look. It’s an industrial direction to be sure. And our trim little seniority puts on a pretty good show, with a pretty good dance hall sound. Shouldn’t be too hard to get out and cut a rug to this material. . . all night long. I’ve never been to Mallorca but many have told me it’s a "Club" town, and this music would certainly fit in. It would work in Valencia or Barcelona too, and I know those towns pretty well, or at least I use to.
Madrid is another town that stays up late to party, no surprise to find the band there. This one is Clone and it provides a little darker interpretation of that industrial direction. The Lady has this delivery down cold as well. And it’s not just the sound that is dark, this one takes us to a darker place lyrically as well:
LOOK WITH MY EYES / BLEED WITH MY VEINS
KISS WITH MY LIPS / KILL WITH MY HANDS
CRY WITH MY TEARS / SMILE WITH MY FACE
FEEL WITH MY SKIN / LIE WITH MY BRAIN
FORGET YOUR LIFE / FORGET YOUR WORLD
FORGET YOUR MIND / JUST BE MY CLONE
Y me encanta escuchar la oscuridad, especialmente con una paliza.
My Toy appears to be the big cut off this release, it crtainly is the big video, and an interesting one at that. If this doesn’t suggest an industrial direction, I don’t know what does. Again, the lady don’t look bad, and sounds even better. That throbbing guitar provides a signature direction to the music, as is usually the case, and we get a little of that off beat keyboard to further enhance the overall composition. Lyrics on this one more closely fit some of the more typical industrial directions, certainly less dark than Rammstein and some of the Germans, but in line with some of the less radical industrial / pop sounds of the day. But, its music to move around to, no doubt of that.
As mentioned earlier, there is some nice variety on the CD. We get a number of distinct musical directions, and the band seems comfortable moving from one style to another. You don’t always get what we might call a ballad with this kind of music, I mean, who does the cheek to cheek these days in the clubs, right. Ok, maybe they do, but not at the biker bars I tend to frequent. Which is unfortunate. As I get older, having someone to lean on for a little breather every now and then becomes a luxury. But the band does slow it down here on occasion. Tonight is one of these and it begins with a ghostly whispering vocal that would make Blackthorn proud. The music does kick it up at certain points throughout the track, but this one could be described as, well, er, um, bedroom industrial? Is that actually a label? Well, when we hear:
TONIGHT, YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IT
TONIGHT, YOU ARE PRAYING FOR IT
TONIGHT, YOU ARE WAITING FOR IT
TONIGHT... TONIGHT.
MAYBE SOMEDAY IN ANOTHER WORLD
MAYBE SOMEDAY IN ANOTHER STORM
MAYBE SOMEWHERE, YOU WON’T BE ALONE
BUT NOW
. . .it doesn’t leave that much room for interpretation. Tal vez podemos simplemente llamarlo 'industrial' en el dormitorio. Verdad?
Most of the music, however, is the more traditional up-tempo sound. Tracks like Get Out of My Life and Oceans of Time may have slightly different tempos but they both provide equal opportunities to stretch a leg. You know, in my younger years, I was quite the dance floor mechanic and, when you listen to some of these tracks, you can actually picture the moves you want to use to work the tiles. It’s beat driven music, no matter how strong the other components are and that’s pretty much how you’re going to remember it. And, you will remember it, this is music with more hooks than a bass fishing tournament in Georgia. And I suspect it would work in the dance halls in Hot-lanta quite well. It’s a universal sound, one that pretty much works everywhere where people want something to get them moving.
Es el 'Precious' en más de un sentido, los señores del anillo todos de acuerdo en eso. Y el Golán demasiado.
9 / 10
