Vital

Vital (UK)
reviewed with Lowfish "1000 Corrections Per Second"

Two new releases by Suction Records - finally! Still one of my favourite labels when it comes to sheer pleasent robotic electro music. Lowfish, aka Gregory de Rocher, lists all of his influences on the cover (early Numan, early OMD, Nitzer Ebb, early Human League, Depeche Mode - you get my drift) and bakes us thirteen nice electro pop songs. But unlike his heroes of yesterday (almost twenty years ago today), Gregory de Rocher keeps his music strictly instrumental. I have never heard him speaking or singing, so I can't judge wether his voice is not good enough to sing, but a major breakthrough in popmusic - and Lowfish aims no less than at world domination - can only be established by singing a tune or two. When I played this CD, I wondered that all three Lowfish CDs are instrumental CDs, but for a label that states doing robot music, it would be natural to have a robot sing? The variations for Lowfish lie in the micro world of electro music itself. Who would recognize the difference in songs that are classified as 'melodic synth pop' or 'electro / ebm stomp'? I am sure no master of recognizing the differences. What matters to me is that this is a very nice, poppy, retro electro CD.

Vocals can be found on the very catchy and poppy third volume of 'Snow Robots', a compilation of likeminded to Lowfish from around the world - mostly from the UK and Canada. Seven tracks can be found at previous Suction releases, six are exclusive to this compilation. Highlights for me are Orgue Electronique (and not just because he is from The Netherlands) with a tune that could be any Trumpett Tapes from 1985, GD Luxxe's great cover of Joe Crow's 'Compulsion' (who remembers this great 7" on Cherry Red?), Laurent Boudic's piece which was apperentely recorded in 1981 and the two Tinfoil Teakettle pieces (Suction's collaboration between labelbosses Lowfish and Solvent, still waiting for a proper release I guess). Also included are Skanform, Lowfish, The Mitgang Audio, Solvent and Black Turtleneck. This CD won't be available in the shops, but you can order a copy through the Suction website. I'd say: go for it. (FdW)