Track Listing: New Mind - Undercity 2000, System der Dinge - Narcotic, Concientia Pecatti - Tentatio Ardua 2 (edit), Glis - Nightvision, Lysa Nalin - Vision, Nuada - Mage Sun, Noxious Emotion - Nobelium (Air-Fire-Water-Earth mix), TVKill - Trust, Takshaka - Gaia, KAJ - Under The Moon, The Moors - The Hunter, Cernunnos (edit), Apocrypho - Connect (DJ Vex Mix), ThouShaltNot - Without Faith (Nothing Mix), Diverje - Shivering Skies (edit), Music For The Goddess - Round and Round.

A compilation is always tricky because you could take up pages upon pages critiquing each contributing artist. Instead I’ll skip specifics and discuss the overall impressions of the CD. All the bands selected have a well-produced, balanced sound. The songs, dispite their varying styles, all flow nicely from one to the other. I listened to the CD several times over without ever feeling jarred, except for the last track.

The motivation for this collection was to gather songs that had a spirital feeling to them and were composed by electronic artists. Indeed everything does has a sense of something deeper that the typical boy meets girl, either screws over the other, club beat-tastik fare. Not that everything is spiritual in a religious way, but more in the sense of being emotionally moving. From the chants to the symphonic scales, this CD is definitely moving.

One notable quality of this release is the variety of styles the artists fabricate given that they all utilize the same electronic medium. No doubt influenced by the different locations the artists come from, some songs have a more world music essence than a strictly EBM type sound. As a fellow electronic musician, I am aware of the diversity of sound available with electronic instruments, but I’m still always surprised when I hear something new and creative.

All in all, Electro Age I is a good compilation worth checking out and the lable promises more to come in the future. My only real critisism is the choice of Music for the Goddess... “Round and Round.” Up to that point, electric or not, driving percussion or not, the CD takes you to a nice groove plateau. Then comes this perky jig and it pretty much kills the mood. Frank and I both thought it was a bad fit and with 15 songs, they could have left it off without anyone noticing. Our daughter, however, loved it and started dancing around the room joyfully so perhaps it adds that something for everyone quality.

For more information, please visit www.latexrecords.com

Track Listing: Promenade of the Haunting Spirits, Gothic Fog, Costa Rican Beauty, Diffused Light, Alone, When I First Held You, Truest Heart, Edgar Allen Poe’s PhantazmiK Glass of Primordial Desires, 80’s New Wave Love Song, Robot Under the October Moon, MOM, Love is a Physiological Event, A Second of Lucidity, Promenade of the Haunting Spirits... An Ode to Kyta’s Lower Lip, Gothic Fog...A Cybernetic Luminous Vapor: POETRY Mix OS1R120L2, Slow Filter #91378-10 Comes by Means of an Alluring Glass Being.

Hmmm... what is going on here. Lots of things actually. It’s definitely EBM and synth and somewhat experimental. There’s quite a bit old-school sounding synth noises and the percussion is all over the place. I hear a bit Depeche Mode, a tad OMD, some essence of DEVO maybe? It’s sort of funny, like synth-pop written by a mad scientist.

The bulk of the creative work is done by David Sepe, specifically the vocals, precussion, programming, bass, lyrics and other funny things like the “electric cheese organ.” He’s a pretty funny guy. Mentions having to pause in the creative process several time over the past 10 years in order to get educated and pay bills. Perhaps this touches something since I’ve had to do the same time. The keyboard is calling, calling, and you have to walk by. The result of Mr. Sepe’s brewing creativity is full layered, well done, musical whimsy. I like it.

I was thrown off by the vocals which are really distorted. I’d like the songs up front, they’re all catchy, but those bizaar vocals just disturbed me. The second time around, I was ok with Mr. Sepe not singing, really. His voice is more like another instrument, something chaotic that bounces around a well ordered room.

I don’t usually mention the lyrics because most of the time I can’t honestly make out what people are singing but I have the print out. The Phylum Chordata’s lyrics are fun. The album moves as if written at different times during a relationship. Not a stretch given the title. You have the entrance with “Promenade of the Haunting Spirits” and move through several songs about love. Some are straightforward like “Costa Rican Beauty” and “Truest Heart” and some tackle the more scientific side of love, “Love Is A Physiological Event.” In the end, finally, a sad “A Second of Lucidity.”

All in all, this is one for those who like something a little different. It’s guaranteed to touch the little mad scientist in all of us. Other contributors listed on this album are Pete Rose, the baseball player, William Harrison, the 9th President of the US, and Michael Collins, the astronaut.

For more information about The Phylum Chordata, please check out his website at www.thephylumchordata.com

Track Listing: RITR, War Of Attrition, Angels Dance Upwards, Laden Conscience, What Still Remains.

Angels Dance Upward is Unavox’s demo release and unfortunately it shows it. There are many good concepts throughout this CD that unfortunately don’t develop into anything full-bodied. Percussion patterns and sound palettes are typical EBM, club fare with no surprises, good or bad. This is most evident in “War of Attrition” which exhibits promise in the composition of the song, but ends up being muddled together in the final product. Much sounds like mistakes that they just left in.

The same lackluster production plagues the vocals which are completely drowned out. “RITR” has some female vocalization, courtesy of Meggan Cooper, which is always a welcomed aspect; any band who can have both genders singing should definitely play up this asset. The vocalists of Unavox sound really nice against each other but just don’t utilize it enough in any of these tracks. Ms. Cooper comes across as timid which is a shame because if she just belted it out, and balanced against the prominant male lead, it would be fantastic. I was completely confused by “Laden Conscience,” as Michael, the lead vocalist, seems completely out of synch and sounds like he’s singing a completely different song.

Despite this, there is great potential for perhaps something along the lines of a INSERT BAND NAMD HERE type of sound. I could hear definite promise under the superfluous sounds, especially in “What Still Remains,“ which has a more logical arrangement and seems more complete and finished than the others.

According to their MySpace profile, they are a performance band so perhaps something has been lost in the capture of their work on a more stable medium. They do offer samples to download on MySpace and I always encourage people to check out new groups and come to their own conclusions. Sadly, we didn’t think this was a keeper but then again, it is only a demo. They are working on the full length release for sometime later this spring and I will keep an eye out for it to see what they come up with.

Track Listing: The Rise of Evil, Burn Down Vatican, Under the Cross from West, Architects of Medieval Order, Rising Black Flags, Lost Souls.

Murder and Religion, the debut release by Wolfmaster, is music to hate God to. A perfect, I-hate-religion and this is everything-that’s-wrong-with-Christianity soundtrack. Wolfmaster says the following about this album, “The lyrics have a theme which is about the dark side of Christianity. Since I was making music that gave me the feel of drama I thought there would not be a better theme than evil Christians and religion in general, which causes and has caused so much suffering throughout the centuries.” The lyrics are intelligent and sufficiently angry to balance the monotone growl with which he delivers them.

Unfortunately, the music is a little repetitive and blah. It’s all quite doomy and gloomy and one song drones on into the next. It makes me think this is a conceptual-type album in which the artist is trying to create a mood and sustain it throughout the CD, which is thankfully only six songs long.

The music has a sort of ecclesiastical essence to it, almost like a dark mass. The lyrics are easily understood as they are chanted rather than sung. Given the topic, it seems like the point of this album is the subject matter and the music is secondary filler.

Still, it might have been more interesting had Wolfmaster thrown in some musical surprises or utilized some different sounds. Every song is built upon the same sounds and percussion to the degree that it sounds like all the songs are the same song only slightly reworked to fit the lyrics. This album has caught on enough to merit an encore and Wolfmaster has released a new album called, “The Essence of Evil.“ The artist notes that he has taken a different approach in writing this latest album and has even included female vocals.

This is another musician that I feel can go somewhere if he tweaks his basic formula a little bit. Perhaps in the newest album he’s worked out some of his compositions more completely. For more information about either release, please visit www.wolfmaster.com