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| Concrete Web - |
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Concretweb CD REVIEW Mechanical Organic Band : Mechanical Organic Album title : Disrepair Part One – Permafrost Dreams Label : (Lockstep Records)/ Private Distributor : Private Release date : April 2008 Release : CD-R (also available as download) Thursday, April 2nd : I have an appointment with our editor-in-chief to come over to his place and jointly work on the website for a few hours. While going upstairs to the "office", he takes along today's mail (a couple of parcels). Having finished the scanning & entering the newly arrived CDs for the month of April, he suddenly remembers the mail, and opens a large envelope. "Hum, from Australia," he goes. To which I excitedly exclaim "Yéés! That's the new Mechanical Organic album I've been waiting for!". "No," he goes, "seems to be a DVD!", at which point I see the artwork, and immediately recognize the MO logo! Of course it IS the new Mechanical Organical album, simply packaged in a DVD box. MO's only remaining member Eddie Katz had mailed me back on February 25 th that he was sending out copies for the promotion of the album...and had insisted I personally got the album for review, as he'd liked the work I'd put in for the review of his first, 2006's Flat Earth Society, which I mistakingly reviewed & posted as Mech Org on 17/07/2006. That review, by the way, is still available for your fact-finding needs, but I will of course give you a short update here! To start with, do you remember that Katz is also a (bass playing) member of Pathway To Perfection? Well, that band has been working on a new album during the last three years, and finalisation (mastering) of that album came in September of last, the release certainly soon to follow some time in the near future. But first let's turn back the clock some two years in the MO camp, to the Summer of 2006, when they were still a trio and actual band having rehearsals in view of possible gigs. With commitments also in other band situations, seems that initial enthousiasm soon faded, and rehearsals were less easy to organize. MO only being a trio at that time, you can imagine only one of the two other than Eddie not showing up creating the immediate problem of the rehearsal being difficult to actually happen? It also diminished the possibility of other members bringing in their two bits in the creative part of the making of new music, an idea for which Eddie found on the Internet in an August 11, 2006 podcast put out on iamthewitness.com website, where one Darryl Bradford Smith hosts a Friday night show called The French Connection. In said show, Smith voiced his concern about how Zionist Jews (who have in the USA taken the name of "Neocon") have undermined the stability in the USA (and the world over, for that matter), infiltrating the halls of power through personal intervention and corruption (to the point that it doesn't matter anymore whether you vote Left or Right, because it simply doesn't matter, as every politician of some significance, through/ for his own sneaky ways, is in on the take anyway), forcing legislation on the addition of chemical substances in both drinking water and food in order to corrupt the population's health, their disinformation/ ridiculisation tactics against those who would bring their workings to the attention of the public, bringing the States' economy to its knees by out-sourcing, and being the actual organizers (through the aid of their "secret police", the Mossad) of the 9/11 disaster in New York, which eventually pushed the Americans into waging war abroad for the umptiest time, making international hate against the US flare up again. Seen Eddie 's own convictions about "The Illuminati", the theory of the Zionists being part of that global conspiracy to subdue the Earth's people was simply too good an idea to be worked into one of his musical outings, to let it lie untouched. Having received Smith's consent to use the podcast to incorporate it into a musical album, he then set to work writing the music for the album. Of course, the podcast's length was too long to be used as a whole, so he edited it into 8 short parts, mixing it up with audio material from other (relevant) podcasts and music, which is at best called Industrial Ambient (even if at times it's a bit more threatening and energetic). In between thosee edited podcast bits, he wrote 7 songs relating to the podcasts just heard, thus creating a cohesive album overall. After 9 months of writing and already laying down the foundations of programmed drums (guess who copped out first), bass, and keyboards, time came for Conny D. to make his contribution on the guitar. But the latter was tied up in other recordings, which would take somewhat longer than originally anticipated, and therfore Eddie began toying with the idea of re-creating the guitar sounds with his bass and assorted distortion pedals. Of course, the fact that he now had no one to offer thoughts about the possible result, had the musician in a state of self-doubt, but jamming along to what he already had submitted to recorded data, he found out soon enough that the effect was simply stunning, even if it meant slight differences to the original written material (you can't quíte copy a guitar's sound on bass, you know, and the changed soundscape saw Eddie in the necessity to make additional layers here and there). Now let's keep in mind that all along these sessions in his own home, Eddie was also busy working on the new Pathway To Perfection album, eh? And that, as his revenues from being a musician hardly bring in the necessary funds to uphold a family (the man's recently become a father to a healthy boy...congratulations Eddie!), he still needs to go out on a day job! So, in between all that, Eddie began putting down his distorted bass on top of his already recorded material, a job which took a full month to complete. Followed the mixing and some minor additions, and some more mixing, and yet another couple of months had passed (around this time also the PTP album's mastering came about), and eventually the new Mechanical Organic album was submitted to mastering in October of last. Waiting for the result, Eddie also started working on the album cover artwork and lay-out. Of course, he already had an idea in mind of what he wanted, had also already sought out some of the elements he needed, and I dare say the end result (the CD-R comes in a DVD box) is simply said quite stunning! Also, Eddie did some home work on a video for the track "Mechanical Dream" ("mechanical" in the title relating to the un-feeling way with which those behind the curtains will create means to dispose of millions of people when that happens to be in their plans, and not shed a further thought about it), which can now be viewed at myspace.com/mechanicalorganic (where you'll also find mp3-files for the same track, as well as two songs off 2006's Flat Earth Society). What's left for me to say? Check out mechanicalorganic.org for updates/ ordering of your copy of the album (available in 3 downloadable formats, and possibly also in cd-R if you should want so), or for links to more people who are into the Conspiration Theory. Now don't make a dirty face, eh! I mean, I'm sure you too have had ideas about the manipulations happening all around us, about the fact that even in Belgium the situation for the common man is becoming increasingly difficult because the top level of "civilians" in our country wants to live off our backs. And, as far as the whole Zionist/ Neocon Conspiracy Theory goes (and let's to start with, remember that Zionism is NOT a religion, but a political movement!!!), I can't tell you how horrifyingly close it is to something I stated to a couple of friends now a little more than ten years ago now, when I theorized that there is no people on Earth as "evil" as the Israelite, since (according to figures they gave out themselves to rationalize their repressive behaviour in their own country) 50% of their people is in favour of the total eradication (say genocide) of the Palestinian people (who by right still shoùld have ownership of the land they are being driven out of). Can yoù think of àny people on this earth with such a degree of total depravity and ugliness? I certainly can't! Of course, the album (as was MO 's first) is an absolute necessity in the collection of any socially-aware straight-thinking person into Industrial, ehrm...Metal?...call it a hybrid, but a very interesting hybrid, of Electonic and Metal Industrial with Ambient undertones. A soundscape which is already interesting enough to uncover and analyze layer by layer on its own merit, and the fact that you have this red thread going through the (conceptual, of course, why didn't I mention that earlier?) material makes you wanna sit down and listen to the story behind it step by step...then return to the album to see if you indeed got all the details...just to find out it's time for you to first unravel the lyrics...and then the music. In all, a job which will keep the listener focused/ entertained for months on end! "Best Album Of 2008"-list material, don't doubt about that! 98/100 Tony.
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