LEÆTHER STRIP ÆNGELMAKER TRIPLE ALBUM ALFA-MATRIX RELEASE: MARCH 27, 2009 REVIEW: MARCH 13, 2009

Another multiple album from Leæther Strip. Okay, after writing several very positive reviews, I'm going to be the one to do it, the one to say: enough. Claus, you're choking me with this work ethic you have and it's running all together. The songs are suffering, this album sounds as though it just was hurriedly thrown into a blender and then served up. We have some excellent tracks but they get drowned out by the sheer volume of other ones having the same beat.

I don't know, maybe I am missing the point or perhaps this ship has just sailed without me but even though this is an electronic institution I'm calling a time out. We have the slow songs: "Don't You Dare Die on Me" which nail it exquisitely; we have the more aggro tunes like "Genetic Fuckup" that are sheer mania but they then get done in different themes, variations if you will. Throughout the entire album. It also seems the previous synthpop album "1-9-8-2" has wormed it's way onto some of these new compositions, "We Are Dust" being the most obvious example.

We also get another installment in the form of "Yes I'm Limited IV" being the bonus disc this time around. The duet/cover of "Don't You Want Me", the Human League classic from 1981, is a corker but some of the collaborations leave me scratching my head wondering what purpose they serve.

Leæther Strip have inundated even die-hard fans like myself to the point where I have to wonder if it's just maniacle creativity or perhaps something more dire going on down on the Strip Farm because let me tell you, much of "Ængelmaker" is very dour in its delivery. The subject matter, at best, is sombre.

Just a thought, a small one: please slow down.

PETER MARKS