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In their glory days of the mid 80's, Belgian duo The Klinik undeniably had their moments of greatness. But all the more often their minimalistic, hyper-monotonous, harsh electronic music lost itself in excessively long songs, with neither the necessary focus nor the imagination to keep them interesting. Then they appeared like a Suicide without the struggling soulfulness or a DAF without the throbbing physicality - forceless, pointless, dwelling in a constructed darkness. Since The Klinik's split, singer Dirk Ivens has continued to make noisier electronic music in his solo project Dive, and has now incited the new band Sonar with ex-Insekt member Eric van Wonterghem. Unfortunately, Sonar suffers from the same problem as much of The Klinik's material did - they can't keep their monotony balanced enough to remain worthwhile. And they have one even more serious flaw: Sonar tries to make noise music with a hard electronic touch, but in the wake of all the noise that has been made in the last decades, they fall sadly short. They lack both the sculpted subtlety of Autechre or Nurse with Wound, and the savage attack of Merzbow and Alec Empire's productions. What remains is just stale drum machine beats coupled with electronic noise that is actually also lame. KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN |
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