UNTER NULL
THE FAILURE EPIPHANY

ALBUM ALFA-MATRIX RELEASE: NOVEMBER 28, 2005 REVIEW: MARCH 5, 2006


Unter Null (aka Erica Dunham) has already created something of a presence for herself with her last two hits “Your Nightmare” and “Sick Fuck” (both of which feature on this album) – making this a somewhat anticipated first album from this US artist. So apart from the two aforementioned strong tracks, what else is there?

It opens nicely enough: “Bloodlust” being a kind of a modern take on a rave anthem. The rest is a blend of EBM, quite-dark-electro and industrial. One thing that sets it apart from other efforts in this genre is the speed of the tracks – this is quite a fast-paced collection of songs – more for the dancefloor than the bedroom. The vocals are very untypical though, bordering on the positively scary!

The tracks in general are very well put together, and have a fast, pumping and fluid quality that gets the body moving. “Feed the Lie” is a particularly strong effort – very loud with pumping beats, throbbing bass, shrieking synth lines and particularly nastily-effected vocals, creating something just the right side of aural chaos, and all this before inexplicably turning into an ambient synthscape. The title track and “ZombieBoy” are also very noteworthy, being both euphoric and menacing in equal parts.

So a good collection of songs, with distinct dancefloor edginess – just don’t listen alone!

MIKE WHYTE

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