| CD REVIEW Leaether Strip |
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Band: Leaether Strip You might wonder how on earth a review of an album by an artist known to work in the electronic field of music can be posted on a website normally dedicated to the promotion of guitar music…I mean, that’s what you’d expect from a website named Concrete Web, right? Well, although Claus Larsen, akà Leaether Strip moves about in the worlds of EBM (short for Electronic Body Music) and electronic Goth, his work also has an Industrial touch…and that’s enough reason for us to review his music! In fact, we’ve already reviewed stuff by him (The Giant Minutes To The Dawn, posted 24/03/2007, and still available for some fact-finding needs) before, although we (speaking in a majestical form here) kinda lost track of him due to the fact that his label does all its promotion via Internet. However, with the recent recession and economic crisis forcing more and more record labels to work the same way, our editor-in-chief’s taken up the thread where he left it two years ago. In that time, Larsen has not been idle, quite on the contrary in fact! He got into an agreement with Alfa Matrix to re-issue his first albums (originally issued through the infamous Zog Ommog label) under the Retention monicker, in a package including the original album, a remastered version, plus bonus material taken from EP’s from the days. Until now, two re-issues have thus already been delivered (the Nov. 2007 released Retention N°1 portaining to 1990’s debut album The Pleasure Of Penetration; Retention N°2, delivered in Nov. 2008, including the 1991 album Science For The Satanic Citizen, and also tracks off the Object V EP). There’s also the full-length album Civil Disobedience (issued April 2008, this 2-CD affair also came in a limited box set with a bonus 12-track CD titled One Nine Eight Two) and a couple of digital only EPs (whether that means that they were only downloadable through the label’s website, I’m not sure of…the list: 5-track Haelloween EP issued Oct. 2007; Civil Disobedience’s 10-track precursor When Blood Runs Dark, issued March 2008; and this album’s 4-track precursor Diaegnosis, issued Dec. 2008 – all EPs containing exclusive tracks as well as album outtakes and alternate versions) we missed altogether! On the side, Larsen also occasionally makes remixes of other people’s material! And I can tell you, I deeply regret having missed all that material, because Larsen’s music is a thing of beauty to be enjoyed by lovers of well-composed music! In essence, that music is somewhat minimalistic in nature! The Dance, say EBM, part of things comes from the bass and drum beats…sparce atmospheric keyboard/ synth sounds laid on top bring in the beginnings of the dark side of things…which are enhanced by the harsh vocals, which also embody the Industrial part of the whole! Well, occasionally the vocals are cleaner, giving the song in question an increased Dance feel. In spite of having that minimalistic character, each song has an compelling attractiveness, no matter which is the underlaying musical direction, and one can’t help being drawn in to take notice of the lyrics! When it comes to the lyrics on Aengelmaker, Larsen found inspiration from Danish female mass-murderer Dagmar Overbye, who was convicted of having killed at least 25 children between 1913 and 1925. She ran an advert in newspapers offering to find adoptive parents for for mothers in need of money, but in stead murdered and cremated the unwanted children on their day of arrival. During her trial the truth about her own abused childhood resurfaced…and it’s this darkness which made the equally Danish born Larsen “…question the value of life in general. How can one forget his/ her own abuse? How can one go through the Hatred towards minorities? So many questions running througgh Larsen’s mind that ultimately unleashed the chains of his own demons, letting deep buried memories resurface and haunt him again…,” (from the bio, and here’s more, because it fits the review), “…This is what the new Leaether Strip album is all about. A reflection of the world’s brutality, on a lifelong nightmare full of haunting ghosts, on pushed away social outcasts…Leaether Strip takes you with this 22-track double-CD on a hard journey through anger, pain and rejection. It is an uplifting voyage in his inner self through which Claus Larsen can only return stronger, relieved from past ghosts he could finally set free in the whole writing process. Dark EBM/ Industrial remains Claus Larsen’s best therapy and the listener will definitely grasp his growing anger on this album…” Uhh…what’s more to be said when you’ve got a text like that pre-written for you? Well, Larsen also looked back in his catalogue of interesting songs to cover, starting with a stunning reprise off the German cult classic “Lili Marlene” (first made internationally popular in its version brought by Marlene Dietrich). He also covered two songs (“Black Celebration” and “Blasphemous Rumours”) by Depeche Mode, which he put at the end of each of the two albums. And these covers are the ultimate proof of Larsen’s songwriting skills, because the atmosphere on àll of these tracks is completely in sinc with the rest of the albums! Not in the label’s bio, is the fact that the track “Treatment” on disc two is originally by Martin Hall. By the way, disc 1 lasts 64 and disc 2 has a length of 75 minutes!!! Do yourself a favour and convince yourself of this Dane’s qualities by surfing to myspace.com/leaetherstrip, where you’ll find mp3-files of the new album’s title track (which is, incidently, also the shortest track on the two discs) and the aforementioned “Lili Marlene”, as well as “Strap Me Down Again” and “I Can’t Sit Still” (which were all taken from disc one). Also posted is an mp3-file with snippets from the Diaegnosis EP, plus the track “Overkill” taken from the bonus CD which comes with the limited edition of Aengelmaker! So, time to say something about that, right. It opens with a cover of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me Baby” in a duet wit German cult Goth lady Unter Null. It’s followed by “The Law Of Jante (Golem remix)”, already available on the recent re-issue of LS’ sophomore album! Follows the previously unreleased “Lovehate” and two songs (“Europa” and “Overkill”) which Larsen wrote in collaboration with Supreme Court, intersperced with “Deadhead”, which he co-wrote with Titans. Follows a “Bigger Mix” of “Back In Control”, a song in its original form on the Jan. 2006 released After The Devastation album. “Go Ahead (Hungarian Club Mix)” was already on the Diaegnosis EP, and the original version of “One Nine Eight Two” (here in a “Obamarama” version) can be found on the bonus album that came with the limited edition of the Civil Disobedience album. I’ve found no trace of where the track “Snakebite” originally came from (it’s delivered here in a “Black Mamba” mix), but “Pain Is Beautiful” (here brought in a “Freemixxx”) can be found in its original form on the The Hourglass bonus CD which came with the The Giant Minutes To The Dawn limited edition box. The bonus CD is closed off (at a total playing time of just over 75 minutes) with a “Nostalgia” version (with a sound which is closer to that of the early ‘90s) of “Genetic Fuckup” (original featured on disc 2 of Aengelmaker). Two years ago I failed to rate Leaether Strip’s The Giant Minutes To Dawn sufficiently to allow it to be nominated into my year-lists, in spite of its unique qualities…that’s a mistake which I won’t make this time around!!! 98/100 Tony. |