Martine - 2024 - Nichts Währt Ewig

(120:53; Echozone)





















Track list:
1. Phalanx 5:05
2. Macht der Stimme 4:45
3. Seraph 5:37
4. A Final Note 6:02
5. My Saviour 5:24
6. Cutting Edge (Live Target) 6:08
7. Lie To Me 6:48
8. Ein Sturm zieht auf 5:15
9. NON 5:12
10. Wipeout 7:03
11. Black Noir (Revisited) 5:18
12. Die Welt ist nicht genug 4:43
13. Stuka 6:00
14. Black Noir (Mach Fox EditRMX) 5:23
15. Seraph (Insect Plasma Remix) 5:41
16. A Final Note (dFortleben Remix) 3:53
17. My Saviour (Synaptic Defect Remix) 5:23
18. Black Noir (Hexify Remix) 5:06
19. A Final Note (Empathia Poethica Remix) 6:04
20. Black Noir (MissSuicide Remix) 4:32
21. Wipeout (Phobos Reactor Remix) 6:01
22. My Saviour (Empathia Poethica Remix) 5:30

Line-up:
Thomas Martiné - vocals, instruments


German artist Martine is an artist I don't really know all that much about, and from what I can see (or rather not see) with a bit of Google Ninja this appears to be an artist not all that fond of being in the spotlight. Or perhaps on of those creators so caught up in the art of making music that the PR department isn't given as much priority. Be that as it may be, if the information I have managed to find is correct then "Nichts Währt Ewig" is the second album released by Martine, and the first to be released through German label Echozone.

I am a bit out of my depth when it comes to the style of music explored here, as industrial electronic music is the foundation that most songs revolve around in this case. Which isn't a style of music I have any extensive knowledge about. Hence direct references will be few, and associations may well be at fault.

What I do believe I hear throughout this production is that the majority of the songs comes with some form of attachment or other towards the synthpop genre of music. Industrial style rhythms, repetitive forms and recurring movements is a part of the totality too of course, but there is a little bit of a playful synthpop dimension added to many of the songs here in some form or other.

Other songs have a greater emphasis on sparse and hard arrangements and a tight and vibrant sound, sometimes with occasional or more persistent rich synthesizer surges and textures having a role to play in the dystopian sceneries too, and for my personal taste in music I generally find these cuts to be the most interesting ones. With a little bit of a special callout to the concluding song 'Stuka' on the main part of this double feature, where the artist creates space and room for more expressive and experimental details to be given a bit more limelight too. To the point where certain details did remind me ever so slightly of dystopian noise creator Gridfailure.

The second part of this package is a disc filled to the brim with remixes, and with some songs given several revised incarnations. For me I didn't really feel that these remixed versions managed to add anything truly significant to the landscapes explored though, but a few of these remixes did manage to elevate the overall experience just a little bit.

I have listened to a bit of electronic industrial music and related forms of music over the years, but I'm probably not among the people that will ever be a key audience for this type of material. I do like some of the music within these fields rather well, and there are quite a few of the cuts on this album I do find to be of solid quality too. But my main impression is that this is an album that will find it's main audience among those with a deeper and more specific interest in the various kinds, incarnations and variations of industrial electronic pop music that is out there.

If a dystopian type of electronic industrial music that range from material bleaker than the moods in the original Blade Runner movie to a borderline playful and uplifting landscape that on a select few levels can give you associations towards a band like Erasure strikes you as an intriguing notion, then this is an album you probably should become more familiar with.

Olav M. Björnsen, June 2024

Links:
http://www.echozone.de/
https://martineofficial.bandcamp.com/

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