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VARIOUS ARTISTS "Rush for Black Celebration"

Press-release by KultFRONT

Russian Industrial Depeche Mode Tribute is the result of 3 years of work made by Russian industrial musicians who wanted to express their attitude to the famous band in an unusual way. As a rule, DM tributes (and there are over 30 of them as of today) present collections of carefully replayed DM songs, and this is done mostly for promoting those who decided to "replay the original" and make it "the same way as before". Rush for Black Celebration is completely different in this sense. First of all, in it's mood. This disc almost completely lacks the serene naivety of the 80-ies, often associated with DM. On the contrary, here one can feel aspiration for the dark corners of the subconsciousness, where one can accidentally (or intentionally) get while moving through the CD tracks. Secondly, this tribute is the only dedication to the legendary pop-band where the covers are not only driven by the feeling of recognition or love, but also by the critical revising their insane popularity, and even by the feeling of hatred to what they were doing. The result is 17 compositions almost fitting the 80-min limit of the CD.

Review by Kuolleen Musiikin Yhdistys (27.10.2008):

This Russian tribute album deserves at once extra points for two things: One, it has gathered up artists across traditional clique lines and two, the producers have sought a feeling-based, own-style approach instead of the original-repeating typical way of making tribute records. The result is therefore precisely that, meaning some of the tracks are quite hard to comprehend. In some cases, the connection between the original and the cover seems impossible to notice. The album cleverly starts with one of its easiest tracks Black celebration by Das Reut, a transformation into rhythmic noise that has been done really well. Light Collapse's A Pain That I'm Used To works, but in structure seems to resemble the instrumental remixes of Nine Inch Nails - and certainly not in the good sense. Monument by Tbilisi-89 is fine, slow and echoing. It resembles synth-neoclassical of the kind one could use as a background to entering a boxing ring, and eventually breaks stylishly into noise.

Interior Disposition's Dressed in Black, in turn, nearly disappears into the same flow, being also slow in tempo and quite alike in tone. It works, but isn't really special in any way. Rush, made by Sal Solaris, is very nice, like slow, rhythmic heavy electronics. Alexis Borisov's Walking In My Shoes is just glorified break-down noise. The album's second rhythmic noise track, M-28's The Sun and the Rainfall is also very good, although it's so lightly processed that it could just as well be something published on one of DM's own remix singles. Stpocold's Little 15 is its opposite: Noisified melody and some really experimental approaches, such as far-played background behind spoken vocals. It is a technically intriguing piece, but not otherwise interesting. Ganzer, in turn, has mixed together four DM tracks, and then twisted those. After a promising start it all becomes just boring play on mix-up software. Haldna's Insight is pure noise ambient, of brilliant quality, but there's next to no apparent connection left to the original.

Instant Movie Combinations' Detailed Question of Time (Question of Time) is also noise ambient, but of the boring kind. It's like listening for five minutes to just one repeating drone that does not change. Maroon's Air-drop Epidermic Duck (Blasphemous Roumors) is like noise ambient and slow soundtrack music mixed together. It is confusing and does not entertain much, yet as a compositional work it's admittedly rather fine. Kryptogen Rundfunk's Always Let Me Be High (Never Let Me Down Again) manages to create something quite beautiful, ear-splitting and weird by using things like a mobile phone recording of the original song as its material. Personal Jesus by Tsaaras is again slow, controlled noise where there are still pieces of melody left. There's also some female, then male, vocals in Russian, as well as violin. It's a fine work, but not one a listener would really remember afterwards. Noises of Russia surprises with a complete re-make of Enjoy the Silence, fusing four different speech samples and some field sounds. The result is mostly just a cluster of weird noise that works on the level of electro-acoustic sound art, but not as the cover version of a beloved song. The album's final (before a low-key coda with no artist mentioned) track is Kaj?'s Condemnation, a fine, slow combination of modified voice singing the lyrics and distant, squealing stars.

The production quality on this album is excellent all the way through, meaning that every track gets to present its essential parts exactly as they should. The order of the songs is also very well done, creating continuity while making sure there's enough contrast between the tracks. And the quality of the songs is pleasantly high. In addition, the double-digipack covers of this album contain design notes on each track, giving the listener a good idea on both the idea and the implementation of each song.

This is a fine, original tribute album, and has been well made.

Jiituomas

Review by Chain D.L.K. (27.10.2008):

Covering Depeche Mode is always a double edged weapon because of their characteristic style and because of their rich sound and it's also difficult to compete with Gahan and Gore vocals because half of the atmosphere they are able to create it's due to these performers. In the past many bands took this challenge, many failed and few did a wonderful job, so I was quite curious to listen to some industrial versions of the Depeche Mode tunes. Unfortunately this compilation doesn't gather Depeche Mode tunes (only few bands covered their songs with nice results) but it contains tracks inspired by those songs. The fact is that most of the tracks are made by sampled excerpts of the original tune and then re-assembled into a funny noisy way. This could be an original way of dealing with the matter of doing covers but despite the title, tracks like the ones of Ganzer (he fast forwarded and reversed "It's no good", "Freelove", Personal jesus" and Enjoy the silence" and shrank them into a one minute track) or the following Hladna (the cover of "Insight" now sounds like an industrial tornado and you can't tell what it is) sound like whatever song. Only few tunes actually sound like songs (the opening Das Reut's "Black celebration", Sal Solaris' "Rush" or M-28's "The sun and the rainfall") and it's a pity because they sound nice.

Maurizio Pustianaz

Review by Vital Weekly (27.11.2008):

A great number of tributes to Depeche Mode have already been released. Present compilation titled "Rush for black celebration : Russian industrial Depeche Mode tribute" must be one of the most bizarre tributes to the great masters of dark electro-pop, Depeche Mode. The album present seventeen interesting Industrial-related projects from Russia contributing with tracks, that are more or less loosely based on the original works of Depeche Mode. The result is fascinating! From Stpocold's harsh noise interpretation of the "Little 15" (from "Music from the masses", 1987) to the strangely beautiful ambient-version of "Blasphemous Rumours" ("Some great reward", 1983) the listeners are confronted with, in all aspects extreme versions of the early electro hits that some of us used to listen to from the early teen years forward.

NM

Review by Connexion Bizarre:

As far as tribute compilations go, the Russian music collective kultFRONT can be said to have hit the nail squarely in the head with their industrial tribute to Depeche Mode, "Rush For Black Celebration".

More often than not, tribute compilations are essentially collections of cover versions, incorporating the interpreter's signature soundwork and bearing a strong similarity of the original material, frequently the difference lying solely on the instrumentation used and the vocal capabilities of the interpreters. "Rush For Black Celebration" evades this paradigm and, instead, presents the listener with music that is inspired by the band Depeche Mode and their music and which, at best, bears only a passing or tangential resemblance to the original material. Instead of simple interpretations of songs, these artists present their very personal visions of Depeche Mode, their music and their meaning.

One blatant exception is the opening track, Das Reut's interpretation of "Black Celebration" which, following the original, provides what is the most recognizable listening experience of the whole compilation and is also a good introductory piece for what follows. Similarly, M-28's "The Sun And The Rainfall", lodged in the middle of the album, serves as a 'recontextualization' and reminder of the source material. Otherwise, all bets are off: Depeche Mode (as a band and concept) are turned on their heads, with recordings of their music sampled, taken apart, torn, twisted and turned inside-out in a succession of creative and ingenious extreme lo-fi industrial experimentalism, electro-acoustic drones and sound-collage fuckery, frequently bordering on abstract dissonance and overall conceptual insanity.

Due to the diversity of composition approaches and interpretations, any highlights will be based solely on personal taste. Nevertheless, "Solitude In Society" by Noises Of Russia comes across as an interesting statement and Ganzer's me'lange of "It's No Good", "Freelove", "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy The Silence" is bound to turn some heads. Worth pointing out is that the liner notes, though brief, make for interesting reading, offering a glimpse into the creative processes and resources of each artist and, at least in one case, a concrete opinion about Depeche Mode and their influence.

After a fashion, "Rush For A Black Celebration" may come across as an extreme version of what Alan Wilder did parallel to his work in Depeche Mode and, personally, I can't help but feel that it epitomizes what music tributes should be. Not just collections of music reinterpretation, but true manifestations of creativity, showing new artistic paths that diverged and were made possible in part thanks to the inspirational work of the artists being paid homage.

Miguel de Sousa

Review by Heathen Harvest: (15.03.2009)

A pain that I'm used to indeed. I do not enjoy Depeche Mode, so when I got this tribute cd I felt very uninspired. After doing some research on the cd I was delighted to find some of the artists dislike Depeche Mode as much as I do. And that made the tribute a tad more interesting. It is supposed to be a counter tribute, an "industrial" darker tribute. It's seemed like a good idea. Another positive about it was seeing Alexei Borisov as one of the contributors. I know of him from his work with Tania Stene (known from Aghast). And his track is actually fitting tribute to DM. Torn to pieces and mauled into harsh noise. If i didn't know it was a cover of Depeche I would have never guessed. Well done sir!

The other artist that really stands out is Hladna wich made me laugh with his track describtion: "Fortunately I don't remember a thing". The track is monotone digital noise with what seems like a manipulated voice thrown into it. I would not be suprised if the person behind this track was A: falling down drunk or B: drugged out of his mind. I like it. I see a couple of other artists who seem to dislike DM as well. But sadly none of them stands out in any way besides being boring, pretentious and repetetive. Some of the descriptions in the cover, written by the artists, revealed my strongest assumption about this tribute: It is childish, wannabe, meaningless trite, squeezed out by people with an strong desire for recognition in the scene. I'm sure this tribute will sell, and I am sure alot of the artists on this tribute only participated to get their name out there. But seriously, I would rather eat dog shit than be part of something as hopeless as this. Let alone pay for it.

Seriously guys, have some self respect. Stop trying so hard to be part of something, and try harder to create your own thing. The cover design is better than the music, but a bit anonymous. The parental advisory : "Explicit fuckin lyricks" drags it down. Alot. This is not industrial in any way. Using Fruity Loops and soft synths and a "cool" looking cover with obscenities does not make it industrial. This is not "Counter culture", rather over the counter culture. Listen to some Throbbing Gristle and get your intentions sorted out. If anything this tribute made me pissed of. Why anyone would spend 3 years making this is beyond me. This is the kind of stuff that makes the underground scene a place where I feel out of place. And I deeply resent that. With a history like Russia's to draw on, these people should be able to create something forcefull, but I guess the need to distance them self from their past is still too strong.

The project is perhaps too desperate in trying to prove that Russia is no backwards nation. Instead they seem to emulate everything that is booring in the west, such as Depeche Mode and quasi industrial music. Insulting words mayhap. But if my review offends you, at least you have some real emotions and if you have a brain you can use that anger to create something meaningfull. Don't be a leech.

Batcheeba&Gird09

Review by Gothtronic:

Before me I have a tribute album to Depeche Mode. Like there already weren't enough of them. I actually think that there are more tribute albums dedicated to DM then the band actually have in their own discography. Though with closer reading there seems to be something different; it is a Russian tribute album! So now I really don't now what to expect. It could be blatant copies of the original material, or something more interesting and experimental. Let's hope for the latter.

A quick scan through the track list shows that every band has their own DM song, so there are no songs used twice. This already seems to be an interesting choice, since a lot of tribute and remix albums use a lot of the same songs in one album.

The first song is by a band called Das Reut, and they start of with the DM classic 'Black Celebration'. The song is transformed into an industrial dance-track. It's a pretty weird transformation, fast-paced with some drum 'n bass influences. It also uses a funny sample and then the song changes in tone. The vocals sound like the electro-industrial of Skinny Puppy or Leaether Strip, but then the synthline sounds real cheesy, like that from cheesy trance-industrial bands. So, pretty interesting transformation, but also very weird combinations of sounds.

Light Collapse transforms 'A Pain That I'm Used to' into unrecognizable territory. Here and there you hear some familiar sounds of the original song, but the song is mostly a combination of noise, industrial sounds and deep droning beats. Like a kind of freeform jazz/noise experiment.

Tbilist-89 makes from 'Monument' an instrumental martial-industrial song which ends in loud noise. Alexei Borisov takes 'Walking In My Shoes' to again unrecognizable territory with lots of noise and manipulation. 'The Sun And The Rainfall' by 'M-28' is a real cheesy instrumental electro song. With 'Little 15' by Stpocold we are again in the unrecognizable terrain, with all kinds of noises all over the place.

Ganzer takes takes four DM classics, namely 'It's No Good', 'Freelove', 'Personal Jesus' and 'Enjoy The Silence', and mixes them into a one-minute track. It's more of a funny track then it has any artistic qualities. Another interesting variation comes from Instant Movie Combinations, who transforms 'A Question Of Time' into a deep droning industrial track. It's because the song is on this album, else I really wouldn't have known that it was based on a DM song. This track could have used the source material from J.S. Bach for all I know. 'Personal Jesus' by Tsaraas turns the song into a cinematic Eastern soundscape with Russian vocals. This is one of the more original transformations on this album which is listenable. Noises Of Russia recreates 'Solitude In Society' with a lot of media samples and halfway works the original song in it.

This might be on of the strangest tribute albums ever! If someone doesn't now Depeche Mode (which would almost be impossible), they be getting the wrong idea with this album. Almost all the songs are unrecognizable transformations of the original material. As far as originality goes, it gets some point, because we've seen too many uninspired DM tribute albums already. This album is different from most tribute albums, because all the songs are extremely free interpretations of the original songs. To rate this album is somewhat difficult, if counted as a tribute/remix album, it's really interesting, and you never no what to expect from song to song. All are really free interpretations of the original songs, which is good. Counting as an experimental/industrial/noise album, it isn't the most original in the market. Still it stays interesting to hear the DM sounds in the transformations, or guessing which song it is.

The album could also have been titled 'Depeche Mode Transformed', like with the last Xabec album. A lot of times I don't hear any influences from DM. The album as a whole is a good experience, though it isn't actually directed at DM-fans, but more at experimental and noise connoisseurs. As a limited edition of 500 copies, it's a nice collector's item.

Fabian

Reviews in Russian: http://kr.radionoise.ru/rus/va_rush_press.html