Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Contrastate - A Live Coal Under The Ashes [Tesco - 2008]

I’ll have to admit I’d been rather underwelmed  by the recent live come back album by uk dark ‘n’ surreal electronics/ folk/ what every collective Contrastate, But A Live Coal under the ashes is a whole different kettle of dark ‘n’ heady fish. It's really up their with some of coils best work and one of the finest examples of dark and psychodelic sound scaping your likely to find. The album was original  released in from 1992 here it’s reissued with an extra track from the same time.

The thing that’s most rewarding and compelling about the album as a whole is you just don’t know where they’ll twist off next, all of the tracks moving like a bizarre sonic sound ride, so you one minute you may be brooding in sinister dark carnival dread the next moving into heady ethnic lined drones undertied by world rhythms. Or stepping carefully through easy listening textures turned and bent to the dark and twisted side before dropping into evil sound drone pitched black lined with strange bubbling sounds and demented creepy laughter.  I guess another comparsent would be volcano the bear for the often weird world music edger’s, strange banks of vocal harmonies and hypnotic folk strumming. But really and truly with  A live coal under the ashes Contrastate have built their own strange very English, often dark but also a times brighter psychodelic universe that’s total and utterly of their own creation.

The only slight let down about the whole thing is the packageing which is just a card digit-pak, it would have been nice to have a had a booklet talking about the albums conception and the band it’s self. Never less if you have any interesting  at tall in dark, strange and surreal soundscaping of any form you need to pick this up. Really and truly a stone cold brain frying classic.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Contrastate - A Live Coal Under T...
I’ll have to admit I’d been rather underwelmed  by the recent live come back album by uk dark ‘n’ surreal electronics/ folk/ what every collective&...
280324   Typhoon Club - Typhoon Club(B...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
250324   Liza Lim - Annunciation Trip...
220324   Patrick - Patrick( UHD/ Blu Ray)
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom