KARTAGON


Natural Instincts
16 tracks - playing time: 64:09 min.
Strange Ways Records
Rating: 7.5/10
 
Although the biography mentions a mixture of EBM, Dark Wave and David Bowie, it’s mostly EBM that describes best the way that Kartagon plays. David Bowie is of course featured cause of a cover track ("This Is Not America"), and there’s some Dark Wave to be found, but the main engine of this 16-track album is the electro as we’ve heard a band like Assemblage 23 play before. Imagine A23 with some more poppy vocals, a bit less harsh, and you’re coming quite close towards Kartagon’s sound. Also, I’m sure this duo listens quite a lot to a band like Boytronic and even more likely, Covenant.

The album is filled with 16 songs, including a remix and two cover songs (“Panic On The Titanic’s”, "A Picture" and the aforementioned David Bowie), of which only the first is actually a good performance.

Bowie is performed nicely and I can imagine why the band would have picked this song, but it doesn’t quite add something to the original.

Overall I’m quite satisfied with this release. The catchy songs are somehow completely different from other bands, whilst I can see why someone would call this the re-recording of the 80s. Because that is basically what this release sounds like, and that’s actually quite nice, no matter how surprising that may sound.

(Eelco)

© Rockezine.com Apr 26, 2003, viewed 777 times since 666
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