No new album here (thanks, Suleiman, for the tip), but a kind of Best-Of/Remix/Unreleased material collection. This is my first conscious encounter with RED HARVEST – a band I have culpably neglected up until now for whatever reason, but after “The Red Line Archives” I have made a mental note to change that. I have heard excerpts of RED HARVEST’s work once in a while much to my liking over the last years, and somehow I remember them more metallic. TRLA, however more experimental, slow, industrial, ambient and technoid, is not bad at all, on the contrary. The first and by far the most important point with such an enterprise – offering a cross section through over ten years of music – is that you get the feeling of a real album, not a non-fitting mix of songs. I don’t know if everything was remastered or even remixed to achieve that goal, and I am afraid I don’t know the old albums well enough to say if the songs went through a make-over, but you never even once get the impression that TRLA was a jigsaw. Someone has dedicated real work here, and it pays off with a round overall picture.
Describing TRLA by describing its contents, including:
DARKNESS: These songs are not friendly. They creep under your skin with a menacing attitude and hostile riffs (best example: “4418” or “Cyborg Era / Dead End”, which has a really mean and dark melody). To lovers of an audible brutality which is achieved through melodies: Check out TRLA.
INDUSTRIAL: The promo text says it: This is the most industrial output of RED HARVEST up to now. Mostly, this effect comes with the (as far as I can say) programmed drums and skillful conceived beats. Reminiscences to FEAR FACTORY’s “Fear Is The Mindkiller” shimmers through in “Technocrate” and “Syntheysize My DNA” ( by the way, the most driving and my favourite tracks).
GUITARS: Of course you have them. Yet, they play a kind of second violin here, providing a solid melody and rhythm base for all the effects and synths. Not always present, but with the rest of the compositions being mean and hard on themselves their absence is hardly noticed.
SOUND: As stated before, someone did a great job to give songs from over a decade an appearance as if they belong together. Overall cold and metallic, as fitting for such an album. The only thing I could possibly nag at is that for my taste there is a lack of this special “punch”-feeling on the low frequencies. Could have done with a little more “bump”, if you get my drift. Right in the stomach.
I am afraid I can’t compare to the older RED HARVEST albums. But maybe I don’t need to, because I can give a definite recommendation anyway if any of the above said appeals to you. I, by all means, am intrigued enough to work my way backwards through their discography as of now.
-Tentakel P.
VITALS:
Release: 2008
Label: Indie Recordings
Avantgenre: Abandoned Factory Elegies
Duration: 46:44
Origin: Norway
Official site: http://www.redharvest.com/
Review online since: 24.08.2008 / 19:54:54
TRACKLIST:
01 – Move Or Be Moved (Full Version Mix 2008)
02 – Dead (Sick Transit Gloria Mundi – 2002 :: ReFactor 2008)
03 – Last Call (Cold Dark Matter – 2000)
04 – Abstract Moral – Junction Mix (Internal Punishment Programs – 2004, Remix 2008)
05 – Synthesize My DNA (Internal Punishment Programs – 2004)
06 – Bleed (1996/2008)
07 – 4418 (Internal Punishment Programs – 2004)
08 – Desolation (Sick Transit Gloria Mundi – 2002)
09 – Technocrate (Dunkelheit Version 2008 Mix)
10 – Cyborg Era / Dead End (Remix 2008)
11 – The Central Sun – Part 1 (1996)
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