Eisschock’s new EP is web-only (also awesome)

Eisschock, a one-woman EBM outfit released its debut titled Therapie two years ago. It was a solid album with some rough edges like the rather undeveloped sound, but it was really promising anyway and left me wanting more. Well, now there’s a chance to get some more: last month a new EP, Play the Game, was released - although only on the web. And boy, the five new tracks do sound pretty good. Almost everything sounds better than the last time: the sounds have more punch to them, there’s more meat to the compositions and the singer sings better than ever before. Better check it out if you can spare a measly couple of bucks for some quality EBM/electro (I’m sure you can).

You can listen to lengthy samples of all five tracks on Eisschock’s MySpace site, or catch a music video for the pretty fantastic title track of the EP here. Eisschock also released a free instrumental track titled Secret World in July, you can download it here. You can buy the EP at several web shops, for example Amazon.com for $0,89 a track, Junodownload.com for something like 1£ for each song or MP3.de for 1,29 € a piece.

Tracklisting for Play the Game by Eisschock
1. Hass mich
2. Play the Game
3. Pictures of the Past
4. Platitudes
5. Far Far Away

Unheilig to re-release Puppenspiel and An deiner Seite

Yeah, we know that Unheilig’s newest album Puppenspiel, released early this year, was a massive success and probably also one of the very best releases this year, but is it really necessary to rub it in our faces? Now that the album has been more or less completely sold out, they’re going to release it again on November 28th, but this time in a total of three different versions. In addition to another pressing of the very basic CD with all the tracks, booklets and what have you, there’s going to be a stripped-down, so-called PUR version where you’ll get the album in a minimalistic cardboard sleeve. Finally you’ll be able to get a new “Limited Deluxe Edition” with the 14 main tracks and a bonus DVD. So, sorry, it seems that if you missed the two extra songs (Glaub an mich, Spielzeugmann) on the original digipak limited edition, you still won’t get your hands on them…

Also, Unheilig’s single An deiner Seite was pretty much sold out, and so even more rubbing-in-face is available. An deiner Seite will be re-released November 14th in two configurations: a normal single with the original radio mix and a whole new radio mix produced by the producer Oliver Pinelli and re-recorded specifically for the single, and a premium single with a new orchestral mix of the song and a video feature thingy. Yeah, one orchestral version was already included on the Spiegelbild EP, but this is a new one. At least EMP.de already has both editions of the single.

Tracklisting for An deiner Seite by Unheilig
1. An deiner Seite (Pinelli Radio Mix)
2. An deiner Seite (Original Radio Mix)

Tracklisting for An deiner Seite premium edition by Unheilig
1. An Deiner Seite (Pinelli Orchester Mix)
2. Videospezial (Impressionen, Making Of, Live, Video)

Now, Eisschock is a bit of an unusual EBM project in that the sole member is a self-trained psychologist and also a woman. It’s not that women making music is weird, mind you, but it’s definitely a rarity in the EBM scene. What makes Eisschock even more worth having a look at is that the music is pretty good as well. Sure, it has issues and it’s not anything totally revolutionary, but it’s got a bit of a different touch than most testosterone-driven bursts of hate and anger most EBM bands tend to be.

Therapie (released in 2006) is thus far the only record by Eisschock. The music here is mostly very old-school EBM, and there’s also a couple of softer, more synthpop-like tracks thrown into the mix as well. To each their own, but I find the mellower material on Therapie downright embarrassing when compared to the vastly superior EBM cuts. There’s a number of goofy or just bad choices of sounds, run-of-the-mill compositions and it doesn’t help that the singer’s voice just doesn’t work that well when actually singing either. On the other hand, the aggressive EBM tracks are really great, incredibly old-school and the sounds are also suitably cold and clean, with the singer whispering menacingly on top of the deep bass lines and hard percussions.

Therapie is NOT a bad record, no. On the contrary, there’s a number of wonderful ideas and some extremely strong songs like the opener Sag Mir Nicht and Panic Attack. However, it’s a real shame that about half of the album falls into the category of mediocre synth-pop that’s almost hard to listen to after the awesome faster tracks. Alright, alright, debut albums are very rarely great as a whole, but Eisschock’s first is just so promising that it’s frustrating it’s not any better. I believe that if our psychologist focuses more on her stronger aspects the next time around, she might just blow our minds. Definitely check Therapie out if you dig old-school EBM like Nitzer Ebb or Front 242, or if you’re craving for a slightly different take on an otherwise somewhat stagnant genre. It’s surely not perfect, but makes you want to hear just what Eisschock is capable of.

You can listen to samples of each song on Eisschock’s site, and you can also buy the album there.

Eisschock - Therapie tracklisting
01. Sag Mir Nicht
02. Loveseeker
03. Sex Sells
04. P.B.
05. Nameless
06. Stupide
07. Panic Attack
08. Our Party
09. Narcissism
10. In Deinem Kopf