Fanoe’s Empire Dirt available as a free download

Greg told you all about Fanoe’s second album, Down to Heaven, but if you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s your chance to get a taste of what the Swiss industrial-rock group have been doing. The first album, Empire Dirt, is now available in its entirety as a free download, along with two tracks from Down to Heaven. Head on over to the download area of the site and choose between 320 and 192kbps mp3 packages. If you like what you hear, the albums are available at cdbaby, iTunes and cduniverse among other retailers, or consider making a donation to support the band directly.

Eisbrecher’s Sünde: US release delayed

Dancing Ferret Discs had been set to release Sünde in the US on August 26, but unfortunately this will not be happening, presumably as a result of the plans to shut down DFD’s operations. No new North American label or release date has yet been announced by Eisbrecher’s management, and at this point, there will likely be a delay of at best several months before a US version is on the shelves. Import versions of both the single and the album will however be available through IsoTank and amazon.com, or for download from iTunes and amazon. The German release is unaffected and still on schedule for release on August 22.

A new Treibhaus album out in October?

Last October, Treibhaus announced that they had begun work on their third album, Alarmstufe Rot. The other day, there was a brief mention on the band’s myspace page that the album would be released this October. This has not yet been confirmed and the note has since been removed, but it sounds like a reasonable timeframe.

UPDATE:

Curt from Treibhaus recently sent out a newsletter with more details on the album release. Recording and mixing is done, only the mastering left to be done. He reported they are on track for a late October or early November release.

It has been a while since I talked about the Swiss-based band Fanoe, and it’s time to mention them again now that their long-awaited second album Down To Heaven has finally been released. It has actually been available since the beginning of February, but only from a limited number of sources so far and promotion has largely been underground and by word-of-mouth. This electronic rock album has 10 songs and comes in a very nice digipack featuring stunning artwork that was designed by the band’s singer himself. It’s almost as good as the music.

Mini-review / Listen to Down To Heaven
Down To Heaven is a fantastic album and a very fitting followup to Fanoe’s first album Empire Dirt, which has been one of my favorites lately. It’s grungier and the electronics seem to be more thinly scattered than their debut, but the music is still well within the bounds of industrial rock and sounds great. I think “Lover Undercover” is my favorite so far. While German music purists may not like the fact that the lyrics are in English, they are still performed very well and certainly don’t detract from the musical style. I urge you to listen to some of the very generous 2-minute MP3 samples of every song on the album from CD Baby’s Down To Heaven page. You can listen to each track individually or click the “Play All Songs” button to hear them all in order. I also posted the music video for “I Am” below for you.

Where to find the album
In Europe, Down To Heaven is available from Cede.ch. In the USA, CD Baby and CD Connection both have the album in stock. Naturally, you can download the album on iTunes as well. And finally, if you really like the band and want to order a shirt or a special art print from the band, you should visit Fanoe’s webshop. Just choose your preferred currency at the left to enter and see all the items.

Fanoe - Down To Heaven tracklisting
01. Down to Heaven
02. I Am
03. Sweet Nothing
04. Skin & Bones
05. Passion
06. Medicine Man
07. Burn in Hell
08. Lover Undercover
09. One More Day
10. Innocent

Fanoe - “I Am” video

From: youtube.com/watch?v=09-XzyfwIMA. Be sure to check out Fanoe’s YouTube page for more videos from the band, too.

Fanoe is one of my favorite bands that has emerged in the past few years. They are an industrial-rock band based in Switzerland with a sound floating somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and Die Krupps. Klaus Fanoe actually produced the first album Empire Dirt all on his own in 2005, only putting a band together afterward for a tour. Despite being a one-man project, the album is fantastic. Fanoe managed to create a diverse, yet intensely focused album with stunning production.

The big news, of course, is that Fanoe will be releasing a new album in January 2008. Down to Heaven is the name, and although I don’t see an exact release date, there’s a release party scheduled for January 17th in Zurich. That’s a Thursday, so I am guessing the album will be out the next day, Friday the 18th, because releases over there are typically done on Fridays. Whatever the date, I am sure Down to Heaven will be just as good, if not better, than Empire Dirt.

How do I know this? I’ve already heard their new song “Skin and Bones” and I love it. You can listen to it on Fanoe’s MySpace page, too. There are also samples to 9 songs from Empire Dirt on CD Baby for you to enjoy. If you like the album as much as I do, you can buy the album there, either on CD or MP3 files, for $12.

Above photo by manvarle.com