SINA MATIX Addresses The Struggle With Isolation On Their Debut EP, Cursed
Dark electro artist, SINA MATIX recently revealed their emotionally poignant debut EP, Cursed
The Cursed EP is set to the story of a person enduring a life-changing scenario having moved away from their home state, friends and a forty-year career. They are tormented by feelings of loneliness, worthlessness and misfortune. All of this leads to this individual feeling as though they are “cursed.” Uprooted from everything they’ve ever known, the story’s protagonist almost immediately falls into a divorce and losing custody of their one-year-old child. They now have no friends, no family and no escape. Meanwhile, anything and everything seems to go wrong.
SINA MATIX expresses this person's feelings through soundscapes, textures and dramatics in each song. “Where Did It Go Wrong” questions life's decisions that ultimately lead to failure. “Worthless”, reflects how one might feel if they were invisible and incapable of doing anything right. SINA MATIX incorporates the use of samples from thematically dark films and television shows. The music almost feels like a new genre has been born and it can only be described as "Dark Dramatic Electro."
Cursed is available on all major digital outlets including Bandcamp and Spotify.
Today 19 years ago, Nine Inch Nails released ‘Every Day Is Exactly the Same’ as their third single taken from the album With Teeth. It became NIN 21st official release thus baring the Halo 21 catalogue number.
The radio single reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock singles chart in the Modern Rock Tracks category and #12 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks category. The song also reached number one on the Canadian Singles Chart, and received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards. Though a planned music video was scrapped in the post-production stage, "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" still topped Billboard's 2006 year-end Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, it has so far spent 94 weeks on the chart.
Every Day is Exactly the Same (US CD EP tracklist)
1 "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" – 4:57
2 "The Hand That Feeds" (DFA Mix) – 9:03
3 "The Hand That Feeds" (Photek Straight Mix) – 7:47
4 "Only" (El-P Mix) – 4:22
5 "Only" (Richard X Mix) – 7:25
6 "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" (Sam Fog vs. Carlos D Mix) – 5:03
Every Day is Exactly the Same (Lyrics)
I believe I can see the future
'Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again, that might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound
I just do what I've been told
I really don't want them to come around, oh no
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
I can feel their eyes are watching
In case I lose myself again
Sometimes I think I'm happy here
(Sometimes)
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can't remember how this got started
Oh, but I can tell you exactly how it will end
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
I'll write it on a little piece of paper
I'm hoping, someday, you might find
Well I'll hide it behind something
They won't look behind
I am still inside her
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could've been any other way
But I just don't know, I don't know what else I can do
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same (every day is the same)
On this day, 23 years ago, Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget died at the age of 45.
Today it’s been already 23 years since Frank Tovey, also known as Fad Gadget, passed away at the age of 45 (°8 September 1956 – † 3 April 2002). He was a pioneer of both (electronic) New-wave and Industrial music. As no other, and we even dare to say upon today, he succeeded in fusing together darkish electro-pop with industrial and noisy experiments.
His sarcastic and darkly humorous view on life reflected his lyrics that were mostly filled with biting social commentary towards subjects such as machinery, industrialization, consumerism, human sexuality, mass media, religion, domestic violence and dehumanization.
In 1978 Frank Tovey sent a demo tape of Back to Nature to Daniel Miller, who had just released his own, and thus first Mute label single, as The Normal.
Tovey signed as Fad Gadget to Daniel Miller's Mute Records made him the first artist to sign to Mute and ”Back to Nature" the second release on Mute Records. The single was recorded on a 8-track recorder and released in 1979. After this successful single release, the follow-up single Ricky’s Hand record was recorded and released. Tovey also began recording a full album, his iconic debut album Fireside Favorites which was released by Mute in November 1980.
In 1981 Tovey released another single “Make Room", featuring the "Lady Shave" on the b-side, the latter went on to become one of his most known and played tracks.
For Tovey the ideas and concepts behind his live performances were just as important as his music. His live appearances quickly became known for his confrontational stage antics.
In total Frank Tovey recorded four albums under the moniker Fad Gadget, four as Frank Tovey and two as Frank Tovey & The Pyros.
After the release and tour from Frank Tovey & The Pyros album Worried Men In Second-Hand Suits (1992) he withdrew from the music scene for almost a decade.
In 2001 he started performing again as Fad Gadget supporting label mates Depeche Mode on their world tour. Fad Gadet was invited by Depeche Mode themselves as they once supported Fad Gadget on tour in 1980.
On April 3rd 2002, only a few days after he had returned home from a Fad Gadget come-back tour through Europe, Frank Tovey died due to a heart failure. Apparently he was aware of the risks of a heart failure that were already diagnosed when he was a chid. This could explain why he called one of the track on his Fireside Favorite debut album the Arch Of The Aorta.
Album Discography
As Fad Gadget
• Fireside Favourites (1980)
• Incontinent (1981)
• Under the Flag (1982)
• Gag (1984)
• The Best of Fad Gadget (2001)
As Frank Tovey
• Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing (1984) (with Boyd Rice)
• Snakes and Ladders (1986)
• The Fad Gadget Singles (1986)
• Civilian (1988)
• Tyranny & the Hired Hand (1989)
• Grand Union (1991)
• Worried Men in Second Hand Suits (1992)
• Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey (2006)
In April 1979, 46 years ago, Tubeway Army, the first band of and led by singer frontman Gary Numan released their second and final album 'Replicas' on the British label Beggars Banquet Records. It was recorded at the Gooseberry Studios (London) during December 1978 and January 1979.
It followed their self-titled debut which was released one year before, in 1978. After this release, Gary Numan would continue to release records under his own name, though the musicians in Tubeway Army would continue to work with him for some time. Replicas was the first album of what Numan later termed the "machine" phase of his career, preceding The Pleasure Principle and Telekon, a collection linked by common themes of a dystopian science fiction future and transmutation of man/machine, coupled with an androgynous image and a synthetic rock sound.
Fuelled by a surprise No. 1 hit single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?", the album also reached No. 1 in the UK charts in July 1979 and was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
Replicas was based on a dystopian book Numan hoped to complete someday, set in a not-too-distant future metropolis where Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and other machines keep the general public cowed on orders from the Grey Men (shadowy officials).
The recording was a development of the sound of the first Tubeway Army album. While the tracks "The Machman", "You Are in My Vision" and "It Must Have Been Years" recalled the earlier album’s guitar-oriented rock, the rest were built solidly around an analog synthesizer, the Minimoog.
Along with "Are 'Friends' Electric?", this included "Me! I Disconnect from You", the atmospheric "Down in the Park" (released as a single prior to the album and acquiring cult status though not commercial success), the multi-layered title track and the closing instrumentals "When the Machines Rock" and "I Nearly Married a Human", the latter featuring Numan's first use of a primitive drum machine.
Replicas' synthesizer sound and occasionally nihilistic lyrics had a major impact on the industrial acts that came to prominence in the mid-1990s such as Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, both of whom covered Numan's songs on record.
The album was reissued several times, some including bonus tracks, like three single B-sides. "We Are So Fragile" (from "Are 'Friends' Electric?"), and "Do You Need the Service?" and "I Nearly Married a Human" (from "Down in the Park").
Replicas (1979 Beggars Banquet LP tracklist)
A1. Me! I Disconnect from You – 3:23
A2. Are 'Friends' Electric? – 5:25
A3. The Machman" – 3:08
A4. Praying to the Aliens – 4:00
A5. Down in the Park" – 4:24
B1.You Are in My Vision – 3:15
B2. Replicas – 5:01
B3. It Must Have Been Years – 4:02
B4. When the Machines Rock – 3:15
B5. I Nearly Married a Human – 6:31
On this day, 28 years ago, Rammstein released the single ‘Engel’ (01.04.1997). It was the first preliminary single taken from upcoming second Rammstein album Sehnsucht (August 1997).
The almost angel-like vocal chorus of the song was sung by Christiane "Bobo" Hebold of German pop band Bobo in White Wooden Houses. On some occasions she joined Rammstein to sing her parts live from inside a flaming cage.
Engel (The video)
The videoclip for Engel was inspired by the horror movie ‘From Dusk Till Down’ (1996), directed by Robert Rodriguez. The whole band appears in the video although, while Lindemann, Schneider and Flake can be seen in the audience, the other band members can be seen performing as a band. However not playing their usual rol/instruments. Norbert Heitker, the director of the video, was awarded the Echo for this music video in the Best National Video category in 1998.
The MTV Boycot
The aesthetic elements of the video (Nudity, zombie children in cages, phallic imagery, foot fetishism and guitars as flamethrowers) made MTV refuse to broadcast the video stating “the Engel's video does not match MTV's on-air look”.
Allegedly Rammstein protested against this boycott MTV by tying an MTV manager to a chair in their backstage at the 1997 Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel and tying a smoke bomb to his leg. The action of the band was seen as a tasteless one but proved to be a successful promotion for the album Sehnsucht, which appeared shortly thereafter. In April 1998, guitarist Paul Landers told a magazine that the action was not a protest against the video boycot but was an action against the bullying behavior of the affected MTV manager, who made the work of several musicians difficult with his methods. The manager then prosecuted the band for assault.
Gold!
The single entered the official German weekly charts (Offizielle Charts Germany) on 14 April 1997 and reached the 3rd position by June 1997, staying there for 4 weeks. It entered the single charts at Number 12. A month later the single has sold more than 250,000 copies.
An Fan-edition with a different tracklist was released in May that celebrated the original release’s ’Gold’ status in Germany.
It ended up on the 11th position in the OCD 1997 year-end charts.
Engel (tracklist original CDS release)
1 Engel - 04:24
2 Sehnsucht - 04:04
3 Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Radio Edit) - 03:40
4 Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental Edit) - 03:32
5 Rammstein - 04:25
Engel (tracklist fan CDS release)
1 Engel (Extended Version) - 04:34
2 Feuerräder (Live Demo Version 1994) - 04:47
3 Wilder Wein (Demo Version 1994) - 05:41
4 Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental) - 03:27
Engel (Lyrics)
Wer zu Leb-zeit gut auf Erden
Wird nach dem Tod ein Engel werden
Den Blick gen Himmel fragst du dann
Warum man sie nicht sehen kann
Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
Kann man uns am Himmel sehn
Wir haben Angst und sind allein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Sie leben hinterm Sonnenschein
Getrennt von uns unendlich weit
Sie müssen sich an Sterne krallen
(Ganz fest)
Damit sie nicht vom Himmel fallen
Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
Kann man uns am Himmel sehn
Wir haben Angst und sind allein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
Kann man uns am Himmel sehn
Wir haben Angst und sind allein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein
