NULLGRAD

Another project of Matthias Erhard (Zero Degree, Painslut). With Nullgrad he focusses on trance and techno related music. With a title like "Seeds" it's easy to expect a search for influences, a hommage to great examples, a trip back in musical history. And so it is, after the first dark mumblings, the first song emerges as a mid 90's trance/techno tune that could easily come from Underworld.

And the whole trip goes on just like that, slowly unraveling songs that eventually reach a climax but there's always this feeling Matthias is holding something back. The sixth song, "Detach" has a weird sounding guitar sample in there, something that really does not fit the atmosphere... The main feel however is that you get a bunch of carefully constructed songs that don't really go anywhere... slowly. Nice to hear in the background but once a song is over, it's already out of your head. Easily forgotten music, most of the time it does not predict a good score and that's not different here...

Chris KONINGS
27/12/2013