RADIOAKTIVISTS

The German-based four piece Radioaktivists have returned after a five-year lay off to deliver an album of electronic-mastery.

“Radiokat One” is the new and already highly acclaimed long-player five years after their strong debut on the compilation “Dependence 2012”, the band have created a ten-track song cycle which is both atmospheric and enjoyable, with an almost alternative sounding edge to it all, falling into a shoe-gaze of technical haze at its finest moments.

The album opens with the jazz-tinged of “Radioaktive” before the beats break under a collage of well executed beats. The robotic-treated vocals add an eerie quality as the track lifts and falls.

“Raiders” has a foot firmly place in the early-eighties new wave electronic field, boosted by technology into the 21st century, a slight New Order sounding but with an original touch of Radioacktivists making it wholly their own. The production throughout is remarkable, the sound is both hypnotic and addictive, purists of the old-school sound with feast on this album.

“Sinner” on the other hand is a squealing nineties rave developing beneath the depth which lead-singer Frank Spinath can inject effortlessly.
As “Reach Out” detonates the standout track illuminates the darkness, a transcendent chorus makes this a masterpiece of technical brilliance, the lyrics are lovelorn but delivered with a soft-menace.

With “Sense Of Destruction” Radioaktivists are in full throttle, surging as if an electrical pulse beaming into the listeners ears, this leads into the ambient glaze of “Pieces Of Me”, the strongest song lyrically although displaying the talent within the band perfectly;
“You stole the color from day,
The words of my tongue,
The breath from my lungs”.

“Radiokat One” is a highly enjoyable affair, made highly accessible through the electronic experimentation of a band who are only now getting into their stride.

Tracklist:
1 Radioaktive
2 Raiders
3 Skin And Bones
4 Sinner
5 Reach out
6 Lovers
7 I Want You
8 Sense Of Destruction
9 Pieces Of Me
10 Leere

Kevin BURKE
20/12/2018