Interference

the worst thing about this band is the arrogant Marc Heal, who recently said in an interview that he had been the first to blend electronics and guitars (sic): Marc... what about KMFDM, Die Krupps, Front 242, NIN, FLA...? ok, a slight mistake. In fact, this work is quite different from previous ones since a drum'n bass beat dominates most of the songs... guitars are also present but they don't control the songs... I think Heal has improved a lot, and C-Tec works are proofs of this. After the first spontaneous 'It' in which Heal must have broken his vocal chords, there're some good songs, 'Isolation', 'An Airport Bar' or 'The Horsetrader' being maybe the best. They stmes get too long, though, and I can't help thinking Cubanate is sometimes a bit boring... If I were you, i would buy 'Darker' or 'Cut' by C-Tec instead: De Meyer's voice is infinitely better than Heal's, and that makes a change... However, 'Interference' is not a bad album at all, in my opinion their best, I never liked their style.

Having perfect their earlier signature sound with Barbarossa, Cubanate wisely chose to alter their repertoire trading in in their old school techno for hardcore drum'n'bass. Most bands would take two albums or more to perfect a new direction in sound; Heal and Barry perfect it one single bound. The result is an almost seamless venture into aggression, desperation and schizophrenic hatred. The drum machine is kept interesting, churning out beats that are different with each track, so as to not fall into the usual pitfalls of repetitive boredom that drum'n'bass habitually suffers from. The guitars are still very much present, and Marc Heal's abrasive, dripping-with-spite vocals also return intact, with a surprise: they've upped their intellectual level. My sole complaint on the otherwise perfect Barbarossa was the cheesineess of the lyrics("We're the boys in black and blue...meet my friends! We're the musclemen!") This soft spot seems hardened up on Interference, the lyrics taking a more introverted and personal stance; it renders them more compelling, but does not once stand to compromise the unyielding anger and disgust that has (and probably always will be) endemic to Heal's vocal delivery. If anything, he sounds even more ready to tear your throat out on this record than on any before it. The variety of Cubanate's sound is also upped on this disc, it includes the hip-hop influenced track "The Horsetrader", and even an ambient-esque song towards the middle. My sole complaint is track 7, "Other Voices", which, unlike the other songs on the album, really has nothing memorable about it, sounding purely like filler. But that one misstep is not enough to deny Interference a 5-star rating in my book. A must for hardcore techno fans everywhere, undeniably, and as for fans of Cubanate's old sound...they may be alienated, I must admit, but I remind them to keep an open mind and to keep spinning it, because all good music "clicks" eventually, with enough listens.

This was my first trip to the world of Cubanate, and I'm very pleased I made it. Compared to the older fans, I rate this release much higher than their previous ones. If you're into DnB mixed with psychotic, sometimes even melancholic industrial, you won't be disappointed.