It's a sad thing to see a band that has worked so hard for so long, all on their own, without major label support, suddenly throw in the towel and call it quits. Such is the case for the electro/goth/industrial band BLOOD. After six years of touring around the world on their own dime, BLOOD will be making a pass through America one last time before disbanding. This came a something of a shock to their fans, and in an interview I did with the band not too long before their announcement, everything seemed just fine. They were a little upset at the current state of the visual-kei music scene that they had abandon in favor of their more purely industrial format, but otherwise there were no outward signs of their impending doom.
Before they exit the stage however, they've left a few treats for the hardcore fans. On their last tour they plan to do everything possible to meet and greet with fans, even hosting a dinner at one event. They also provided material for a remix competition open to everyone.
The results of the competition make up two-thirds of their final album Lost Sky. Seven different versions fill up the second half of the album, along with three other remixes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The real album, the new stuff, kicks off with the title track. It's a rather subdued dance track (well, all of the songs on Lost Sky are very techno oriented) with soft synth pads and all of the guitars pushed far back in the mix. "Lost Sky" is all about the softer side of their electro goth sound, full of fog and gauze.
That's followed up with one of the best songs I've heard from the band, "Captured." Here the guitars are much heavier and upfront. The beats are still a little pillowy, but but the synths have a nice hard edge and the arrangement is closer to the elegant sort of orchestration we've come to expect from the visual scene. "Nothing" ramps things up even further with a fast tempo and a totally pummeling chorus much more like heavy metal than techno. Forget what I said about "Captured," this is the best BLOOD song I've heard. It's full of the sort of energy missing in the previous tracks. If they had to go out, this is a good note to go out on.
"Absolute" has a very similar feel to "Nothing," only more chaotic and a little too muffled. This time it's the vocals that are pushed far back, making the song feel a bit more like an unpolished rush job than a finished album track. "Oroboro" also has a slightly off-kilter feel, through the choruses have a very nice melody, pushing Fu-ki's vocals to the limit. The album proper ends, fittingly, with "The End," a short, instrumental track that really just stumbles to the finish. It's an odd choice considering the general power that the rest of the album contains.
Which brings us to the albums seven "Lost Sky" remixes. The Noir du`Soleil remix substitutes some early Aphex Twin beats for the more pulsing original, along with a lot of swooshy synths. It has an austere feel, slower and buried under layers of arpeggiated lines.
The sawDUST in me remix sticks very closely to the original and is incredibly out of tune in the choruses. This track should not have seen the light of day. Let's move on.
Thankfully the marlee remix is there to save the day. While it doesn't add anything new structurally to the song, it has an absolutely huge break beat and added guitars that really stomp along, giving it a much needed edge. The Spectrum-X remix is just a mess, end of story. The Shiv-r remix, however, is excellent. It manages to find new avenues to explore with the melody, using only the original vocal track and rebuilding the entire track from the ground up. Sure, it lumbers along, but the stark and brooding atmosphere hits just the right spot.
The Mizuh remix speeds things up with the first, and only, tempo change fromt he remixes. Mizuh adds in a few trance elements, filtering the building synth lines that are a bit reminiscent of all those "1998" remixes. It certainly adds more underlying pulse and throb, through the swirly synth strings are a bit overpowering. Finally, the Broken Lullaby remix by Echostream is the only track that actually takes the song in a completely new direction, substituting toy pianos and fuzzed out organs for the cyber-goth constructs. It all works out extraordinarily well. That is, until the unfortunate guitar-on-a-mountain-top solo right at the end.
The final three tracks are also remixes, though of older BLOOD tracks. "Crimson," "BLOOD" and "d.T.M.H." all get the once over, but all fall a little flat. Perhaps the initial six tracks are to blame. They far outshine the remix material, making the end of the album a drag. If purchased in an mp3 format, I can't imagine many of the remixes lasting for very long on anyone's hard drive.
Yet it's not the legacy of these remixes that listeners will be getting into Lost Sky for in the first place. It's the quality of the actual original content, as well as the legacy that BLOOD leaves behind. Sure, they may not have taken over the world with their music, but their independent energy and determination in a sea of flashy mediocrity are something to admire, and something for them to be proud of.
BUY THE ALBUM HERE!
[Special thanks to Roger at Tainted Reality
And in one final note, in the interest of full disclosure,, I also entered into the remix competition myself. You can download my mix here.]
