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This album from Australian 5 piece band Paradoxx seems to be trying to market itself as a new romantic/goth album,what with the medieval tone to the booklet & the heavy presence of undoubtedly photogenic singer Lissa in her velvet hooded top.
The music,though,covers a wide ground & although the use of accoustic drums,guitars & piano mean it's not a purely synthetic offering their is still much electronic wizardry going on throughout courtesy of the keyboards of Ralph Dix.This is most obvious during the superb synthpop of "Romantic" where the line "I'm a new romantic" ought to appeal to the 80s throwbacks & the sensual "Submission".The forthright bass sets the scene for Lissa's vocals to awaken the sultry mood perfectly & when she sings "I Want Your Submission" who could ever resist her?
The darker,electro-rock styles of "Strange Love" & "Sequence Of Events" bring Fiction 8 to mind, although the spacey & ethereal vocals on the otherwise essentially similar "In My Dream" do show that the band are not averse to more traditional goth/romantic influences.
Such influences are stated far more explicitly during the instrumental interludes,including the opening "Procession" which offers a full-on goth experience with plaintive chanting, spoken vocals from Lissa & lush symphonic strings that make your heart soar.The classically-inspired "Interlude" brings to mind the old black & white films such as "The Man Who Laughed" and while this track conjurs up a magical feeling of longing, love & apprehension it's just too damned short as is "Doxology" where a potent mix of strings evoke a similar kind of feel.Compared to this the techno/trance of "Retro Bution" seems a bit cheap while the lightweight dark pop of "Ultraviolet" is a little too Cure-like to be really successful (for this writer,at least!) although these differing influences do serve to underline the band's versatility.
The remixes,unique to this re-release are proof positive of (to misquote) the old adahe 'If it ain't broke don't remix it' with the trancemix of "Romantic" doing nothing to improve on the original, not even giving it any additional dancefloor savvy although this is as nothing compared to the hatchet job that the "Big Beat" mix does, being an utterly pointless mix which makes Lissa's vocals sound terrible,take it away,willya? The Domin8 mix of "Submission" does restore a reasonable dose of sanity, the rhythm being more to the fore here but otherwise following the original pretty faithfully & likewise the "Keep Coming Back Mix"of "Ultraviolet" at least manages not to do any further damage but, like the others, it's nothing when compared to the original.
As with any good album the original tracks far outweigh the remixes in terms of quality & with this superb album Paradoxx prove themselves a highly talented band with many strings to their bow.
RATING: 9
Artist Link: http://www.paradoxxmuzic.htmlplanet.com
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