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Personnel: Jack Duckworth - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocal
Chris Frey - Bass, Vocals
Warren Hill - Synthesizers
Joshua Wells - Drums, Synth Percussion, Synthesizers, Samples
Radio Berlin is from Vancouver, B.C., hailing from under the same skies as Skinny Puppy and Numb. The band’s sound can be best described as a combination of Faith/Pornography era Cure, mixed with early UK luminaries such as Test Department, Killing Joke, and Wire.
With that being said, Radio Berlin is awesome and my favorite new band. Perhaps I like them so much because the music that influenced them is from an era that is often overlooked and misunderstood in many ways. Often times, Eighties music is walloped with jeers from a crowd spoon fed horrible television images of big hair and Spandex. Some of the most challenging and creative music ever offered the public stems from this decade, albeit in an underground arena.
Listening to this album is like being in a great Archeology lecture, for the images the band conjures up are from the specters and echoes of the past. To be able to manipulate these echoes into a personal and individual sound is no easy task. Radio Berlin are not mere copycats and, like any great band, their strength is in their songwriting and musical ability. These are the necessary ingredients that assures the band’s future success.
There is not one weak song on the album. If I had to pick my favorites, I would choose Change Your Mind - Complete with new wave synth and chorus; Eyes Like Lenses - Wire could not have done this better; Electric Halls - A great song with a smashing Robert Smith delivery; Green Torch - The Cure morphing into the band Japan; The Selection Drone - A beautifully crafted instrumental piece that ends the album and leaves the listener yearning for more. Radio Berlin’s new release ‘Sister Sounds’ will be available for release in 2002. I can’t wait.
RATING: 10
Artist Link: http://www.thewaxmuseum.bc.ca/twmu/radioberlin
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