CYDONIA - s/t
Songs: 10  Time:  48:23
This review will be interesting, because I don't necessarily like the majority of the songs on this disc, but I greatly respect Cydonia's (Anthony Leone's) harking back to the good old days of electro.  Crisp rhythms, distorted vocals, danceable beats and quirky noises populate this CD, making you think back to 1992-3 and all the good releases that came out then.  This CD really reminds me a lot of early Leaetherstrip or Numb's Death on the Installment Plan.  The only problem that may arise is that some songs are corny and sound not just reminiscent of days of old, but just OLD.  Well, let's take a look at some of the tracks.  The best song is the creepy Confessor, which sports an extremely distorted dance beat, minimalistic sequences, staticy noise, and a weird distortion of the vocals that sounds...well like a monster.  Sacred has the same distortion, but is a faster, cleaner sounding EBM with straight forward rhythms and and one sound that has to go.  Anthony uses this orchestra hit thing that really needs to go, it sounds very bad.  Otherwise this song is top notch.  Veil has 2 good things, first the song, a fast paced hard beat tune with a driving rhythm and high pitched vocals (this guy is like a vocal chameleon), and second a great drill noise straight from VivisectVI.  Now, there are some lowlights to this disc: the songs Abyss, Heretic, and Threads all have promise, but are ruined by specific elements such as the awful guitar sample in Abyss, the repeat of synth lines, they get rather similar...and Threads is just too much like a Leaetherstrip tune to be taken seriously.  But, this is Cydonia's debut, and he has an interesting old school feel to him, so I'll let it go.  Seriously, if you want rich textures and layers of high production and sound to blow you away with technofied tunes...don't look here. But, if you want a trip back to the heady days of electro in the 90's, check this out.
 
reviewed by D. Sudia
 
TINMAN                                            Cydonia is:
PO Box 1114                                      Anthony Leone
New Brunswick, NJ 08903               Contact Cydonia @
USA                                                    P.O. Box 1228 Cooper Station
e-mail: tinman@cnj.digex.net         New York, NY 10276-1228 USA
TINMAN homepage:                      Cydonia homepage:
http://users.aol.com/tinmanaux    http://pages.prodigy.net/cydoniamusic/cydonia.html
            
1)  Abyss        2)  Yeil
3)  Heretic      4)  Creed
5)  Sacred       6)  Indoctrinate
7)  Sentient     8)  Confessor
9)  Threads      10) Remnant