Nass Zuruck is a solo darkwave / synthwave project from the gutters of Los Angeles, California. An “Enigma” is by definition something that defies total comprehension, and indeed TRG has swept aside all preconceptions and delivered the unexpected. While remaining faithful to a number of musical aspects Philipp has explored since his quest started in the late 1980s, there is a remarkable advance: “Enigma” works almost entirely without vocals, and leaves the storytelling to music itself. 10 tracks, 49 minutes, classic song-based album format, but then: From the beginning we get treated to the trademark TRG analogue feel, but also the compositions appear more eclectic, daring and experimental (which is of course also a classic TRG feature considering the project’s industrial roots, check: “Rotten Flowers”). When you feel you have said a lot of things before – and some of them multiple times – remaining silent and letting the music do the talking is quite the consistent choice! Only slight traces of vocals appear, an angelic wail in “October Values” and a vocoder voice in the cheekily titled “Barkhaus”. The rest is all electronic sound, more adventurous than harmonic, more confident than introvert, and somehow impossible to classify – an enigma that demands your attention. Digital Album [free download] In 2012 Claus Fovea self released a cassette containing 10 tracks, he was at his Swedish beginnings. 9 years later we re-discovered his tape, thanks to Sam. It still sounded so true and relevant to us that we decided to release it on vinyl. Claus then reworked some tracks, scrap some, and made few new. Florin Büchel mixed them down and Andrea Merlini mastered them. The result is a picture frozen in time, in between now and then, the struggle, and sadness, that fragile construction of hope shattered as time goes by, like nothing ever change. It is indeed, as he sings, just the same song playing all the time. Over and over. |