Search - Ewigkeit :: Radio Ixtlan

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Bag | Chicago, IL United States | 11/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Picture if you will the driving beats and sunken mixed vocals of Ministry liberally combined with Ingvay Malmsteen esq rhythm guitar and you will have the most recent Ewigkeit (German word for Eternity) album "Radio Ixtlan". And let me just say had I not stepped into a rather obscure Chicago bar last night I may never have heard of James Forgarty and his band Ewigkeit. But because a nice fellow named Alex from a nice magazine called MK I will now keep this disk in heavy rotation.

I'm not sure how to talk about this music. I'm not sure what I'm hearing, but it does have elements of The Orb, Ministry, Rammstein, Deep Forest and strangely enough Pink Floyd. I am sure that I have already listened to this disk over 5 times, and I just got the damn thing at about 2AM today.

Ewigkeit does hug some of his influences, but not closely enough to make it a carbon copy record. What I hear are nods to various other influential groups without overt copying. "Lifting" maybe, much like a jazz horn player will offer tribute by mimicking a short lick from another musician's song. And that works just fine.

My final thoughts are that this album is a master work from an individual who knows what he is looking to create. The songs are "out there" enough to be thought provoking, yet each has a hook and groove that make them accessible. I truly believe that anyone out there who's looking for a solid new disk to cut through the inordinate amount of crap on the market should pick this up. You will not be disappointed.

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