seven

with daniel myer as the only member of the band, it has changed its name to cleaner instead of cleen; and this is not the most radical change - "solaris" (named after stanislav lem's sci-fi classic) comes a lot closer to ebm than cleen ever did before. also one of the most obvious changes is the vocals that is clean and unaltered with some effects over it.

there is something about the atmosphere of this album that is immediately appealing and captivating; the change from abstract purity of cleen to more emotional sound is what makes this album so addicting. the sci-fi themes go through the whole record, song titles like "gattaca", "solaris", "neuromancer", "1984" hint subject matters that deal with society-technology interaction.

definite industrial touch is obvious on opening "gattaca (schizo)" and following "l.s.d. eyes" together with "anti-arctic (hard vox version)" - pulsing dancy percussion layers mixed with melancholic synthlines and lightly altered vocals. beautiful "gattaca (reprise)" flows gently with delicate piano passages and carefully placed strings - dark enigmatic tale slowly unfolding, leading the way into the world of mixed organic and technoid sounds.

with his distinctive touch and never-ceasing creativity daniel myer manages to find another niche in the electronic genre not yet occupied by his multiple music projects. it would be quite possible to place "solaris" somewhere between pre-"matrix" haujobb and early cleen; those who liked "less" by haujobb will certainly enjoy vanessa's contribution on "harey"; additional treats are mixes by and one and beborn beton.

attentive listener would be able to detect elements hinting some of the early industrial roots of haujobb as well as previous elegant minimalism of cleen, and the ones new to this project would enjoy seemingly simple and raw yet strangely addictive and irresistible sound.