Adrenochrome

The new XP8 album is concept, built around a short novel written by Marko at the end of the 90’s and re-edited this year. Each chapter coincides with tracks on the album. 

 

I personally had some trouble getting in synch between the two formats. On one hand the music of XP8 is EBM, very clubbish, with the usual trademark dark themes of this particular electronic genre. 

 

In the first chapter of the novel we’re introduced to one character who has been badly beaten and left for dead in an alleyway. Description is poetic as the character first tries to figure out how he got there and secondly why he’s still alive as he unbalances the upside down world he’s found himself in, figuratively speaking. 

 

The coinciding track on the album, Awakenings, is literally in tune with the chapter as vocals reflect a similar tone to the character waking up battered and bruised. Unfortunately the tempo of the song fails to reflect the groggy state of being our character finds themselves in. As usual the music is club oriented, fast paced, and hectic in comparison with the real world feel of the novel. 

 

The entirety of the album is pretty bound by the comfort zone of the band and their loyalty to the genre. It doesn’t always make sense as the story unfolds, but as you dig deeper into the events of the novel you start to find the story dipping into a more science fiction based reality where the music starts to make more sense. 

 

Does it ever fully grasp the concept of atmosphere? Only when the novel becomes as fast paced as the music. Still, the album is a great example of the new era where people can fund people to allow them to create such concepts that would otherwise find themselves at the mercy of record labels, sacrificing their hard work for some talent-less suits marketing schemes. 

 

As an industrial album it has it’s charms. Themes are what they are, as a fit in for the genre. As a concept album balancing out as a soundtrack for a novel? This is quite possibly an “eye of the beholder” instances where you’re either going to find a way to make it work or you’re such a ciniphile you can’t break the concept of soundtracks being a mood enhancer and the album simply being to one level to effectively work alongside the novel.