The dark project
Das Noir from Athens, has returned with its second full length album.
Sole member of this project is Nick Drivas, who experiments using many samples
taken from movies and music. This album "Das Noir II" was
released exactly a year after the self-titled debut. Since then, only the new
track "Cold" (that is also
included here) was featured on our "Stimmen Der Seele vol.5"
compilation.
The album begins with "The Night",
a two-minute track that’s dark and nocturnal with Nick
singing, playing bass and guitar amidst the howling of wolves. "Kind"
that follows is a more emotional piece that is overwhelmed by Bruno Ganz’s recitation from the movie Wings Of Desire. Next is "Existence", another moody track that uses Sam Riley’s
voice from the Ian Curtis/Joy Division movie Control. On "A New Day Of Fear" that follows, we hear a dark track with
Nick providing the vocals but also using television clips from news reports of
the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The next track "Cold" is a
dark post-punk track with a bold rhythm section featuring once again Nick on
vocals and instruments.
Halfway through we have the atmospheric "The Maker Of My Own Evil"
where we hear actor Isabelle Adjani’s troubled voice from the 1981 movie
Possession merged with analogue synths and a Joy Division drum sample. While
on "Day Of Wrath", we hear Richard
Burton’s voice from The War of
the Worlds on top of the music of the famous 13th century Latin Catholic hymn, "Dies
Irae". "Amazing Phenomenon"
that follows, has a more sci-fi feel with dialogue from the 1951 movie The
Day The Earth Stood Still used as vocals on top of a Kraftwerk beat. Next is "Secrets" that is inspired from various vampire movies.
A doom-laden epic track with thumping drums and Gregorian chants. "Treasure"
is a tribute to the Cocteau Twins,
where all the samples are taken from various songs from the bands work and for
vocals the voice of Elizabeth Fraser has been taken from various interviews. The
album closes with "Man Of Sorrow",
another epic track that covers
the last days of the Christian Messiah.
An interesting group of songs in general, that although they contain many
samples (some of which are know from their original source), Das Noir manages
to incorporate them in his arrangements in a unique way creating something
completely new.
Review: Rise&Fall
