The overhyped golden age of Neo-EBM is long gone, presently consisting of a handful of exceptions among a flock of hopelessly outdated projects. Innovation? Negative. Front 242s "Geography" and Nitzer Ebbs "That Total Age" clearly belong to another age - a fact that is widely ignored in spite of the cult surrounding these works.
But salvation is at ...
But salvation is at hand: As was the case with Spetsnaz at the beginning of the new millennium, the dearly needed new impulse for a weakening scene again comes from Sweden. Equipped with power, attitude and character, Mergel Kratzer enter the hard-fought arena - determined to awake the stagnating genre from its slumber. And they are dead serious: Replacing combat boots, camouflage trousers and bald heads with two fistfuls of style, this project is here to stay. To the left and right of music addict and mastermind Joel Nygren, the two alluring damsels Thistel and Julia care for a musical as well as an optical treatment. EBM was never sexier - that's a promise! Bearing in mind three decades of a stomping musical category, the Gothenburg-based three-piece storms through its debut "Isotop" and unleashes a highly addictive energy seldom found in today's scene. Bone-dry beats directly from the EBM manual and the fusion of Joels direct vocals and Thistels seductive orders form the outline of a sound which is fascinatingly armed by the modern weaponry of electronic dance music. No doubt: Mergel Kratzer pay adequate tribute to a classic genre. With smashers like the marching "Prisoner" or "Iso", the legitimate EBM anthem of the new decade, banging through the strobe light-riven fog, one thing becomes crystal clear: This is Neo-EBM in its purest form: Stylish, sizzling, full of cool energy and at any time as irresistible as only Swedish girls can be. "Isotop" comes as a limited double digipak with three sold-out and Sweden-only EP's accompanying the revolutionary debut on a bonus disc, tracing the Swede's development back to 2004. Forget meaty paroles and goose-steps: Mergel Kratzer is the contemporary face of Electronic Body Music. And it is devilishly handsome.
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