Cindergarden- The Clandestine Experiment
My first exposure to goth/ industrial project Cindergarden was via their debut album “Underground Light Machine”, which was sent to me to review when it came out. I never actually got around to reviewing the disc, even though I loved it, and I feel rather bad about that. It just kind of got shuffled into the cd collection I share with my girlfriend (most review cds don’t make it to that collection, for added perspective), and every time we’d put it in I’d think “I really should review this” until damn, it was two fucking years later and Cindergarden had a brand new album out!
That’s not at all a good excuse for me being an indolent bastard, but that’s how it went down. Anyway, enough of my nonsense, let’s talk about the new album!
“The Clandestine Experiment” is the second album from Cindergarden, and it shows the project taking a much more fluid, experimental route this time around, while still maintaining to stay within the previously established goth/ industrial/ dark trip-hop terrain. One of the most obvious differences here is the preference of texture and melody over beats
and bass arpeggios. Also, the tone is less playful and far more sinister.
While you have some more than danceable tunes here ( “Alibi”, “Litmus Red”, “Things that never die”), the emphasis is much more on the swirly Switchblade Symphony-esque chimes and synth pads, and also on Jaymie Valentine’s vocals, which are even more lush and ethereal than on her debut.
Whereas in “Underground Light Machine”, Jaymie appeared to be searching for her own style and voice, “The Clandestine Experiment” shows a more mature and confident artist, resulting in an album that is still diverse yet more cohesive and overall solid. Everything is bigger, badder and way more awesome!
Final Prognosis:
Cindergarden is not another generic VNV Nation or Apoptygma Berzerk clone come to bore you. Rather, “The Clandestine Experiment” is beautiful, ethereal, meticulously thought out cinematic electronic goth music at it’s best.
To put it short, it’s fucking awesome, and I can not do it verbal justice. It’s also currently available to download for free, so what do you have to lose?
http://www.myspace.com/cindergarden
-Royce Icon
(Originally published on Industrial.org, but cross-posted here for extra exposure!)