Ferrochrome – Medusa Water

Ferrochrome - Medusa Water, Cover Artwork

Album facts

Release: August 4th, 2017
Label: Meshwork Music
Genre: , ,
Discogs: Ferrochrome – Medusa Water

Electronic tentacles of musical history

'Ferrochrome' is a new pro­ject by Dirk Krause (Armageddon Dildos, Dkdent and Retro Adapter) from Düsseldorf, Germany and Aidan Casserly (Empire State Human, KuBO) from Dublin, Ireland. Together they released their debut 'Medusa Water' via the label Meshwork Music.

Both musi­cians are real pro­fes­sion­als and have been provid­ing the black scene with catchy, elec­tron­ic music for dec­ades. In this review we will check if the cooper­a­tion on 'Medusa Water' was suc­cess­ful and how the res­ult sounds.

From another world

'The City' begins super elec­tron­ic­ally. Here the boys get the most out of the syn­thes­izers. I'm dir­ectly cap­tured by this incred­ibly power­ful Synthpop track, remin­is­cent of 'Duran Duran' in the chor­us. It's very catchy and sounds ultra mod­ern. The song is an excel­lent choice to start the album.

Powerful and full of energy, 'One Million Cries' begins. The dance­able up-tempo track has everything a single needs – espe­cially radio-friendly. Just the lyr­ic line 'One mil­lion cries to smash the skies' sounds a little bit chessy. However, I love how 'Ferrochrome' has man­aged to pack a very ser­i­ous text into a sum­mer hit. A gor­gious per­form­ance!

From an ordinary world

The third num­ber 'Where Are You?' could be a song from the 'Wedding Album' of 'Duran Duran'. The track is def­in­itely on its own! I would like to emphas­ize that the new com­par­is­on with 'Duran Duran' is to be under­stood as a com­pli­ment to 'Ferrochrome'. Sonically the song is a kind of mel­an­chol­ic pussy­foot, with a prop­er por­tion of deep emo­tions. The end is extremely unusu­al as it abruptly aborts with a glitch effect.

'Under The Tongue' has an impress­ive beat: Slow but pulsat­ing intense. Most samples are more remin­is­cent of Minimal Electro, but 'Ferrochrome' shows how to trans­form them cre­at­ively into a highly emo­tion­al Synth Pop track.

Switch the topic

Acoustically tem­pera­ment­al and much more fast-paced is the fifth work on 'Medusa Water'. Analogue to the title 'Fighters In A Cage', this song also phon­et­ic­ally fought with all elec­tron­ic means avail­able. Practically a bat­tle­field of samples and syn­thet­ic sounds. The thing is def­in­itely ready to fill the dance floors. And from my side, a tip for listening.

The 'WTF?' moment

I have a single point of cri­ti­cism. The title song 'Medusa Water' has irrit­ated me ton­ally. As much as I like vari­ety on an album, this also has its lim­its. What awaits you at the title track? Imagine your­self on pluck­ing acous­tic gui­tars, a kind of 'Aloha-Hawaii' swing sound and the ambi­ence of a 'beau­ti­ful ideal world' soap opera. Either pure sar­casm or just 'WTF?'. Tell me your opin­ion in the com­ments section.

Kind of 70s SciFi atmosphere

From the depths of a cave, it echoes arti­fi­cial drops. This is the pre­lude to the play 'The Fuse'. However, a Spanish-sound­ing acous­tic gui­tar brings warmth to the scenery. Subsequently the song slowly fills itself with fur­ther extra­ter­restri­al sounds. This song moves com­fort­ably through moody lyr­ic­al worlds, heav­enly strings and a mys­tic­al aura.

The last chapter

With Kraftwerk-esque min­im­al­ist­ic tones and melod­ies takes 'Shoot The Freak' us onto a an hyp­not­iz­ing ride. The soft vocals are almost thera­peut­ic and leave a pleas­ant, relaxed feel­ing. 'Ferrochrome' proves once again on 'Medusa Water' how var­ied and cre­at­ive an album can sound.

'Welcome The Night' is anoth­er ori­gin­al and ima­gin­at­ive vari­ation of the sound of the two elec­tric guys. The song is a mid-tempo Synth Pop track with a ton­ally gloomy atmo­sphere. The sound here is indus­tri­ally cold, but also has enough impulse to insist on the dance floor.

Verdict: "Release the kraken! …

… or at least the jelly­fish!". Fascinating on the debut of 'Ferrochrome' is the music­al vari­ety. This is cre­at­ively imple­men­ted without dis­tort­ing the still very young but still own style. In this case we also can argue that the two exper­i­enced Electro Heads know exactly what they are doing.

The album 'Medusa Water' is a breath­tak­ing elec­tron­ic jour­ney, without drown­ing in the depths of com­plex­ity. The many catchy melod­ies echo and have enough sub­stance to last for years. Despite one ton­al blame (In terms of the title track), we can only highly recom­mend 'Medusa Water'.

On our own behalf

'Ferrochrome' also appeared on the Electrozombies com­pil­a­tion 'Prism (A Tribute To Pet Shop Boys)' per­form­ing an awe­some ver­sion of 'Psychological'. This trib­ute is still avail­able on all major digit­al stores and stream­ing services.

Find out more details about this release here: Prism (A Tribute To Pet Shop Boys).

Track By Track Rating

ferrochrome Medusa Water
Ferrochrome – Medusa Water
The City
One Million Cries
Where Are You?
Under The Tongue
Fighters In A Cage
Medusa Water
The Fuse
Shoot The Freak
Welcome The Night
Brings Me Weeping
Recommend
The City
One Million Cries
Fighters In A Cage
Weak
Medusa Water
3.8
Splendid

Watch now the 'Medusa Water' album preview:

Most popular posts of the last 30 days

Founder
  1. Only came across this review today. I was one half of this band (sing­er, co-writer) so it pleased me greatly to see such a pos­it­ive response. Thank you again and greet­ings from Dublin, Ireland! – Aidan Casserly

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The City
One Million Cries
Where Are You?
Under The Tongue
Fighters In A Cage
Medusa Water
The Fuse
Shoot The Freak
Welcome The Night
Brings Me Weeping
Final Score