NX1 – SL1 [Soil Records]

We expand the information about the fifth anniversary of Soil Records by dedicating a new post to the quintuple album released by the Valencian label to commemorate its five years of history. As we already mentioned, this album is divided into five CDs of ten tracks, so in the second post we analyse and get to know the content of the second CD.

With a more electronic and more powerful sound, this second CD is a compilation that moves away from the more post-punk aspects of the first CD. Zaatar opens with Disappearance Attempts, a slow, acid and forceful EBM in which we can appreciate influences from the dark sound and also from the artist’s Arabic roots, as the melodic conjugation is based on the harmonic minor scale. Local Suicide is the duo formed by Max Brudi and Dina Pascal, a couple that has evolved in recent years towards a darker style, although Athanasia is not an excessively dark track, but rather an absolutely synthetic sonic development. Soil Records presents Anne Artikel, a Colombian artist also known as Magdalena, who exhibits with 000004 an abstract musical form with an irregular rhythmic structure, a dominant bass line and a broken voice. Attack, the cut by Israeli producer E-Bony, draws on post-punk influences and adapts them to a contemporary, electronic sound environment. Variety is the predominant tone of this release, and Sex Kino, a duo formed by James Brook and Josefine Larsson, offers a rather curious sound mix as Shake It reminds us of 90s Eurodance, among other musical genres.

Paradox Obscur, the artistic couple formed by Toxic Razor and Kriistal Ann, contribute to this album with Sin Barreras, arpeggiated techno in which Kriistal adds a reflective message with her voice. Landed Image is a completely unknown project, the style he employs with Two Sides of Everything is a hodgepodge of industrial textures, electric guitar and sinister vocals, taken to the limit of saturation. Catalan artist and resident of Barcelona’s Moog, Ruben Seoane, participates in this album with the forceful and intense techno of Hoags Object. The Spanish duo NX1, founded at the beginning of the last decade by Samot and Joan Sureda, adds solidity and power with SL1, a track that faithfully shows the industrial style of the project. Dark Vektor, a producer who also hails from Catalonia, closes this second CD with El puto Menja Olles, electronic post-punk with a penetrating voice and a message in Catalan that is quite original and direct.

Release date: July 4th, 2023.