SURRENDER

And I quote: "Do not listen to 'Surrender' while driving a tank."

There are no words.

Another knockout by the maybe-Norwegians behind "Transmission", Metatag have decided to build off of the dark martial wave of "Transmission"'s "Peach Trees" to make a whole album of dour ethereals. They don't stick to the Bauhaus X Laibach formula most of the time, but this is album is distinctly new-wave-meets-dark-wave-meets-TD. It's like a lost artifact drummed up in '83 after listening to "In The Flat Field" and "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts" while on something mind-altering, and left forgotten in some record company's crawlspace after being handily rejected by a few execs who had the bejezzus scared right out of them by it. Yes, Metatag's albums are cassette only. This is as excellent and ethereal as ever for the duo, and here many of you never thought angelic darkness was possible. Highly recommended, a unique electronic document.

I have been giving this Metatag, 2015, "Surrender" many listenings since I aquired it early this year. A 22 short compositions release, has to have something going on for it

Outsider, track one, a dreamy industrial lullaby, glitches included. 3.5.

Lunar Half, track 2, a minimalistic noise experiment, glitches included, close in spirit to concrete music but quiet toothless. 3 flat.

Dying Light Bulb, track 3, could fit to perfection a video of a dying bulb. 3.0.

Flaming, track 4, will satisfy anyones hunger for a crossfire between Brian Eno's iconic, clean cut, melody progression and Conrad Schnitzler raw experimentations. 3.5.

Escape,track 5, a kind of noisy heavy atmosphere church organ melody under the attack of bombs, fun. 3.5.

Area Two, track 6, a close encounter between electronic pulses (Berlin School) and the dark side of electronic noise. 4.0.

Add Rainclouds, track 7, a kind of Eno song with a menacing reverb augmentation. 3.0.

Sidsstation Vacation, track 8, probably the most complex composition up to now, the glitches counterpointing the flute like synth line while on coming and ongoing noisy sweeps build a short and memorable (at last) track. 4.5.

Gliding White, track 9, a gloomy and minimalistic melody line among scattered heavy chords, could fit as an introduction to some other song. 3.5

Plato Streams, track 10,brings again the apocalyptic church organ like construction under attack. I prefer the other similar track, and starting to sense a shortage of musical solutions and a lack of instrumental vocabulary. 3.0

Between,track 11, another very short Enoesque progression. 3.0

Earthling, track 12, founded on a heavy bass like synth chords, counterpointed by a distant and mysterious melody line, another more ambitious effort, but fails to go beyond itself. 3.0

Unrest, track 13, a burial procession like composition, which achieves to perfection this environment, yet its construction is quiet simple (for good) and obviously sounds like an edit. 3.5

N779,track 14, as its name implies, leans toward computer like sequences (glitches included as almost always) and a sweeping sweet and sad melody backdrop. 3.5

Dreamwave, track 15, another counterponting sequences piece, grows nicely and goes beyond itself for a few seconds. 3.0

The Fallen Ones, track 16, an ominous piece which combines simultaneously all the previous elements and builds a very good atmosphere, as a memorable composition. 4.0

The Sky Beneath, track 17, will turn to be the best, up to this point, in the Eno like styling. 3.5

Surrender, track 18, another more ambitous composition, has the kind of prayer like feeling but with an obscure edge and a short but interesting detour. 3.5

Time Capsule, track 19, a nostalgic yet detached composition with some new sonic textures and a gloomy atmospheres. 3.5

Red Eye Remover, track 20, another electronic prayer like composition adds up points by its good and minimalistic melody line. 4.0

Decemberland, track 21, plays again the sweet and sad nostalgic trick. At this point quiet unimpressive. 3.0

The Endless City, track 22, brings, at last, a different kind of electro/acoustic sounds although the nostalgic spirit lingers on, on its songwriting. 4.0

Too many 3s, few 4s, no 5s.

As their previous, 2014, "Transmission", there is the same kind of experimental briefness, which sound like the highlights (in proportion to itself, of course, do not let me be misunderstood) of longer performances. Like edits or scissored parts. Composition wise I could hardly find any kind of improvement or big difference in comparison to the same.

I know myself, I will forget this release as easily as nothing, in favor of 100s of better ones.

3.5 "Good" PA stars.

Norwegian project METATAG consists of two composers who prefer to stay anonymous. They first appeared in 2014 with their debut album "Transmission", and one year later they reappeared with their second studio recording "Surrender". Like with their initial production it was released on cassette by the US label Hel Audio.

Dark ambient electronic music with dystopian futuristic landscapes as a specialty is what Metatag provides us with on "Surrender". Some excursions into more of a classic electronic universe appear here and there, adding a bit of variety to the proceedings, but by and large this is a production that will have its main appeal among those fond of the darker aspects of ambient electronic music.