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Band: Gothika
Album title: Yomi
Release date: 22 February 2013
Label: Danse Macabre
Tracklisting:
01. Brocken
02. Miroku
03. Kagome
04. Hong Kong virginity
05. The Gossamer Years
06. Brocken (Covenant RMX)
07. Oxidiser
08. Disabled
09. Babylon
10. Sunrise
11. Oxidiser (Freakangel RMX)
12. Miroku (Encephalon RMX)
13. Brocken (iszoloscope RMX)
14. Miroku (Vigilante RMX)
15. Brocken (DJ Puppeteer RMX)
16. Oxidiser (Studio-X RMX radio edit)
I'm not such a huge fan of electro and EBM sounds, but when a good record comes into my hands I'm not throwing it away. The thing with Japanesa duo Gothika and their last studio album Yomi is certainly not making my love towards those vibes any deeper, contrary. First of all I expected something different under this name and the fact that this band gained quite a lot of popularity in electro/goth/EBM/synthpop circles is really surprising, as their mix of mostly European synthpop/EBM and other electro sounds with some exotic Japanese sounds is nothing enthusiastic, sometimes can even be annoying. Yomi, in English means The Other Side and not some kind of new joghurt from Danone as someone could think. Ok, jokes apart, let's see what this album offers.
Yomi contains nine unique tracks and seven remixes. Most tracks have Japanese lyrics, with some words or stanzas in English, two tracks are completely in English, still the good thing is that all lyrics have its English translation. Now, what about the music? As I said above, Gothika doesn't make anything new, they stick to the well known formula, played and replayed many times (read: programmed and reprogrammed), it's useless to say who are their influences, as there are too many. There are some parts that have some traditional Japanese scent, but are not taken into life or better said are not flourishing as I would expect. Sometimes I've had a feeling that I'm in some kind of video game from 80's or early 90's. Maybe lovers of electro danceable rhytms will forgive all the glitches and will just enjoy those tiny good parts up here. Here and there also lovers of more techno sounds will have their joy and goths too, at some occasions, especially because of acceptable Andros vocals, though they are too one dimensional and some more vocal variations wouldn't hurt. Oversynthesized and oversampled sounds are, for example in "Kagome" just ridiculous, not to mention "Disabled" or fiasco like "Babylon", I rather not say something about remixes, simply NO! Still not everything is that bad. Gothika can offer some really nice 80's inspired pop atmospheric melodies on the opener "Brocken" and "Hong Kong Virginity". Also those beats and melody on "The Gossamer Years" are not to be missed as they could make you dance and even some emotions are implemented in here. Otherwise this is one hell of a mediocre or even bland record, without any special dynamics and almost throughout emotionless. Neither sometimes very dense computerized atmosphere can save the overall impression. It seems that the two guys put much more effort into their looks than on making something worth our listening experience, but it seems that this has become a rule in todays electro/EBM scene.
Records like this will find its audience in some clubs where nobody will care what or who they are listening to, as long as the beats are ok. If you are not a huge fan of the genre then don't bother with this album, because it doesn't offer almost anything and I suggest you to download those two or three acceptable tracks somewhere for free. I've searched for some good things to write about, but nothing else, except what I accentuated before works for me and even that conditionally.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 4,5/10
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