UCM22
.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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SILENT WATERS - LATEST SINGLES
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Record Label .......... whiterock records
Homepage .............. http://www.silentwaters.de
Silent Waters are ..... michael thurm - programming, lyrics
jana enke - voices
claudia busch - voices
Discography: 1997 - "Different Shapes Of Light" album
1998 - "Out Of Light" album
1999 - "World'99" maxi single
2ooo - "Utopia Blue 3ooo" single
2ooo - "Compromise" single
2oo1 - "Ignificant" single
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Who are SILENT WATERS? Good question, indeed! This electro/synth pop project
from Eastern Germany appeared somewhen in 1995 but never matched it so far to
step into a brighter light and since the band had to fight for its survive all
the years of its existence, it is to understand that they're still sticking in
the underground, even after 7 years of existence.
Right after the first album was released, two of the former band members around
Michael Thurm decided to leave him alone. The second album was released by him
alone with guest singers only and only since Jana Enke joined as new singer in
1998 the band was able to play some live gigs and to promote their synth pop.
Without any doubt they reached their biggest audience as support for the old
german eighties pop heroes ALPHAVILLE on their last tour in 1999.
Lately the band got a 2nd singer but unfortunately since their last longplayer
not much new material saw the light of day... I will check out what was released
over the past two years... 3 singles to be precise...
UTOPIA BLUE 3ooo - released in 2ooo
"Utopia Blue 3ooo" is a refreshed version of an older song, originally written
for their debut album back in 1997. Why a refreshed version? If you have red my
forewords you can imagine why. Both longplayers were released before the band
got a real front singer with Jana Enke. And since Jana gave the band a very
promising voice they started to re-release their biggest hits with their voice
again, and if you would know the original versions you would imagine why!
UTOPIA BLUE is one of their older "hits" and I remember their support gig for
ALPHAVILLE here... At this concert they had played the original version, but
with Jana's great voice... And I have to admit that this was one of the songs
that attracted me most and was a reason for me to find out more about the band
SILENT WATERS.
This single contains 3 versions of the song...
Original Version - 4:3o
Classic Version - 4:48
Flooral Version - 6:22
Without any doubt the original version rocks the whole single. It's a light and
dreaming romantic pop song or even better a ballad, ofcourse living from the
singers voice most but also the arrangements are nice, always stepping back
behind the voice...
The Classical version is styled with a lot of piano and orchestra playing but
didn't matches it to leave the same impression as the original version.
Last but not least the dumb flooral mix matched it to destroy the slight magical
spheres around the song at all and comes along as strange mixed disco stomper
that's only highs are the very strange sound collages. But after all they don't
save the song from the dull remix idea... bleurgh!
COMPROMISE - released 2ooo
This single is an very uncommon one for the works of SILENT WATERS so far since
the artwork of the CD is a bit strange, showing a colt accompanied by the words
"make a compromise and you'll survive".. a strange view on the things, isn't it?
Also the style of the music isn't very common with the former work so far and
has it's biggest backflash with the voice of the singer.
Also this single features 3 versions of the song...
Radio Version - 3:58
Classic Version - 5:13
Flooral Version - 6:29
The radio version is a quite ok pop song at all, a bit strange arranged but nice
to hear and it matches to stay in the ears for a while.
The classical version starts with very spheric soundscapes, piano and violin
play and brings the clear voice of jana best to your ears and makes this to the
best version of all three and matched it even to change the feeling while
hearing this song from the poppy radio edit to a very soft one that features
even some light depressing moments... while the flooral version tries to make a
dancefloor stomper out of the song, but only to mix up the song with harder and
faster beats and to stretch it a bit doesn't makes it at all...
So this mix reminds me hard to some dumb disco pop stuff... sorry to say...
INSIGNIFICANT - released 2oo1
Interesting to know in my eyes is the fact that this song started under the
label "JaneMichaels" at a band competition on the german radio station "Sputnik"
and was later revealed as SILENT WATERS production and they decided finally to
release it as single. As known for their singles, this one features 3 versions
as well...
Radio Edit - 3:29
Classic Version - 3:52
Dance Version - 6:15
This is a very common synth pop song with a slight melody and unfortunately
mostly very usual sound collages for that kind of music. If you would put a
bunch of songs of the current second row of femal voices synth pop bands and mix
this one into them, you wouldn't hear too much differences. The radio edit isn't
very impressive and only the voice of the singer gives it some life...
The dance version isn't of my taste as well and is going to make a bigger step
away from their older releases as well, unfortunately in the wrong direction to
disco techno pop...
Only the clear voiced classic version matched it with its heavy use of piano
sounds, to be more interesting, but it can't save the song from it's fully
mediocre style at all.
Unfortunately this single shows the deepest creativity point of the band atm...
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So what's left to say... the small output leaves the impression to me that the
band lacks a bit of inspiration, esp. when you check out all the remixes of the
normally quite good songs that offer ANYTIME some very shitty one that makes you
sick. I know, other bands do it as well, but since they matched it only to
release 2 (!) new songs since their last longplayer 4 years ago, I have to
wonder a lot, if they're really working on new stuff at all or if the project is
dying slowly?
Back at the time as I saw their support gig for Alphaville I thought "Wow, how
does it come that I never heard of them so far?" and I thought that they will
have a great future... but now I wonder a lot, are they really stepped over
their zenith already?
Hope the rumours on their homepage are real and that they're working on a new
longplayer since only with singles they cannot survive very long and will kill
their few steps out of the dark...
.tSCc. moondog . o3/2k2
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