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                              SILENT WATERS
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You maybe remember my  article in the last UCM about the  latest singles of that
german  future-trance-electro-synth-pop-band  and  short  after the  release  of
UCM # 22 they really matched to appear with new material again... but...

Even if I had ordered their newsletter I got that  information now in September,
while the original  release of the new single was in May... arg. But I woke up a
few days  before  since  Silent Waters were  the first time  since long  back on
stage, this time as support for Apoptygma Berzerk and Mesh at the "Nightstars On
Air" festival here  in our surroundings, unfortunately I didn't matched it to be
there. I didn't  wanted to go because  of Silent Waters alone, but it would have
been a possibility to  check what happened to this project I saw 3 years back as
support for Alphaville... and at that time I liked the  stuff they brought to my
ears, it was some kind of heavenly voices synth pop...

Anyway, the (very short) newsletter (bad promotion btw...) announced a new album
and so I surfed to their page... since my last visit they released two tracks on
samplers, one  against nazis  and one independent mixer. Afterall  they released
the  new  single "Rain" in 2  versions, one  as normal  single and  one as remix
single, and last  but not least  another album popped on the discography, called
"Timeline".

At first I  was quite interested  in the fact that they now have a second singer
in the lineup and  then since the last single "Insignificant" wasn't the burner,
how they have developped their style now...

Ok, let's check up the new  releases. As always the band  offers the possibility
to leech all tracks of their releases in real audio files, but, ofcourse to make
the listeners buy  the full albums and  singles, only in  mediocre quality. So I
did, since it is good enough to get an impression of their music...

"Rain" - single

1. Rain
2. Rain - replugged version
3. Rain - extended remix

What to say? It surely is  future-trance-pop but  they're leaving  more and more
their synth-pop  origin. The song isn't  as faceless as their former single, but
after  all  it falls  back again  behind their  first  releases  and I  have the
impression that they had  already passed  their zenith with the release of their
"World'99" single.

The normal  version is a quite  mediocre future  pop thing, the only  thing that
brightens up the whole scenery is the voice  of the origin  singer jana, that is
very warm and soft, but  the voice  of their second, claudia, clearly  falls far
back behind... and after all  the quite boring basslines and melody are breaking
the neck of this song at all and makes their sound, as their former single, very
insignificant, as their last single was named... ironic, isn't it?
The replugged  version doesn't  offers a  better  view, even  if they left their
electronic roots with a complete unplugged equipment, just a guitar, here.
At last the extended version is just a boring  stretch of the first one, it does
not offer any new view onto the song and  to strech an already quite boring song
isn't a way to make it sound better :(

So this single is really only a thing for people that await lower pop standards.

"Rain - I want the sun to shine again" - remix single

1. Rain
2. Rain - replugged version
3. Rain - Submissions' sunshine remix
4. Rain - Daniel Pele's sunshine remix
5. Rain - extended remix
6. Rain - Submissions' spherical remix

Ugh... I have to  say it first, I'm not a big fan of remix singles, esp. if they
don't contain any bonus  materials, except the versions  of the original single,
3 more mixes appearing here and what can I say, they don't brighten up the whole
thing, no, they're  dragging it  more  into  unimportance. They're  turning  the
already quite weak song  into some real  faceless dancefloor stuff, esp. the 4th
track is just, errr... shit.
If they're  going to  work further  this way  they  surely will  loose some more
ground  in the  future and  will never  leave the  corner they  have  catapulted
themselves into with those last releases...

After all I wonder why there  is a normal single version and I have to say that,
-if- I would buy this single I would take the remix single alone since it brings
all versions on one CD...

"Timeline" - album

At last the "new" album, but after you runned down the  tracklist and you red my
articles in former UCM's carefully, you will  see that it is nothing more than a
remix album of their best  songs and  singles, they've just  putted them into an
updated sound dress  and bringing all songs with  their current singers jana and
claudia  onto CD, since  you maybe  remember  that  the  first  two  albums were
recorded with several singers and even Jana joined the band after the release of
the second longplayer...

 1. I Believe
 2. Over              (original from 1998 album "Out Of Light")
 3. Absolutely Yeah   (original from 1997 album "Different Shapes Of Light")
 4. Insignificant     (original from 2oo1 single)
 5. World             (original from 1998 album "Out Of Light")
 6. Heaven Help       (original from 1998 album "Out Of Light")
 7. Rain              (original from 2oo2 single)
 8. Utopia Blue       (original from 1997 album "Different Shapes Of Light")
 9. Compromise        (original from 2ooo single)
1o. Out Of Light      (original from 1998 album "Out Of Light")

Ok... so what? Since  the some of  their older  songs are  quite  good it surely
isn't wrong to make a little update of them, now all  songs featuring  the voice
of front woman  Jana, and the most  are two-voiced recorded with Claudia, but as
written above, I don't like her voice  that much and so a  few songs are loosing
something I cannot describe. But  since they're  their biggest "hits" so far the
album brings  a quite ok range of future pop songs  that sometimes showing still
their synthpop origin... but how long?

With "I Believe" a new song  is included as  well but the  fact that "World" and
"Utopia Blue" were already  released  in reworked  versions a  few years ago and
also the fact  that it is quite strange that a band, that released only two full
lenght albums over  5 years and except  some singles  and sampler tracks nothing
bigger over the  last 4 years, seems to  show that Silent Waters  have reached a
point where the creativity dies.

Not only  that they're  leaving  more and more  their synth pop  origin into the
totally overflooded future-trance-pop area and they will loose some of their old
fans (and since the band isn't that well  known there  surely aren't that much),
no also the band could break on the missing new material.

I don't think that it is the best to try to swim in the big market of future pop
with such insignificant songs as their latest releases, surely they willfind the
one or other  lover, but I think  they had better chances to beware their origin
and own style if they had stood on their roots.

The music  they're making  now is too  exchangeable to be  remarkable and if you
follow the todays  pop scene you will see that the ones that are played in heavy
rotation today will be lost completely tomorrow and no one will remember them in
a half year  and I doubt  that this is  the way a musician will go if he doesn't
only cares about the money and as  Silent Waters  have showed in the last years,
they have more in mind except only  money since they always tried and matched it
to survive, it doesn't matter what crisis popped up...

After all  they announced  another longplayer? Hopefully with -new- and over all
more -remarkable- material! If  not I think it  will be just  a question of time
untill they will be vanished from the screen completely.

discography

1997 - album  "Different Shapes Of Light"
1998 - album  "Out Of Light"
1999 - single "World'99" (remixes of "World" & "Heaven Help" from the 2nd album)
2ooo - track on sampler "High Energy 4" ("Heaven Help" remix)
2ooo - single "Utopia Blue 3ooo" (remixes of "Utopia Blue" from the 1st album)
2ooo - single "Compromise"
2oo1 - single "Insignificant"
2oo1 - track on sampler "Isysounds 3" ("Insignificant")
2oo2 - track on sampler "Teger gegen Rechts" ("Compromise")
2oo2 - single "Rain"
2oo2 - single "Rain - I want the sun to shine again" (remixes of "Rain")
2oo2 - album  "Timeline" (best off/single collection remix album)

homepage: http://www.silent-waters.com

On the homepage you  can find  informations, mailorder, pictures and forthcoming
gigs of the band.

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