Good news for all EBM fans: a compilation of French band Psychosomatik was released a few months ago. The duo formed by Michael Roussel and Frederic Lecieux started their career in September 2000, but it wasn’t until 2003 that they released their first album, entitled Psychopath? One of the tracks of that record appeared in the compilation Electronic Manifesto, as part of HIV+’s selection. Their second album was released in 2014, this time with the name of State Of Oppression. Now they are back and last year they released a coupe of EPs with new material that mostly you can also find in this compilation. And this year they have released a couple of EPs full of remixes, the first one done entirely by 11 Grams and the other one with ten remixes of “Damage Done” realized by artists such as KALT (we will talk about him soon), Novakill o Diverje.
As influences, the band has named FLA, Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, SA42, Ministry and Mentallo & The Fixer. But let’s focus on the album. Re/In/Trospective starts with two new powerful and aggressive track: “Damage” and “Carnal Pleasure.” Next it’s an edit by SPANKTHENUN of “The Madman,” one of the tracks from their second album: State Of Oppression. From this work, the compilation includes three tracks: all great material that will make you go and buy the original record. The new material of the compilation includes three unreleased songs, of which, the best I would say that it’s this new version of “Release Me,” quite different from the original found in Psychopath? and featuring the voice of OBE. The album comes to an end with four remixes: the first one by Signal Aout 42, one of our favorite bands of the genre (and outside too), another by Destillat, a third one by Blut Reaktor and the final by Shane Aungst. All four are interesting and offer a different vision of the originals, basically what we look for in remixes. A quite interesting compilation for anyone who is interested in Electronic Body Music.
