DIVE BEHIND THE SUN ALBUM DAFT RELEASE: NOVEMBER 15, 2004 REVIEW: DECEMBER 1, 2004

This album sees the return of Dirk Ivens and his Dive project. After a lengthy absence the former member of The Klinik returns, in collaboration this time with the Spanish musician Rafael M Espinosa, the man behind the rather successful Geistform (whose album was also coincidentally released on Dirk's own Daft Records fairly recently). So what potentially could be a prosperous collaboration unfortunately turns out to be a little hit-and-miss.
Although the music is actually quite good, (especially the opening of the first track and the effects used in track three), as a collection it rarely goes beyond being, well, OK. Individually there are some tracks worth pulling out: the opener ”Your God” sets a decent mood for the rest of the album, as mentioned before the opening is very cavernous techno, with an amazing ripping sound into the chorus which can’t help but send a shiver up the spine. Also the track ”Behind the Sun” has some amazing sounds, put together in the mix with skillful production throughout from Eric van Wonterghem. All of the tracks come with a sense of electronic menace, shown through a blaze of electronics, squeaks and hisses, shown at its most enhanced on ”Deadman”; which is probably one of the most satisfying tracks musically from this set.
The touted track ”Nobody Else”, featuring the guest appearance from Ms. Poly-Ester (who has also worked alongside such acts as HIV+) is not really notable, and appears to lose direction halfway through, something that could be applied to a few other tracks here. This album has a lot of merits, but doesn’t quite have the ”spark” to make it all click together, but maybe given time, with certain listeners, it might.

MIKE WHYTE