MIMETIC MUTE
NEGATIVE
ALBUM PRIKOSNOVENIE RELEASE: SPRING, 2000 REVIEW: JUNE 8, 2000


Under various Mimetic related pseudonyms, Von Magnet drummer Jérôme Soudan concentrates on mating elements of techno, old school industrial, choirs and orchestral music. His latest album "Negative" (with a "Positive" companion released by Moloko) is dominated by an unsettling feeling. Soudan attacks techno from an industrial angle, leading to a use of techno sounds that feels all but conventional. Soft bass lines rush forward underneath a barrage of noisy, screeching rhythms; ethereal choirs find their way through poisoned dance beats. Mimetic Mute also succeeds in using voice samples in a surprisingly fresh manner - a couple of songs have long, desperately sounding passages of speech sampled from movies that skilfully avoids the many cliché traps often involved.
All in all, "Negative" is a fascinating meeting of orchestral beauty and noise, stillness and disorder, techno and an uncompromisingly leftfield attitude. A truly original album.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN