Sweden’s Cryo do EBM better than most. Martin Rudefelt extracts sounds from his old school synth collection that are distinctive and deliberate, while creating evocative atmospheres.
It’s a trick that not many current artists are able to pull off – never mind with the same style. The duo’s treatment for jaded ears continues with “Sanitarium,” out now from Progress Productions.
It has been twelve years since the first Cryo album, and in that time there have only been four full albums and a smattering of singles. They have been carefully measured doses, delivered with remixes to enhance their effects. Rudefelt’s intelligent and libertarian lyrics haven’t diminished the danceability of their heavily rhythmic sequencing and percussion by even one drop.
“Sanitarium” opens with a sample from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “Medication time” might seem like more of a promise than a challenge to some listeners; but, in the doped up, soporific world we live in, it’s not always good news. Certainly, that is the theme of the vocal lines, intoned with the bedside manner of a doctor of philosophy.
There are eight remixes on the single. The stand-out effort is from Neuroticfish, who trancify the track; giving it more kick than a bottle of Pervitin. No one will do the thorazine shuffle to the Skylog version, either, but we think that the best way to take this medicine is straight: the original track is sensitively mastered and emphatic.