FIGHT THE SAUCERMEN
(Pat Hawkes-Reed, Legends Magazine)
Once upon a time, there was a cybergoth band in the UK. They were called Sneaky Bat Machine and they delighted many goths/cybers with their weird bleepy/spooky songs and their charming stage presence. Songs like Trick or Treat, Boneshaker and Release the Bats had their followers dancing up a storm. But, as things evolve in the world, they had a bit of a shake-up and they became Goteki. Their sound became even more "bleepy" or techo/industrial, and goths still like them. Goteki are: Sneaky, Dr. A and Crash...303 and a whole bunch of synths, keyboards and samples.
Fight the Saucermen is their first full release as part of the Wasp Factory stable, and a mighty fine release it is. The opening track, Futurist/Martian Antivocal Mix, is full out joy...a bit like a techno two-step but not the least bit country. Fight the Saucermen is a bit like SBM...maybe it's just Sneaky's voice...but it's bouncy and fun. Kenjutsu Ballet is an instrumental with a Japanese feel. One can see "gothic lolitas" swooping on a dancefloor to this.
We Can Rebuild You is a kindred spirit to S.P.O.C.K.'s latest album...which I adore...so it makes me want to dance around! Signal Zero is another instrumental, but very industrial. I can see this as a soundtrack to an instructional film with conveyor belts and pile-driven pistons filling the screen.
We Can Rebuild You/$6,000,000 Mix takes that S.P.O.C.K. sound and turns it up a good notch with harder beats. Fight the Saucermen/Graybashing Remix is close to the original but adds a throbbing bassline to the melody. Fight the Saucermen/Nikijon Fetchi Remix takes the original and twists it into a gabba drum and bass free-for-all. If you have never heard this style of music, it's almost pointless to explain it-it makes for the most interesting frenzy on a dancefloor! Extension is another instrumental, but very haunting and dreamy.
I highly recommend this CD, and I am someone who tends to not be very cyber at all. Good music is good music, no matter the packaging.
GOTEKI O/S
(LyNx, Gothic.gr)
Goteki is like the Japanese parody of the all-boy bands that haunt the charts so often. Their image is semi-futuristic blending, for instance, manga cartoons with Commodore 64 graphics in the artwork. Goteki’s music is characterized by the semi fusion of contemporary and old elements. Modern beats go together with minimal 80’s synth sounds. Due to these old fashioned sounds and the typical vocal parts, the comparison with Soft Cell and Fad Gadget spring to mind, while the modern influences are at times reminiscent of a band like Terminal Choice.
Although the repertoire of Goteki is diverse and brings together styles like synthpop, electro and cyber(gothic) their own style makes sure they have a cohesive sound. A song like 'Autoloader' is typical for the Goteki sound, a minimal dancetrack with modern beats but which also makes use of sounds from a distant past. A bit more modern are 'Steam Virus' and 'Piranha Advancement', both could do well on the cybergothic dancefloor. Nice is the surprising and weird synthpop song 'Geisha Deconstruct'.
The best song is 'Ninjagrrl', a dark drum ‘n bass track that slowly evolves into electro including a vocoder. With this song Goteki proves not to be the next electroclash/retro-synthpop act but to be able to really do something else. If Gotek is able to write more tunes in the vein of Geisha Deconstruct and especially Ninjagrrl they could well become a force to be reckoned with in the future.
*****
(Gillian Nash, Logo)
Hailed as “the only Japanese boyband to consist entirely of Caucasians from the West Country”, Goteki are exactly that – well, as long the boybands you have in mind are The Mad Capsule Markets and Xinlisupreme. Equal parts futureshock technobop (a la Cyclefly) and motorik clinicism (no prizes for guessing Kraftwerk), Goteki have the honour of providing the soundtrack for hotly-tipped console game ‘Timesplitters’, a job for which they are perfectly equipped. Bowel-loosening basslines and shrooming melodies combine with icy, androgynous vocals to transport the listener into the alternate realities of The Matrix, eXistenZ and Blade Runner. Though the familial line encompasses Electroclash, J-Pop and Digital Hardcore, Goteki aren’t so much siblings as the oddly behaved second cousin that no-one talks about, but everyone wants to meet. If Gary Numan had been captured by The Borg and assimilated with Alec Empire this, we suspect, would be the result.
(Paul Tangaroa, Raw Nerve)
Okay, just looking through the art and titles and general Goteki world, I expect things to be pretty odd, but it's all definite intriguing!
Even within the first few moments, when the oriental female voice enchants, and the odd crunchy groove of "Moshi Moshi" takes over for a minute, things are very surreal, but this is definitely a fine intro, before the nicely produced, very fine sounds of "Autoloader", with it's good techno beats, bass and sounds, and excellent dark but uplifting moods. Definitely something for those cyber goths out there.
"Piranha Advancement" has truly awesome keyboard sounds at the beginning, I can only imagine how good this would sound in a massive club with a huge sound system to boot and all the lights going mad as well. Upbeat, but not manic at all, with a nice chilled out feel as well, due to the really sweet Jean-Michel Jarre style synth chords floating around the place.
On the press release that accompanies the CD, there is a mention of Mark Almond, and there is definitely a very Soft Cell upated feel to proceedings. A more technologically advance and lush sounding version, with songs that are potential club classics in the same way that The Cell had. Possibly the 3rd track could be one that has the possibilities.
I love the sound of "Nihon", imagine the ambient side of Aphex Twin or maybe Autechre approached in a slightly more Oriental way, and with the beautiful sounds and constructions of "geisha deconstruct", this album is most definitely something that little bit different, but also full of great ideas, feel good moments, and is so well put together it almost hurts!
"Ninjagrrrl" has a great drum n bass style hook, amazing bass sounds, and great drum patterns. I am not usually into this sort of music when it has vocals as well, and I personally would prefer it if it didn't have the vocals, but they certainly don't detriment as they are done very well.
This is my favourite track of the album, although there are definitely some fine challengers as we go along, "Steam Virus" has some very odd and dark moments, whilst remaining absolutely catchy as hell also, and the curiously titled "Do not listen to Gotkei" has some stunningly quirky keyboard "riffs" and when the song finally kicks in after the voice sample, its one of those "Oh my God, how nice does that sound?!" times.
These guys are awesomely cool. Full of energy, great noises and note sequences, some cool vocal patterns and just generally everything is so marvellously put together I just can't help but to smile like a fool!!
This is for techno heads, cyber goths, electronica freaks. I think what we have hear is one of the best synth albums written in a long time.
GOTEKI O/S: CORRUPTED FILES
(Editeur, Neversun) Corrupted Files...actually enhanced files. Goteki guys asked some friends/musicians for remixes, and when I'm talking about musicians, I mean names like Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Icon of Coil, Echo Image, Chaos Engine, Deathboy and more. Friends that every industrial freak would like to have.
Anyway, let's see what came out. It is obvious that nothing we could be apathetic about - right the opposite. A compilation of Goteki remixes that will burn the dancefloors of many EBM/industrial/electro parties, as well as the ones who want to energize the ambience with this almost 80 minutes lenght CD.
Do listen to Goteki.
(Katz, Kaleidoscope) I always liked Sneaky Bat Machine and was sad when they morphed into a new band. Then I liked the Goteki debut stuff.... Now they've released an album of remixes by the likes of Echo Image, Seize, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Icon of Coil to name but a few - and I like this too! With all the different ideas going in, it's quite a diverse album with elements of Soft Cell, Visage and Nekromantik mixed into the 21st century mischief of Sneaky's sleazy twisted little playground. The little bugger even shows he can hold a tune at times! Very catchy poppy songs that will have dancefloors busy and bring smiles to your shiny happy faces. Excellent.
(Fredrik Horstrom, Moving Hands) I haven’t heard Goteki before, and I won’t judge the band based on this remix album. From what I gather they are a true futurepop act since they in the year 2000 changed their name from Sneaky Bat Machine. I don’t know whether it is a good thing that I haven’t heard Goteki before or not, on one hand I won’t get any of my favourite songs mangled by a remixer, on the other I have no idea how the sound has changed from the original track. But since I don’t have a choice, let’s get on with it.
irst off is an Echo Image remix of “Phuturist” which I really enjoy listening to, straight up danceable electronics with a somewhat laidback attitude that appeals to me. Goteki themselves have done another version of that track, which is more like something Codec & Flexor would have done. Enjoyable as well, just not as good as the Stoormtrooper mix by Echo Image.
Another impressive track is the Sigue Sigue Sputnik remix of “We Go Chrome” which has a nice 80’s feel, reminding me of The Human League. Really, really nice.
Not a single bad track as far as I can see, even if a couple of the tracks are a bit bland, combined with a great variety in styles and great production and musicianship I find this a very good remix album. Have to mention one more song, the Deathboy remix of “Do Not Listen To Goteki” is a wonderful repetitive C64 sounding song I’d like to hear on the dancefloor.
(Cheryl Rossi, !*@#)
Fourteen driving electro-goth tracks comprise this remix album, which includes interpretations of Goteki's compositions by Echo Image, Deathboy and Goteki themselves. An Ibiza-esque rendition of "Phuturist" is obviously intended to get the party started, and thankfully the tracks that follow never go as frivolously high. The Icon of Coil's mix of "Piranha Advancement" is pumping and Sigue Sigue Sputnik's version of "We Go Chrome" harkens back to their '80's heyday and is easily the best track on the album. A lovely horn section graces Carol Master's reworking of the too long and repetative "Autoloader" and Yendri's overlay of orchestral strings and piano transforms the propelling trance of the original "Steam Virus" into a grander number.
(Mick Mercer
Remix albums are a strange beast. They can change the way you appreciate things, from improving a track you found mundane, to totally ruining something you loved, but as I’m not overly familiar with Goteki’s material I’m just left to consider the other possible effect they have: that of making a band too widely fractured in sound to do them much good. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened here, making the album pretty cohesive throughout, and with precious few details available on the artwork I can only assume the band expressly requested that very little in the way of excess was entered into, which could have made the experience too surreal to be enjoyable. That or the remixers weren’t up to getting frisky.
If you’ve never heard the Human League this could be a very exciting record for you, and that isn’t a snide comment. The vocal inflection is very Okay-cokey at times, as are the tunes with the most space age lyrics, but the fact remains few people cover this sort of material well without making it too kitsch, and Goteki have got some fine bumpy tunes which don’t end up quirky. Given that the majority of people under thirty (the majority of Goteki fans) have no real incentive to locate old Human League records, this could well seem totally new, and highly desirable.
I regard it as curiously likeable, and sometimes annoying. Goteki prove to be the most slapdash people getting to grips with their task because both ‘Phuturist’ and ‘PN55’ do their utmost to drag you sideways when you want the song to simple forge on ahead, while Echo Image show how successful and fuzzily mainstream that can be. Sigue Sigue Sputnik also make things go like a very duff Human League track which was to be expected, although Norgate’s attempt with ‘We Go Chrome’ flatlines also, so maybe it’s just a weak track.
Seize introduce us to a new dance genre, Irritating House, and Project 65 are way too bland. I was particularly surprised anddisappointed no-one felt brave enough to tackle the vocals and boost them. Chaos Engine try to robotise them into Europap, which doesn’t work, but Icon Of Coil bring out hearty vocal sleaze and gives us the sharpest beats, Carol Masters does a great slow motion Todd Terry approach which feels good, Intro/Depot make it drunkenly Numanoid, and Glis squeeze ‘Ninjagirl’ out as a fabulous, soft-focus beauty. This is followed by the tempting exposed wires which is a Deathboy remix and if Yendri fail to keep things extra-taut, it’s certainly a highly stylised and attractive song.
It works as an album in its own right, with more peaks than troughs, removing hard edges and instilling warmth.
So, curious, and with yellow artwork.
(Suzie Q, Logo)
They’re often pointless excursions into flaccid mutual-backscratchery, but Goteki subvert the remix formula by offering fourteen genuine re-interpretations of the tracks on their 2002 PlayStation-electro debut ‘Goteki O/S’. It’s not so much the quality of the contributors, with the exception of Sigue Sigue Sputnik (whose mix of ‘We Go Chrome’ is all technicolour fractals and animated anti-matter) and Coil, few of the names here will mean anything except to the devout. Rather, it’s what those contributors do the source material. Carol Masters’ mix of ‘Autoloader’ takes David Bowie to Dizzy Gillespie’s basement, Glis’ take on ‘Ninjagrrl’ visits a Berlin club with Curve, while Goteki’s own rework of ‘Pn55’ introduces Julian Cope to The Human League. File under surprisingly surprising.
***½
(Keith Elcombe, Hard Wired)
Goteki OS was a very good album, but in my mind lacked any immediate punch on its first listen. It took time to grow on you. This is not the case with Corrupted Files. Straight out of the box this album is everything it’s original forbearer should have been – accessible, punchy, dynamic and above all, oh so listenable. Of the 14 tracks here, the list of bands remixing the original Goteki work is impressive: Echo Image, Seize, Icon Of Coil, Chaos Engine, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Carol Masters, Graeme Norgate, Glis, Intron Depot, Deathboy, Project 65 and lastly, Yendri. Each band has managed to make their own mark on the Goteki original – Sputnik’s mix of ‘We Go Chrome’ is oh so ‘Love Missile’ while Icon of Coil’s mix of ‘Piranha Advancement’ smacks of typical dynamic German EBM. Deathboy give ‘Do Not Listen To Goteki’ the C64 treatment, and bring back a flood of nostalgia to us 80’s computer geeks. The Chaos Engine mix of ‘Surveillance’ makes you want to get up and move on the dance floor – typical of CE to deliver the goods again.
But the complete twist on the entire album (and the mix that had me stunned outright) has to be the ‘Autoloader’ mix by Carol Masters, that has this Goteki Track coming across like a modern David Bowie number, complete with horn section! This re-working is fantastic, and real credit to the musicianship on display here. ‘Steam Virus’ gets a similar working, albeit in a classical vein from Yendri – check out the strings and piano fused with synths. Sweet indeed. ‘We go chrome’ gets a second outing here (the Sputnik version already mentioned) in the form of the Timesplitters mix by Graeme Norgate – much more danceable then the original. Nice! One thing that stands out on this release is the broad range of styles on offer here (courtesy of each band in turn), making the album very listenable indeed. Also worth a note, is the production quality – it shines! Attention to detail is the order of the day here – stick this album in some high end audio kit and be amazed!
Any complaints? None at all! With no duff tracks, and a quality that makes you listen to this album from start to finish, this album cements Goteki’s place in the alternative scene today, in as much as they are not afraid to let their work be experimented with. Having a broad outlook like this will see them go very far indeed. Let’s hope they stick with it! Forget taking this album home to meet your parents – get into bed with it now!
INTERVIEW WITH HARD-WIRED
(Keith Elcombe, Hard-Wired)
1. Firstly, congratulations on the new album. Are you pleased with it?
SNEAKY: Oh yeah, definately! I guess I'm also a lot less critical than usual cos technically this is the work of other people ( mostly ). I'll tell ya though, this album has taught me a lot about the way I feel about my music. I thought originally I'd love other people to play around with my songs, but in the end I found myself getting really defensive and protective over it all! Given a bit of time though, I now think the remixes are amazing, such fantastic variety and complexity to them!
CRASH: Very pleased, I think it surprised a lot of people, especially with its diversity of style.
2. How did the concept of a remix album come about?
S: I don't know really, just something I've always loved and always admired. I was very intro old skool industrial stuff as a teenager, and a remix album is something I always thought of as a defining step for a band. The kind of things all the bands I loved did - Skinny Puppy, NIN, Pigface etc etc. And now, I'm at a point in my career that I'm lucky enough to know a lot of people I admired as a teenager, as well as a lot of people I admire now - and can ask em all to do remixes! You wouldn't believe how exciting it is waiting for your Sigue Sigue Sputnik remix to arrive! I was like a kid waiting for christmas!
3. Did you choose who you would like to mix the tracks, or did you have artists approach you?
S: About an equal amount of both. I also asked fans from our online club 'Goteki Otaku' who they'd like to remix us. One of the names from that was Yendri. She was soooo cool. She agreed to do the remix and sent it back, remixed, in like 2 weeks. But no ordinary remix, oh no, a SEVENTEEN minute version of a five minute song! It was far too big for the album but beautiful all the way through! She kindly let me crop it down to 10 minutes, but I promise I'll release the full version at some point. Other than Yendri though, I think it's mostly remixes by people that I know and work with. It was cool getting Crash to do a track (.Intron.Depot. ), his stuff is fantastic. As Mick Mercer described it "Drunkenly numanesque", nice!
4. Were there any problems with this?
S: Not really... it would have been realy awkward if somebody had done a remix I'd hated and not used, but I love all of them! It would have been rtaher tricky to tell a friend I didn't like their music - you know, I'm glad I'm only thinking about that now!
5. Were there any remixes that you weren’t happy with, and hence did not make it onto the album?
S: The album takes up the entire capacity of a CD, with no room to spare. I actually had a few bits and bobs of my own that I was gonna add, but as time went on and the remixes turned up I realized their wouldn't be room. I'll make sure it all get's released somewhere though, even if I just stick it on the website for free.
6. Do you feel that this remix album has strengthened the image of Goteki, or added to the image of the bands who have done the mixing?
C - A bit of both, it's nice that there are some 'names' on there that might make people who might not have normally bought a Goteki CD give it a listen.
S: At the risk of repeating myself, a little of both! The whole remix thing is funny really, the sheer pleasure of remixing aside, everybody's drawing strength from somebody else. The smaller bands on the remix CD will be helped by being associated with us, whereas the bands that are more well known than us will pull in new listeners. I hope the CD reflects both of those areas. There was a certain logic to my choice in bands though, I don't want people to think of Goteki as 'yet another european future-pop band', I want people to feel a strength of personality to the band, and I tried to pick remixers all know for their individuality - and they certainly are that - individuals!
7. Were there any bands you would have liked to remix your tracks, but haven’t for whatever reason?
S: Yeah, for one reason or another, some people didn't have the time or were away touring when it was all being done. I don't want to say who though, as they're all high contenders for future remixes and it'd ruin the fun if you knew who right away. You'll be excited though, believe me! I know I am!
8.So how has life been since ‘Sneaky Bat Machine’ was consigned to the history books? Are things better for Goteki than they were for Sneaky?
S: Certainly. Everything is so much more open ended now. SBM was in danger of becoming a formula. The last thing I'd ever want to be is formulaic.
C - Infinatly better, As Goteki we're taken a lot more seriously and given a lot more respect, but everyone knows we used to be SBM so we can get away with mucking around. We've got the best of both worlds now!
9. Any regrets about the ‘Sneaky’ days?
S: Nah, they rocked! POSSIBLY should have spent less time throwing bats at the audience and more time rehearsing, but never mind.
C - No, No regrets. Looking back a few things make me cringe...well a lot makes me cringe but it was all a good learning experience and formed a solid base for Goteki.
10. For those of us who have been living under a rock, what prompted the name change?
S: Really, we just weren't Sneaky Bat machine any more. That was definitely a one album band. Nice idea, but limited. I'm glad I stopped it when i did. Goteki is much more open ended, and I can take it on whatever twisted path I feel is right.
C - It wasn't just a name change, I mean really we weren't Sneaky Bat Machine anymore, as far back as tracks like Wicked Little Girl and Lasergun Music we were becoming less and less 'spooky', particularly asteticly, we'd been 'cyber-goth' from the outset but the 'goth' bit was becoming less relevant. I think the way SBM went showed us that we could actually do this seriously with some degree of success. SBM was kinda like proto-Goteki and Goteki (v1.0) was kinda feeling the waters of being a 'non-comedy band', only now are we truly becoming the Goteki we've been working toward.
11. Whitby X: How was it for you, and out of all the acts playing that weekend, who were your favourites?
C - We all had a wicked time, I swear I was constantly drunk!, Saw a lot of people I haven't seen for a while, met some new people, had a laugh. The gig was pretty special, It was Dr. A's last performance. I think we gave him a good send off It was a great show. It was good to see Icon Of Coil again, DeathBoy rocked as usual as did The Chaos Engine. Sheep On Drugs were cool.
S: Oh it was wicked. I loved it. Apart from the hangovers. We blew up a speaker during our first song though, the cursed 'Do Not Listen to Goteki', which is known worldwide for making stuff blow up!. Favourite band of the weekend. Dunno really. It was all a little blurry to be honest. Deathboy and Chaos Engine rocked. Icon of Coil were pretty cool too. Christian from IOC and I made a cool sculpture out of a warning sign, and sold it for £2. We kept half each.
12How do you feel your own set went? Anything you would have done differently?
C - It was cool, we had a great crowd. I'm not to sure about them showing 'Blade II' on the screen behind us though!
S: It was good. A very important one for us, as it was the final one with Doktor A. I was pleased to end on such a happy positive note, and I think he feels the same. I managed to fuck up oe of our new songs 'Kama Sutra' by telling the audience that it was new and I mustn't fuck it up. Except I talked at them for so long I missed my cue for the first verse!
13. What next for Goteki? Another album? New material? Another name change?
C - The next big thing will be Headlining the Friday night of Convergence 10 in Chicago with the possibility of a few more US dates and maybe back up to Toronto.
S: No more name changes! Arg! It took people forever to get used to the new name! New album, yes indeed. I have about 5 songs completed for it so far. It's VERY different again, much more crunchy and dirty, it's filthy lo-fi biiiatch! In the meantime, we're putting loads of stuff on a cool new website called www.mperia.com - you can download mp3s for a dollar each. It's great, as it means I have an outlet for all the mixes, outtakes and oddities that I wouldn't normally get to release.
14. Musically, who rocks your world?
C - Echo Image, Alice In VIdeoland, Caberet Voltaire, Depeche Mode, S.P.O.C.K., Neuroticfish, Seabound, Atomizer, Human League, Skinny Puppy etc...
S: Anything with style and personality. Too much to name.
15. Let’s get geeky for a while, and speak about computers… more importantly, Apple Macs. I notice the Apple images/references on the album sleeve – how important are Macs to your music (if at all - I know The Cruxshadows swear by them), and to life in general. (for info, Hard Wired is run off of a Mac… call it an addiction… OS X rocks out!)
S: I've always worked with Macs, I love em. PCs suck. Don't ask me to explain why and talk about speeds and stuff, they just suck. I started on an LCII, then got a Quadra. All of SBM and the first stages of Goteki were done on an iMac and now I have great big supersexy G5. I want to marry it, it's made my life so much easier. Good god I'm a geek.
C - I run Slackware Linux so I wouldn't know about all your proprietary software!!!
16. How would you describe the alternative scene today in the UK? How does it compare to that of 5 or 6 years ago?
S: Different. There are loads of changes, both good and bad. Less people generally go to gigs these days, and less bands tend to play smaller venues. On the other hand, the scene is much more open minded musically now. People aren't so blinkered. I think the electroclash explosion helped a lot. It's not such a chasm between mainstream and underground now, which is a good thing.
C - There is defiantly less gigs but more clubs, which has both pros and cons, the enthusiasm is still there, which is cool.
17. What musical kit makes up the Goteki arsenal?
S: G5 running Cubase SX, Access Virus B ( my baby ), JV1080, Korg Er-1, Casio VL-1 ( rock! ), and anything else that makes noises when you poke it. I got some cool mini bagpipes in scotland. S.P.O.C.K got some too. We may form a bagpipe based sci-fi supergroup.
18.Finally, you’re to be stranded on a desert island for eternity, what three things would you like to take with you?
C - 1) A fast PC running Linux and a satellite connection and a huge mp3 collection. 2) My cat 'Fuchikoma' (and a supply of cat food!), 3) Crate of Jack Daniels!!!
S: A Mac Laptop, my robot OMNIBOT that I've had since I was seven, and a Japanese cheerleader. It's like a phuturistic beach party!
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