Released
1995
Label
VUZ Records
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
VUZ Records
Postfach 170 116
47181 Duisburg
Deutschland
Two Witches
c/o Darklands
Box 29
FIN-33201 Tampere
Finland
Visit
Last Edit/Update
17 september, 1998
Advanced Art &
Two Witches
INTO THE DARKLANDS
early years 1987 - 1989
Track Listing
1. Two Witches -- Cat's Eyes (Black Lipstick Mix)
2. Advanced Art -- From Nothing To Nothing
3. Two Witches -- A Child
4. Advanced Art -- Steel
5. Two Witches -- Pimeyden Jousi (demo 1987)
6. Advanced Art -- Black Roses
7. Two Witches -- Nazgūl
8. Advanced Art -- No Answers No Solutions
9. Two Witches -- Pimeyden Jousi (remix 1992)
10. Advanced Art -- This Blue Moment (demo 1988)
11. Two Witches -- Vampire Girl
12. Advanced Art -- Life Before Death (demo 1987)
Bringing together the songs of a couple of long out of print 7" releases, as well as
demos and unreleased tracks by the two seminal Finnish bands Advanced Art
and Two Witches, this CD should delight fans of both bands, and anyone
who still carries a soft spot in their hearts for the lighter electronic music of the 80s.
The CD's accompanying booklet describes -- with a nice mixture of nostalgia and humor --
the trials and hardships surrounding the original recordings, and Jyrki's (of Two
Witches) establishment of Darklands -- the record store, mail
order company, record label upon which the included songs were initially released. The
quality of the sound is, by the musicians' own admission, not without flaws, but that is
hardly what this CD is about. The sheer passion of creating music is present in all the
songs, and Into The Darklands captures these two bands in embryo -- Two
Witches having since become somewhat of a legend in Goth circles and still
releasing new material to this date, while Advanced Art now has chosen to
end their career.
The six tracks included by Advanced
Art are more even than those by Two Witches, smoother in sound,
but also more firmly rooted in the techno-pop of the 1980s, and as such seem a little
dated at this point. Aside from "This Blue Moment," all their songs are
propelled by fast and dynamic synth beats, and simple melodic constructions that generally
lean towards the melancholy. Vocally, the band combines naive romantic sentiments with
catchy word play, and while the effect is occasionally quite charming, it also soon
becomes old. And, in general, this is the case with Advanced Art's music:
it has nice nostalgic and melodic qualities, but ultimately it demands too little of the
listener, and will thus soon outlive its initial appeal to anyone but the most hardened
synth-pop fans.
Two Witches' songs
are more adventurous, but the sound quality at times leaves something to be desired --
which in this context is actually part of the attraction. "Cat's Eyes," which
opens the CD, is actually rather close to the sound of Advanced Art, and
"Nazgūl" is likewise heavily synth dominated, albeit with a punk edge. The two
versions of "Pimeyden Jousi" completely break with this sound, and are the most
radically different on the CD. Both versions are sung/narrated in Finnish; the demo from
1987 was apparently recorded at the bus station in Tampere, and sounds it; while, the
"previously unreleased and for a good reason" remix of the song from 1992, turns
it into a humorous stab a hip-hop. The song upon which Two Witches appear
to really find themselves is "Vampire Girl" -- a mellow Goth duet between two
female voices (Anne and Reeta) accompanied only by an acoustic guitar --
the sparsest composition on the CD, yet also the most evocative and lasting.
