Neuroticfish – Sushi

Issue 03

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EBM IS DEAD! Or at least, so claims Neuroticfish in the
liner notes to the CD ‘Sushi’. Which makes me wonder,
what is this if it isn’t EBM? And what the heck does the
name ‘Neuroticfish’ mean anyway?
Essentially a collection of re-mixes, B-sides and unreleased
material, ‘Sushi’ is thirteen tracks of dance-floor-friendly
futurepop goodness. The collection features four different
remixes of Neuroticfish’s prominent single ‘Wake Me
Up!’, which are varied enough in their sound to ward off
sounding stale and boring the listener. Each remix has a
different sound to it, and if not for the vocal track you
wouldn’t know they came from the same song. A pleasant
surprise, seeing as most CD’s with more than two re-mixes
of the same song end up being a chore to listen to (‘Head
Like A Hole’ 10 track maxi single, anyone?). Considering
that Neuroticfish produced or co-produced most of the
remixes, it’s surprising to see so much variation in the
sound. Refreshing in a time when every remix of every
band’s song sounds like VNV Nation reject material. Also
included are two different versions of ‘Velocity’, the best
song you’ve danced to at the club without even knowing
what it is.
The best song on the collection is ‘Neurocaine’.
Reminiscent of the days when New Order were worth
listening to, the song has a definite early 80’s new
wave feel to it, especially in the deceptively simplistic
sounding synthesized drum track and retro-sounding
arpeggiation. ‘Neurocaine’ is the song you wish your
favorite 80’s new wave group would record with today’s
technology, if they weren’t too busy writing their new
acoustic indy rock or emo album.
Neuroticfish will appeal to the fans of bands riding the new
wave of new wave like Mesh, Beborn Beton and Seabound,
as well as current future-pop stars such as Icon of Coil and
VNV Nation. The sound on ‘Sushi’ is pretty tight and
coherent, well-produced futurepop that you won’t want to sit
still and listen to. These songs demand to be danced to.
Even the previously unreleased demo track ‘Rotten’ holds
up pretty well against other music in the scene today. It’s
surprisingly well-produced and competently composed,
though compared to the other songs on ‘Sushi’ it has a
more stripped down, borderline industrial feel to it.
Normally hesitant to recommend ‘remixes and B- sides’
collections, I have to give ‘Sushi’ its due and advise you to
give it a listen. It has a strong, consistent sound throughout,
with enough variation to stave off boredom and keep you
listening. – chris parasyte