Reviews

Inimikal - Mardrömsmaskinen
Kraftwerk Zine

I first heard of Inimikal through listen.to/oljud, and decided to check it out. Now, trading a Golem demo for this CD-R is one of the best trades I've done in some time now. Inimikal has got to be Sweden's best-kept secret within industrial music. This CD-R, known as Mardrömsmaskinen ("The Nightmare Machine") starts out with spatial synth industrial, reminding a lot of Neptune Towers. Superminimalistic, raw and bare as this is, it is most evocative. The title translates as "second nightmare machine" - more than Eraserhead, it reminds me of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which is of course great. I listen to this and imagine the wheels turning, the distant noise of machines and steel colliding...this is a perfect journey to that land of steel clad nightmares and black stars where hippies fear to tread...second track uses eerie samples, water, chillingly cold noise and percussion, drum machine, synth melodies, the violins from "Where The Wild Roses Grow" cut up and fucked in eternities - all evocative and beautiful, as the soundtrack to the movie that changed your life. In track fourth Dennis is back at hyperminimalism - drones, rumbles, weirdo pianos, and megaevil samples - and in track five playing around with hypnotic industrial with Danish and English samples underneath, reminding at times of that Ildfrost songs on the Absolute Supper compilation. Track six is a bit to trip-hop/cliché darkness oriented for my taste, but the final track makes up for that: named "first nightmare machine" being something of a Disgraceland Revisited anthem. Listening to the ten first seconds of this song before going for dinner I spontaneously thought: "Hey, this is how is has must sound to be a gas mask". All in all, this is great ambient noise destined to leave its’ marks. Drawbacks are the same as for the Faithcrusher CD-R - the sound is at times to weak and "computer-ish", but then again, who cares.

Inimikal - Dead from the Abortion Clinic
Iucca Mattila, Prospective.nu

By the dreadful xerox sleeve of this CDR, somehow I was expecting some second rate noise, but to my surprise Inimikal delivers some quite intriguing electronic experiments which anyone would have a hard time filing under any category. As the title suggests, the moods are rather dismal, perhaps owing much to the tradition of Swedish industrial which shines through here and there. It doesn't stop there though. Besides the industrial, Inimikal presents hints of minimalistic electro, ambient, electroacoustic and even technoid beats, all molten together with a weird jazzy feel. The occasional movie samples bothered me though as they could've been more imaginative.

Anyway, I have that certain sense about this band, so it wouldn't hurt you to check it out.

Iucca Mattila [B]

Inimikal - Wormheart
Nephilius Zine

All 13 songs written, produced and performed by a swedish guy called Dennis Lindfors. Some of the songs really creates some nice atmospheres. Simple synth rhytms on some of the songs sounds more complex because of the different layers of sound collages being layered on top. A lot of musical freshness and a lot of different ideas being put alive gives this cd a interesting touch. I guess you could label it dark ambient if you want to, but it's not necessarily correct..

Inimikal - Ugly On The Inside
Niklas Nylund, Prospective.nu

Instrumental music as the setting and with Swedish musician Dennis Lindfors setting the mood, Inimikal is an interesting case. Bringing together as diverse elements as noise, Graeme Revellish insect-music and Cold Meat Industry stuff, Inimikal explores mellow and feverish soundscapes, never quite having the time to take the sounds to their fullest extent.

While strings are the dominant instrument, sounds also include some percussion and horns, everything underlining the insect-like mood of the music. Even though Dennis Lindfors is an adept musician, the arrangements and production can't quite reach up to the level of his wild and imaginary songwriting. Sadly the repetition and asymmetry of Inimikal gets too heavy on the ear, as the sounds are too shallow and edgy.

With tracks such as "Inside The Circle Of Light", "Slow Dark River Running" and "Fever Dream", side A is definitely the lighter one. Here also the punctuate and asymmetrical nature of Inimikal reaches it's highest grade, while side B is rather more gloomy and atmospheric, even scarier. The slower pace also means less songs, "The Rotted Summer" and "Propain" being ample names to describe the mood. The last track "Recur" rises to be the best track on the demo, with it's manic noise elements it manages to stretch a few musical barriers.

Inimikal's music is very profilic and original, but it must still be worked on. It's experimental nature makes it very hard to set a grade to it, and as the production isn't quite as good as it should be I must settle with a lower one. Still it is very interesting stuff, even though the demo was rather too extensive for this sort of review. Keep it short and compact out there, as it helps my work a lot.

Niklas Nylund [C]

Inimikal - Deepest Black
Darkvelvet

Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden (sounds like a great place!), Inimikal creates deep, dark experimental gothic. On an artistic aside, this release came to me in a black electrical tape covered vinyl slip cover...WOW! Electrical tape must be cheaper in Sweden than in the US. Now for the music, the music here is drum machine-driven experimental gothic that's not really harsh enought to be compared to the bleaker sounds of the Cold Meat label, but not straightforward enough to be seen in ligh of popular goth experimentalists (Bauhaus, Tones on Tail) Don't look for electric guitar or vocals here...the music is fairly minimal with the vocals provided by samples (where are these cool samples from?). What does all of this mean? Well, Inimikal is doing its own thing...and I like it. If you like your music deep, dark, deadly, and on the fringe of Satanic, then this is for you--a soundtrack to the worst nightmare you've ever had. Get back to black at: http://listen.to/inimikal