d e s d e r i i   m a r g i n i s
deadbeat - CMI.86

When the first album of Desiderii Marginis, "Songs over ruins" came out in 1996, it impressed me a lot, and I don't think it got as much praise as it deserved, being too much compared to Raison d'etre's releases. After a long wait, here comes "Deadbeat", a small pearl from one of the most un-recongized band on Cold Meat Industry.

"Deadbeat" is a title that fits well the music on this album. The typical Cold Meat Industry dark industrial soundscapes are here dominated by tweaked electronics, who add a strong industrial feeling to this music. The church choirs and the synthetic orchestrations are put back in the background, behind really well thought melodic waves and low, "dead" basses (for example on the very good "Mantrap"). But the dead beat might also be the heartbeat that is to be heard on "In Harms way", evocating a desolate landscape, solemn atmospheres and fragile moments.

Of course, some won't be able to listen to this album without thinking of the works of Raison d'Etre, but I feel that teh approach of Desiderii Marginis is very different, this project incorporating much more electronic sounding sounds to his music. This sounds also less like a collage, and each and every track on this album is catchy and moving. Nothing is misplaced, nothing should be taken out, from the very low sounds and accoustic metal noises of "A bolt out of the blues" to the huge, almost distorted percussions of "And never the twain...".

Far less technoid and still totally fitting the typical swedish-industrial classification, "Deadbeat" is a CD that is currently taking turn in my stereo with Tho-So-Aa's "Absorb", for these two discs manage to mix dark industrial atmospheres, religious passages and well thought electronics. Once again, I admire the work of this musician, and I hope that, this time, it will be recognized for his talent.

Nicolas, May 7th, 2001

More deathly electronic atmospherics from the Cold Meat crew. Desiderii Marginis make the most of the grey Swedish weather to sit in their studio and wallow in dank depression, stabbing at the bottom end of their keyboard until they fall off the end of the chair. However, like stablemates Raison D'etre, Deadbeat's journey into unpleasantness is a lot more skilfully and subtely stitched together than most. Above the growling one fingered synth drones are layers of flickering light, by way of some calming, almost ambient chords. In this respect, 'In Harms Way' is rather a beauty,  the vocal sampling is superbly blended, flickering underneath the layers of sound, adding to the surreal atmosphere. 'God's Shadow On Earth' is a fitting title, the track expertly pulls of the feeling of the arrival of a sinister force watching over you, whilst elsewhere, the almost spaghetti western chime of the windswept 'Deadbeat1' is another success, it doesn't take much imagination to succum to it's unearthly isolation. Deadbeat is an album that needs a specific frame of mind adapted to it, but strangely for this type of release, it requires little patience to grow on you and is amongst the best I've heard in the atmospheric/ soundtrack darkwave genre.