This is basically a CD single with five versions of the track "Monsters" (from their most recent "Souvenirs" full-length). It may have been one of the better songs from said record, aptly displaying their brand of rock based trip-hop with soaring female vocals, but I'm not sure I need to hear 20 minutes worth of variations on the track! Thankfully the remixes tend to be fairly strong, not to mention different from one another. The "Gallion Mix" infuses lots of programmed beats and some orchestral tones with a little record scratching and lots of vocal effects, the "Gauzy Mix" uses more upbeat percussion with dryer vocals and a good dose of repetition, and the "Dance Mix" is a bit darker without such dense percussion, keeping the vocals lower in the mix and well treated with lots of panning and swirling layers. Honestly the "Gallion Mix" sounds more dance-like to me, but hey... whatever. The radio edit is pretty self-explanatory - it's shorter than the original, but surprisingly the "Promo Demo Mix", while not excellent, is far more electronic and does sound a lot different than the album version. There are a couple of CD-Rom videos, but they're really good and actually make the bonus content worthwhile, which is rare. First up is a clip from an RCN-TV show with some live footage of the band performing, what else, "Monsters" at the Hirsch in Nurnberg, Germany. It's high quality footage and solid audio as well, followed by a decent interview with Anneke for a total running time of around 13 minutes. Then it's a clip from Rock It! TV with more live footage from the Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany. The songs included are "Monsters" (okay, I'm officially tired of this song now), "You Learn About It", and "Black Light District". A lot of the footage is shot from farther away, gradually getting closer in, but it's not bad at all, nor is the sound. It's not quite as good as the other video because of the lighting, but still very enjoyable (especially "Black Light District"). The total time for these three tracks hits a massive 25 minutes, so the wealth of CD-Rom content is definitely up there. I like the presentation just fine. The disc comes in a slim jewel case and the artwork is pretty simple, using a few photos, clean text, and some more artsy design elements to keep it interesting. It's simple but does what it's supposed to do. This isn't a bad EP, but I was hoping for more. I think more work with the remixes, had they been more detailed or even been remixes of other songs from "Souvenirs", would have made this a more worthy effort.
[Psychonaut]
Running time - 20:31, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Monsters (Gallion Mix), Monsters (Gauzy Mix)]
Psychonaut Records - http://www.psychonautrecords.com
