List | E | Estrange | 'A Beginning' CD 1996

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	A Beginning	4:51
2.	Disordered Mind	4:07
3.	A Lost Samaritan	3:41
4.	Happy Tonight	3:36
5.	Intense	3:16
6.	Utilized	4:00
7.	As If Forever	4:29
8.	The One That I Love	4:22
9.	Before	4:23
10.	Endure	3:39
11.	Brittle Thread	4:21
12.	Casualties Of Life	4:41
	Total	49:26

Comments:

With the release of this, their debut album, Esrange has turned into Estrange due to a name conflict. The name Esrange was in fact the reason I first noticed this band, since that name was taken from a space research station just outside my old home town. I bumped into Anders (the singer) on several places, like alt.music.synthpop, rec.music.makers.synth and finally IRL when I was visiting an old friend down in Gothenburg. I had to ask him about the name, but there was no connection to my old town, they just thought it was a cool name. The Esrange people weren't quite as amused, hence the name change. IMHO, the new name Estrange fits the music better. Anyway, it turned out he (Anders) hosted a local radio show with a guy who shared an apartment with this old friend of mine that I was there to visit. A nice little coincidence. We ended up having an interesting discussion about sound addiction and fiddling with noises beyond recognition.

The music is rather melancholic synth pop, quite catchy at that. They've been compared to what Depeche Mode sounded in 84-85, but I don't think the comparison is very fair to either of the bands. Estrange has a style of their own, and I have a hard time finding some band to compare them to, but I suppose the ignorant would chose DM as a reference.

It shows that they (or at least Anders; I can't speak for Marcus) love to toy around with sounds. Many of the sounds are quite interesting, and therefore appealing to a confessed sound maniac as myself. They go very well with the catchy tunes. I might add that this album may sound a bit boring at first, but once I took the time to get into it it really grew on me; after a while you learn to appreciate the non-instant catchiness of the melodies, some little snippets sound like truly classic pop melodies in their own right. These little things do a lot to enhance the overall impression.

If I have to say something bad about this album it's that, like many new Swedish synth pop bands, they should work on the vocals. They are unfortunately too weak to make this album really stand out. With some more intense (and not as weak and dull) vocals this could really be a band worth following.

And another thing: where is that excellent 'Repulsion' from the compilation Shot ver2.0? It should definitely have been on this album. Still, 12 catchy synth pop tunes isn't that bad, but 'Repulsion' would have made a perfect ending to the album.

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