Search - Cleen :: Second Path

Do This With a Shake of Your Chains

TastyBabySyndrome | "Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Lit | 01/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cleen, a side-project birthed in part by one portion of the Haujobb equation and one Thorsten Meier, was actually something that went without a lot of recognition. Its somewhat a sad fate, too, because a lot of what they did in the electronically friendly, not so club trendy, arena of sound was something I actually found myself quite fond of. Had it not been for accidentally finding Cleaner (the baby of Meier after he and his companion parted ways and, in actually, this band with a name changed to avoid anger between the two)I would have missed out on this album and much of what is akin to a soothing ride on electro-tides with vocals that are wonderful to listen to.While there are a few songs with tempos strong enough to call dance, mostly everything here is actually more of that odd reality when people get together and simply want to make good electronic music. The first track, "Sunburst", is actually one of my favorites, with all the crucial pieces of a catchy song coming together and taking over. It has the music that builds into a song you can remember, odd sounds sometimes flashing across some minimalist's beat-ridden path, and vocals that sound wonderful in their complexity. Part melody with a slight side of distortion, they are actually catchy and they actually grew on me pretty heavily after a time. The second track, "Freak," is an equally catchy number, although its more of a melody piece with some scattered sounds and a beat that allows a little development over the duration of the song. I like some of the ways it was engineered, too, the fashioning of it coming from a few varied pieces and making an interesting whole. "School was just the right place to perfect the expression of spitefulness in your face" sticks in my head a lot, and the message of the song, sung in a most beautiful manner, is hard to discount. "Transparent" is another track with excellent vocals, beautiful beats setting atop those sonically crafted mountains, and a nice sound that seems to stick with me when I listen to it. It has a slow-but-hectic main tempo, with lots of sounds crammed into as little a parking lot as possible, and it makes for good listening. Also noteworthy is the mostly musical "Did You Forget" that sometimes brings the line "Did you forget something" to the top to get caught in my listening mind, the totally beatstricken "separate live," and the faster tempoed, still hectic and yet darker sounding "restore." All in all, the album is solidly constructed and is something that reminds me of Haujobb when they were doing alot of their interesting work beat-wise. It has solid vocals, a lot of catchy songs that make up for a few redundant ones, and its something I think most people that appreciate Metropolis-Records releases and the talents of those names mentioned will find appealing. Its disappearing into oblivion, too, and is perhaps an album you'll kick yourself for if you let it fade away."

Sober Dark Ambient Techno-Industrial

M. Mierzwa | Davis, CA USA | 11/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"About the Band:

Cleen is side-project of Daniel Myer (best known for his band Haujobb). Myer's music typically finds a home in goth / industrial radio programs and clubs, but I describe it as a fusion of techno and industrial music. To those whom aren't familiar with what that might sound like, an easier way to describe dark ambient techno-industrial might be to suggest that it is music you might expect to hear in the background of a science fiction film like Blade Runner.



After Second Path, Myer changed the name of this particular side project to "Cleaner". In general Cleen / Cleaner is not intended to be dance music, and thus might not interest people whom are looking for standard top 40 goth / industrial club hits.





About the Album:

Second Path is the second Cleen album. Though the album is a bit less accessible / dance floor friendly than most Myer's Haujobb material, please sample a few of the tracks of this album as I think you'll enjoy them. Daniel Myer tends to compose some of the best dark ambient techno-industrial music I've heard. It is excellent mood music, in this case: cold and sobering, but not oppressive.



Some of my favorite tracks include: Can't See, Transparent, Sunburst, Freak, and Stronger. These tracks fit well with the album or can be easily enjoyed in their own right. Between Transparent (the most energetic track) and Can't See (the most atmospheric) I think you can get a good feel for the general feel of Second Path.





Similar Artists:

First off, if you like Cleen, then you should look at albums from Haujobb, Cleaner, Clear Vision, and HMB (they are all Daniel Myer projects). Other artists that might interest you include: Ah Cama-Sotz, Black Lung, Forma Tadre, Halo_Gen, Gridlock, Kattoo, and Yelworc.

"

Songs that get stuck in your head.

suchman | 04/15/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While certainly not among the best work Daniel Myer (haujobb, Dots & Dashes, NEWT, Myer, Hexer, S'Apex, Architect, Scope, HMB, R:A, Cleaner, G-flow, Aktivist, Appendix... what else, and does he sleep?) has produced, this is his little venture into popmusic. He managed to recruit a fairly talented singer for this release named Wolfgang Thums (Photik Sonar) who's chiorboy voice spills over the music. This record is like futurist pop music... people 10 years from now will begin to write songs like this. Tracks like "Freaks" and "Sunburst" and "Separate live" are prime examples of songs that "get stuck in your head" in a classy depeche mode, kind of way."