Review from Project15 (22-10-2003)

Unease - A Creative Process in Minor
Category: Unsigned
Reviewed by "Andy Fletcher" (Johan Thorsell)

First impression is said to be the most important, but I don't know, what band starts the record with the best song? Well Unease does since all songs are the best.

Unease are Patrik Lark (words, graphics) and Tommy (vocal, words, instruments). Two guys from the dark heart of Stockholm which have started a project rather than a band, say they play a combination of synth/rock and I agree on that but would also like to go a little bit further and say 70th-rock/synth with those nice guitar hooks and that husky/dirty/
Strokes-voice which smears the walls with dirt while listening. Sure there are also synthesizers, in fact a whole lot of it and it's a mixture of EBM/Industrial/Electronica and partly it's very dark, as dark as synth should be when at its best. This demo CD is eight track long including the completing remix of track two (Beyond the Trivial).

When you listen to the lyrics you will hear how gloomy, serious and obvious the words are. It is darkness and bored souls the lyrics are all about. The exception is track four (Last Page) which is about love, the sad version but still the best text on this record.

The songs have in common that they all go kind of slowly forward in a nice groovy way, no rush through the songs, it is just nice. I decided already from the start not to review all eight tracks thoroughly but focusing on the first four which are in my opinion the best ones. The first song (Train Away) starts with a nice guitar hook and rolls on with a strong refrain. In the next song (Beyond the Trivial) the synthesizers come more to the foreground with lots of nice melodies and basslines. Also this refrain is again very nice and strong. The third track (Drowned in Doubts) is dark, the text is raw and the song feels good in a naked way. The fourth song (Last Page) which is an electronica-ballad, is the record's highlight, the words are excellent and unusually light. The strong points of this demo are above all the lyrics and the superb vocals, most notable in Last Page. Parallels could obviously be made to bands like Depeche Mode, the darkness of Cat Rapes Dog feels close and some of the dirty feeling from the Strokes is precious in certain songs.

Good record, just simply good.