New review of Vortex at Starvox

September 5, 2005

Collide

2005

Thanks Blu and Kristina Rogers.

"It’s a rare delight to come across an independent artist who’s managed to defy the odds and put out a truly polished and professional indie release. Collide, a vastly talented California duo who has successfully released a string of remarkable albums on their very own NoisePlus label, is precisely such a band. Vortex, Collide’s latest offering, is a sleekly packaged 2-disc set, containing a variety of tracks off their last few CDs, remixed by an eclectic variety of both recognized and lesser-known artists. Impressive really doesn’t begin to describe it." Read more here

January 19, 2001

Collide

2001

Starvox Review

January 19, 2001

Collide

2001

New Collide interview and review online at Starvox. Read it here

Thanks to Sonya and Blu and Wolf.

December 9, 2000

Collide

2000

Chasing the Ghost Reviews

December 9, 2000

Collide

2000

We have some reviews of Chasing the Ghost, thanks so much to all of the reviewers involved.

Starvox
Grinding into Emptyness
Legends Magazine
Earpollution
Chasing ghosts is exactly what I have been doing since 1985. During the interminable wait following Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, I inhaled anything that offered a female vocalist. My obsession graduated to Toni Halliday and Curve and, as Curve dissolved, I found Collide's Beneath the Skin. As Kate seemed to be retired and Curve on hiatus, waiting for the next Collide album seemed to be the most promising path to take. And then their label, Re-Constriction, went under. It has been a very hard decade for fans of dark, ethereal, electrified female vocals.
kaRIN and Static have been busy since the 1997 release of their remix and cover album, Distort, mainly keeping their chops up with subsumed work with other bands as they figured out the details of making their own way in the music world (hence the release of Chasing the Ghost on their own label). And maybe during these external projects they got some of the noise out of their systems. Distort pointed towards a noisier future, a structure laden with wild feedback and the distorted snap of uncontrolled machinery. Surprisingly, Chasing the Ghost ably steers away from that end, gliding towards a more introspective sound, a more exotic exploration of empty spaces within. There is a haunted quality to these songs, a yearning in kaRIN's voice that is echoed by the dark instrumentation swirling around her. When the machinery does erupt in savagery (as it does on their sublime cover of Jefferson Airplane's chestnut "White Rabbit"), you realize that their restraint is self-inflicted--their directive one of introspection.
Maybe what I've been chasing is unobtainable--it may never exist. As kaRIN sings on the title track, "I've come so near and yet so far." Maybe it is time to stop running, time to lay down here and disappear into myself to find the source of want. Chasing the Ghost is an angelic accompaniment into the dark heart of your obsessions. Take this beacon with you.
-Mark Teppo
ElectroAge
Im Rhythmus Bleiben