reviews

Regen magazine. 2008

Attrition reinterprets selections from their past for strings and voice, creating a haunting collection of avant-garde classical power.

Even since the beginning, Attrition has maintained a flair for combining dark electronic textures with classical arrangements, creating a unique style of darkwave that has been often imitated over the years.

The 1997 release, Etude , now reissued and remastered by founder Martin Bowes on his Two Gods label, is the perfect demonstration of their classical mindset.
In collaboration with Franck Dematteis, Attrition revisits a variety of their past work and rearranges them for orchestral instrumentation, albeit with a minimalist approach driven primarily by solo violins and violas. Dematteis infuses his strings with a haunting quality that truly augments the dark flavors as if to create soundtracks for a gothic stage play, reminiscent of Danny Elfman's scores for Tim Burton's films. This is particularly so on the resonant plucks and scraping harmonic solos of "Feel the Backlash" and with a backing of harpsichord arpeggios on "A Girl Called Harmony (Estranged)" coupled with longtime collaborator Julia Waller's operatic intonations.
As is usually the case with Attrition, Bowes takes the backseat and plays the role of producer or even a conductor of sorts, allowing Waller and Dematteis to revel in their talents and bring the music to life.
"Which Hand?" swoops in and soars with rapid fire violin solos and a droning organ to provide only the slightest bit of footing on solid ground - one can detect a sense of where Emilie Autumn may have received some of her inspiration with this track.
Of course, the actual lyrics are sparse with Waller's voice acting mainly as another instrument, singing those floating and fluttering melodies. While she does occasionally go out of tune, it lends a dissonant yet harmonic quality that hardly detracts from the music, in fact enhancing it. We even get a helping of thrumming snare drums on "Fate is Smiling," adding to the already tense rising chord progression, as if to signify the approach of some unknown peril.

Fans of Attrition or even those with an ear for avant-garde classical music should find much enjoyment in these interpretations of some of their best known works; while lighter on the instrumentation, they are certainly not lacking in depth and power.

Alternative Press - USA 1997

Subtitled "interpretations in a classical form," these adaptations of Attrition's repertoire are scored for string trio plus organ, percussion and occasional voice. They're the result of classical violist Frank Dematteis' enthusiasm for Attrition, which first led to his collabaration with the group on last year's Three Arms and A Dead Cert. Attrition's own work over the course of 13 years and 10 albums can be loosely characterized as melodic, rhythmic industrial with a gothic edge, in the mode of Coil, SPK and Legendary Pink Dots. Superficially, it seems that much might be lost in the translation to classical chamber music - the dancefloor rhythms, the various electronic effects and founder Martin Bowes' cretive sampling. But Dematteis, who also performs with the orchestra of the Paris Opera, highlights both the quasi-operatic vocals of Julia Waller (who is the other half of Attrition) and the group's mysterious, somewhat mournful minor-key sensibility. This translates into simple elegant music of a baroque and even medieval cast. The connection between the contemporary gothic subculture and the neo-gothic chamber music on this CD is intriguing, as there are common intimations of melancholy, mortality and quiet dread.

All Music Guide - USA

Continuing the collaboration with violist/arranger Dematteis from the 3 Arms album, Etude has Bowes and company plunging into the sometimes tricky realms of reinterpretation of past songs in a classical vein.
Given how the majority of '90s projects involving such reworkings were little more than money-making scams by hard-up orchestras with no input from the original artists (thus such pointless releases as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra redoing the songs of Led Zeppelin), it's refreshing to see the actual band in question doing the work this time around with a clear goal in mind.
While Bowes is the writer or co-writer of everything on the album, if anything Dematteis is the star here, performing just about everything in concert with singer Julia Waller. His arrangements are on the level of stripped-down quartets rather than full bombast, an extremely elegant and welcome touch where others might have tried for a full-on assault. Bowes contributes some percussion and arranging, while otherwise overseeing the work in general.
Those familiar with the originals -- taken from various periods of the band's previous existence -- will find the reworkings quite intriguing, to say the least, while those who are encountering the band for the first time will be likely to take the album at face value....
More than once a serene beauty is the result. "Dreamsleep" is one particular winner, Waller's high vocals and the compact chamber-music arrangement combining perfectly over 6½ minutes. Other fine moments include "Into the Waves," with a brisk violin/viola combination set against Waller's distant, echoed singing, and "I Am."
Credit the band with a sense of humor as well -- opening number "Tune Up..." is an orchestra doing just that. ~

Xian says...zine - USA - 1997

"Etude is a collection of classical remixes of some of Attrition's best work over the last decade, rearranged for strings, organ and percussion. this latest project was recorded with Franck dematteis of the Paris opera orchestra, who is credited as first arranger. However the chemistry worked the end result is simply astounding. Especially in "A girl called harmony" and "I am", the orchestral remixes capture the full body of the original work, while at the same time expressing a more harmonic depth and richness of tone. In "Fate is smiling", the dramatic texturing and percussion are breathtaking and nearly overpowering at times. "Etude" is indeed a marvellous undertaking."

Xian