Admittedly this label debut Time already has some dust on it. But nevertheless it offers the perfect background to introduce you to SPIRITUAL CRAMP, especially for the new yet unreleased material. This German trio got founded back in ‘94. Together with their first ever demo Search they have released their first self-financed full-length Colours. SPIRITUAL CRAMP have commit themselves – roughly categorized – to dark Electro. But even on this you can’t nail them down. They let flow in many diversified elements and styles and play with different variations. So there are to find sequences from Synthie Pop, Future Pop, Darkwave and EBM, but never dwelling too long in one of these fields. Somber, melancholic but sometimes stirring and positive too. The deep and dark voice of leader and mastermind Stefan is perfectly fitting to this music and ranges anywhere between Veljanov and - especially on newer songs - Adrian Hates. Whereas female singer Ivi has a beautiful, not too high and clear voice and can set accents as well as complement one another with Stefan. To this trio is also belonging Holger, who – I quote: „...is caring of the equipment park and potters about rhythm and mixes“.
Surely this piece is not perfect. So there are to find two instrumentals (Das Wasser (The Water) and Metamorphosis) running over 7 minutes. They are nice but make Time too lengthy in its entirety. The rest of the songs have partly too much fillings and are temporarily too lofty, instead focusing on the essential. It all sounds still too poorly conceived. I miss the special kick.
Completely in an other way are the already mentioned new tracks. They are just compiled for promotions, not yet released anywhere. But one can download examples from the band‘s homepage. Here you can hear out much more sophistication, a significantly development. All unnecessary ballast got thrown overboard. There are now clear song structures and arrangements. Much more of energy inside, more EBM related elements. The news songs run into your legs and if finally released they should conquer the dance floors. If SPIRITUAL CRAMP can keep the level of these new songs I think, the new album will be an exciting masterpiece!