Underneath

After a hiatus of more than a decade, Dirk Ivens' project Dive finally returns with a new sign of life. For the new album quot;Underneathquot;, he has again teamed up with Ivan Iusco (who he worked with on quot;Concrete Junglequot;) and Rafael M. Espinosa (his collaborator on quot;Behind The Sunquot;.) The result is a maelstrom of minimalist Electronica that ranges from fascinating to unsettling and that no other act can quite accomplish in the same way: Stripped-bare rhythms, dark, machine-like sequencers, psychotic synth-sounds that are expertly intertwined with cleverly placed noise-attacks and the distinctive, feverishly manic and ghostly raw voice of Dirk Ivens towering above it all. Some tracks, like the groovy quot;Far Awayquot; or the hammering quot;Somethingquot; have turned out surprisingly catchy, but as a whole quot;Underneathquot; is a menacing behemoth that relentlessly pulls the listener into it's dark machine world. The album feels like a David-Lynchian fever dream, oscillating wildly between cutting Industrial-loops, dark Minimal-art and groovy Electronic-Body-beats that converge into a physical tour de force. In their effectively relentless reduction of their sound to the bare necessities, Dive yet again manage to create a one-of-a-kind experience.