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Minefield "War Machine"
format: album, released: 2002

review by Karl Mohr


After their clever darkwave EP production After the Ball, Canadian electronic band
Minefield, better known as songwriter/synthqueen Tamara Kent and sound designer/
engineer Neil Parfitt, deliver a full length album of their epic sound called War Machine.

Where After the Ball was definitely from a darkwave/downtempo space with attention-
getting monster-production, War Machine is a more adult compilation of developed
songwriting and confident, subtle pop production. While this record is unapolo-
getically easy on the ears and a few of the hardest-core darkwavers may fall off
the wagon in the process of releasing these more pleasant and progressive song
treatments, producer Kent has somehow been able to balance an even more
approachable vehicle for Minefield without losing any of the aspects loved in
darkwave: introspective mood, dark intensity, forward power, atmospheres and
sound treats, the foregrounding of the synthesizer.

While the drum programs and production are a little less cohesive than After the
Ball, these were also the focus of that album. On War Machine we are treated instead
to a better shot of the diary page, with Kent in the foreground cooing and twisting
her pointed lyrics into lovely morning doves, drunk with sobriety. If one didn't
know better, one might think that with such songs as "Sinking Under" and "What We've
Become", Kent was aiming to win melancholic pop star of the year. Having made
notable vocal progress on War Machine, with some polishing Kent could be one of the
great Canadian voices: memorable and with her own unique voice.

Suggesting Julee Cruise, Trent Reznor and Jane Siberry all at the same time,
Minefield invites the pop-vulnerable into a dark world with stark realities and
encouraging lights at the end of the tunnel. The pop material is polished and
legitimate, but where Kent's melodies and drive really impress are on much heavier
vampirical epics such as "Darkness Becomes You". It is also here where the darker
lyrical themes of relationship destruction and murder attempts dressed up as love
songs ("By Your Side") achieve their full bloom. The one cover on the album,
"Teclo" by PJ Harvey, points perhaps to sources of Kent's inspiration. Comparisons
of Minefield to Enya are deceiving: with Minefield you may lie back comfortably, but
don't close your eyes.

Standout tracks: "Creeping", a smashing success from its darkwave claws to sheer pop
power, will remind one why dark synth-pop needs to be a part of the daily musical diet;
title-track "War Machine", almost a consequent pop answer to "Creeping", is bright with
hooks and delightful pop vocals - totally infecting one with its hopelessly Canadian
style of production/engineering; fans of darkwave will be very impressed by the
epic "Waiting" if the teardrop electric pianos don't scare them away; "Darkness
Becomes You" is a harpsichord-driven darkwave thriller - revealing Kent's studies in
Early Music - begging to be cranked up and modern-danced to; "Drop My Anchor" will
sucker-punch you with a MIDI oboe-led army of gnarling sawtooth waves; "By Your Side"
with its clearly spoken Nine Inch Nails harmonies and production style could arguably
be more clever than Reznor. "Complication" is a sparkling end to a meaty album, with
huge David Lynchian synth clouds lifting gooseflesh skyward and sweeping all the dust
away - the message left behind on this final track: after so much bittersweet antici-
pation, finally an opportunity to complicate your life - though this collection of songs
has a pretty and stable exterior, it is packed with deeper and more unsettling themes
as one moves deeper and darker towards its heart.