Betweenzone – Means Of Control
Betweenzone – Means Of Control – Album Review
And so concludes the longest gap we’ve got on our pages in between reviewing Betweenzone since we first started listening to’em way back in 2018! It’s been a year and a half since we checked out a single they released called “Flower Lady” in advance of this very record, which was one of two tracks I was able to review prior to Means Of Control coming out, with the other being “We Got No” back in 2020. So clearly, this record has been a few years in the making at the very least, though it should be noted that each of those two songs I’ve cited now carry an ‘MoC Version’ tag beside them, updated for the official release of Betweenzone’s new album. Always great to have this duo of EAST and Dave M. Rile back and doing what they are meant to be doing…they make more than music in my opinion…they make real art.
They cut to the quick on “Brothers And Sisters” and let ya know they’re back with something to say right off the bat as they take on different aspects of religion and control in the opening song. If you are the religious type, which I’m not personally, there’s gonna be a good chance that Betweenzone will get you a bit riled up here – pun intended. As Dave sings things like “Do you believe in Heaven? Do you believe in God? Doesn’t make any difference as long as they enslave you.” That’s what you’d call not vague. Good for them for being unafraid to be directly confrontational in today’s world! There have been many great things about the music of Betweenzone throughout the years as I’ve listened, but one of this band’s greatest attributes has always been their lyrical perspective and willingness to say what they really want to say without putting their concepts into the grey area. “Brothers And Sisters” makes it pretty damn clear which side of the story they stand on, and I certainly stand with them in the point they’re making about religion being used against people as a form of control. Do I love the song itself? I’m probably more on the fence about that than I am about what they have to say here…I think the song is pretty good, but it’s what they have to say at the outset of Means Of Control that seemed to generate my interest more than anything else. It should be noted however, that their performance/production is as spot-on as it’s ever been and they’re definitely sounding great.
I gotta admit, I was almost surprised to find they made any changes at all to “We Got No” as they updated it to be the ‘MoC Version’ you’ll find on this record. How do you go about tinkering further with something that was basically perfect to begin with, you know what I mean? When you get something as right as they did with the original version, isn’t that time to stop? Some folks might tell you that’s probably true, but I’m not most folks & neither is the duo of Dave and EAST in Betweenzone! They’ve proven in the past already that they’re willing to continue to experiment and find out what else their material can do, even when it seems like they’ve got everything right where they’d want it. Here’s the reality when it comes to “We Got No” though…honestly, I think it’d be downright impossible to mess it up! As long as that main hook they’ve got threaded into the chorus of this song stays intact, they’ll always have something about this song that people are bound to respond to – it’s really that good, and that universal when it comes right down to it. You get more of a synthesized take on this “MoC Version” and it becomes a bit more modernized as a result I suppose, but for the most part, it’s still pretty much the song you knew and loved from before with all the main pieces of what made it work where you wanna find’em. I never tend to go back & read what I’ve written previously about a song in most cases, but I can’t imagine I had anything but great things to say about “We Got No” – it’s a really damn good tune with an immaculate level of catchiness that’s bound to connect to every set of ears listening. It’s also one of their tightest performances too if you ask me. While they haven’t made too many changes that would be enough to affect anyone’s opinion on this tune to its detriment I’m sure, they also took great care to keep what worked and enhanced it even further – you won’t find me complaining about that. “We Got No” is a sensational & single-worthy tune. It was before, and that still remains true now.
They’ve done an exceptional job with the music on “Beautiful Souls” and the dynamic depth you’ll find it has from the lefts to the rights in your speakers. LISTEN to the detail in the one will ya? Regardless of whether you like, love, or feel otherwise about the song itself – you gotta hand it to Betweenzone for the remarkable way “Beautiful Souls” sounds from the moment you push play, and especially considering how much is truly involved. Like…it’s one of those tunes you’ll listen to and feel like there probably could have been a million different ways to approach this that would have made it easier on them, from the core of an acoustic idea to a simpler, less-involved mix – but c’mon y’all…this is where the art and the craftsmanship comes into play, ain’t it? This is where you separate those simply looking for a catchy chorus from those that hear more within the music they listen to. For myself personally, I can hear the incredible level of work they’ve put into a song like this, and I think the results are nothing but admirable. The bass-driven music and smart beat it has is straight-up perfection. If anything you might even find me arguing that they’ve got something more interesting goin’ on in the verses of “Beautiful Souls” than they do in the chorus, but don’t get me wrong, I do like both and enjoy this whole song. I think the dramatic/theatrical spin that Dave puts into singing the chorus might take a spin or two for people out there to wrap their minds around, but it does work, and eventually it should have you convinced without much resistance. I love the backing vocals they’ve added in too. Ultimately, I’m still gonna side with the verses and instrumentation being the main draw when it comes to “Beautiful Souls” but the clever design of the vocal melody in the verses of this song definitely deserves a shout-out too.
Given the artistic license they take with their material, and the fact they’re singing in English when they’re based out of Germany, I always expect there will be a few moments along the way in listening to a Betweenzone album that I might not get what the heck it is they’re on about, which was the case with “Golden Brown.” This would be a perfect example of a song I like to listen to, but have no clue or theory as to what it’s really about. And I’m cool with that y’all…I think it’s a mistake to assume we’ll always know everything about what we’re listening to anyway – no one is ever going to know what a song is about more-so than the people that originally create it, ever, which in this case was a band called The Stranglers. Doesn’t matter which artist or band you’re listening to, or how much the lyrics might make sense to your ears – the artists responsible for creating a song are always going to have a better understanding of what that moment is really about than we will. “Never a frown with golden brown” is a curious line and a good hook…it gets us listening, and it jogs our mind in trying to justify it. We want to know what that’s referring to, even if it eludes us – so as a result, we end up paying perhaps even closer attention to a song like this in order to figure out what we can’t. You see how that works? It’s never really a bad thing when we don’t really know what a singer is singing about – in fact, it can become an advantage to a song. While I’d admit that “Golden Brown” probably isn’t my own personal favorite of the bunch, the execution is still as professional as you’d expect from this duo, and the subtle guitar solo in the finale always makes giving this track a spin fully worthwhile.
They’ve sure pumped some spectacular tones into this record I tell ya. Listen to the bass in “Tired Of Being Dead” and you’ll know exactly what I mean. In terms of the overarching theme that they’ve been working with on Means Of Control, “Tired Of Being Dead” is an important tune that says a lot about the main idea & framework they’ve writing about. Many things are tied together if you’re paying attention. Some of them by choice, others likely by circumstances – and many that you can probably personally relate to as well. Think of it like this – remember when I mentioned “We Got No” came out in its original form? Back in 2020? Anything else of significance you can remember happening around that time? Like say…maybe a whole global pandemic? Something like that tends to get in the way of creating an album, you know what I mean? So we got a much slower trickle of Betweenzone than we would have from that point forward…and we get introduced to themes like what you’ll find on “Brothers And Sisters” and Means Of Control overall, especially in tracks like “Tired Of Being Dead.” Sometimes you can look at things in music and art to be saying the opposite of what’s actually being said – make sense? Something like “Tired Of Being Dead” could just as easily be saying “Excited To Be Alive” and it would be making many of the same points to a large degree…that’s what I’m getting at. After being locked away for as long as we all were, it feels good to be woken up to what’s important on this planet we’re living on, and I think we’re all “Tired Of Being Dead” in that regard. Conceptually, I really dig “Tired Of Being Dead” – but I feel like it should also be noted it’s one of the most flawless tunes on the record in terms of performance and where you wanna find all the ingredients it contains. Which is a genuine achievement when you really look at this track under the microscope – “Tired Of Being Dead” is no small accomplishment, it’s slightly over seven minutes long! And for a song that mentions ‘being dead’ in its title, you’ll find a whole lot of life present and accounted for in the idea and execution of this song. The surrounding moments of instrumental music in this track are straight up magical to listen to as well y’all.
For real – you’ve gotta hand it to Betweenzone for being as daring as they are in the music they make. Like I was alluding to earlier, there are TONS of ways they could make things a lot easier on themselves, but where would be the fun in that? Where would the challenge be? Where would the ART exist? It’s tracks like “No Doubt” that have me appreciating their methods more than most artists and bands – because when things go right for them and everything comes together as they envisioned, you end up with something that’s impressively unique. “No Doubt” brilliantly straddles the space in between the artistic and universally loved, and I feel like Betweenzone reveals one of their biggest victories with this cut. Right from the music at the start, it feels like they’re about to unveil something significantly special as “No Doubt” opens up, and believe me, it just continues to impress ya with every ticking second. The verses are fantastic and the choice of effects on Dave’s voice are straight-up sensational – to the point where, if that was all this song had to offer I’d still have been completely sold on it most likely. What was even more amazing to me, was the fact that they somehow found a way to raise the stakes even further and deliver one of my favorite chorus hooks on the album, if not within the entire CATALOG of Betweenzone’s music! Sometimes you just know something’s about to go right…maybe it’s our instincts in how we hear sound, honestly, I don’t know…but like I was tellin’ ya, you get that spine-tingling feeling right from the first seconds of “No Doubt” and it simply keeps on getting better as it plays on. Dave’s vocal melody and the way they shift the sound of this song in the chorus is award-worthy in my opinion. I’m pretty positive that this is my favorite track in the set-list, and again, up there with the best I’ve ever heard from the band overall – “No Doubt” is aces all-around and a song that I could never get enough of.
I remember having good things to say about “Flower Lady” back when I reviewed it in the middle of 2021, and I don’t really feel all that inclined to change my opinion when it comes to the updated ‘MoC Version.’ It’s another case of adding something that was previously working to further strengthen the lineup of songs on this album, and you’ll find no complaints from me for doing that. I feel like that way of testing out material is fairly lost on the new generation…it used to be all about putting out singles and EPs to find out what worked best, then releasing an album filled with killer material…and we don’t really see that as much in the modern day. Anyhow – “Flower Lady (MoC Version)” keeps everything pretty intact from what I can remember…I feel like it’s similar to how they re-approached “We Got No” earlier on in the set-list in that it’s really more about the background details being filled in a bit more than what we found in the original, but again, keeping the vast majority of what was working completely intact. Mind you, it’s been a year & change since the last time I heard “Flower Lady” personally, so I’m going from memory here and there’s evidence to support the fact that I’m getting old…but yeah…from what I remember about this tune, the hooks and artistic depth of Betweenzone have been preserved perfectly.
Is this the first time I’ve heard this duo take on a cover tune? I’d have to check my notes, but I’m pretty sure that it is! Well…the second I suppose, considering that “Golden Brown” is also a cover. Two on one record then, how about that? And is that Dave still singing the lead on this tune, or did he switch it up and put EAST on the mic? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure! Dave’s got a pretty distinct high-end sound to his vocals for the most part, and that seems to be pretty absent in this tune, except for in the background and hooks if you’re listening closely…so either he’s a bit more of a chameleon than I’ve given him credit for being, or EAST has taken a turn on the mic. Whatever the case may be, it sure sounds good to me – I feel like they knocked this Depeche Mode cover straight on outta the park. I mean, let’s be real – it’s a freakin’ fantastic song no matter how you slice it and massively underrated despite still being a fairly well-known tune in the DM catalog – BUT…I feel like hearing a band like Betweenzone cover it proves how versatile their songwriting truly is. Because c’mon…normally, there’s a chasm of difference between the way a band like Betweenzone sounds and what Depeche Mode sounds like, you know what I mean? Even though this is still clearly the way that Betweenzone would cover this song, it still comes out sounding more like DM than it does what you’d normally associate with the Betweenzone vibe. And all I can say is that this was an extremely good move…not only is the band covering a song you’d likely never expect them to, but they pull this off flawlessly. Their take on “I Feel Loved” is fascinating to listen to…almost like it meets in the middle of where Betweenzone and David Bowie would have taken on this cut in the stylistically slick way that it sounds, you dig? The punch in the production is brilliant…the darkness of the melody is stunningly realized…the harmonies they’ve threaded into the background are completely genius. Part of it is the effect of surprise I’m sure, but I’m absolutely stoked about everything I hear on this cover tune, and I applaud Betweenzone for diving right into this tune with performative confidence.
If you remember their album Full Artificial Intelligence from back in 2019, you’ll remember this killer cut called “Bertolt Brecht” in that lineup – and they’ve now released an updated variation of that, or a sequel if you will for this new record, called “Bertolt Brecht II.” It is more than eight and a half minutes long, and it completely SLAYS y’all…like…I wanna make this the soundtrack to EVERYWHERE I choose to drive for the next year ahead. It’s a HUGE jam and collage of all-things-awesome dear readers, dear friends…it’s jazzy, it’s digital, it’s progressive, it’s analog – it’s the mood, the moment, and the ANTHEM as far as I’m concerned – I freakin’ love how INTO IT Betweenzone is on this track! It also gives you a much clearer glimpse of how much they crush it on a musical level too, you know what I mean? A band like this with a singer as skilled as Dave is can often overshadow the great things about the music for many listeners out there, but there’s nowhere for that greatness to hide on “Bertolt Brecht II” and it shines the spotlight directly on the crucial role that EAST plays within this duo of talents. The skills you’ll find on this track should pretty much blow your mind y’all…the instrumentation, musicianship, sound-selection, and songwriting dynamics are second to none here at the end of this album. From the performance to the production, “Bertolt Brecht II” jams hard and continually entertains – and in the process, ends up being the wildest finale to Means Of Control any of us listening could have hoped for.
Find out more about Betweenzone at their official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/betweenzone
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