Mortification Made Me is the debut EP from Osakan femme-driven Sawdust in Me (MySpace). Formed in 2005 Sawdust in Me is a female duo consisting of Haji (vocals and programming) and Hinowa (vocals and performance). The music is club-play ready with its combination of EBM and distorted breakbeats. However, what makes the CD special however, are the two vocalists whose diverging voices create the six vocal variants with two screaming, singing, spoken voices playing throughout the CD. An extra plus is that the work has been the re-recording and mixing by Jude from DeathWatch Asia. The combination of varied vocals and professional recording makes this CD something any club goer of J-Music lover would enjoy. Don’t be fooled by the cakes and pretty animals, that’s just a cover for the evil inside!
The first three songs, Define, Envy, My Way Out start out as straight dance floor tracks before the vocals kick in. Once the screaming begins the songs take on a more serious mien. As the two vocalists play off each other’s voice ranges, the songs become quite a deep listening experience without losing their pop-appeal. Thirteenth starts the heavy EBM beat and kicks in some radio-voiced vocals.
Substitute knocks you like a tsunami with evil bitch screams crashing down over the sound. Clever mixing of the music and vocals makes this a quite unique industrial track – almost, but not quite – as heavy as Despair. This is probably my favorite track of this EP.
The final track, Heaven, is the instrumental sign-off track featuring slow, heavy Gothic keyboards with glitch beats thrown in for added effect.
Overall, I find this CD to be a really accessible dance CD with the twin vocalists giving it a real kick as a unique piece of work, although I would have liked a couple more extended tracks going over four minutes. It is definitely worth checking out.
Mortification Made Me :: Track List
01. Define (3.00) – Sample
02. Envy (3.36) – Sample
03. My Way Out (3.03)
04. Thirteenth (3.28) – Sample
05. Substitute (2.47)
06. Heaven (2.49)
Total Time: 18 minutes
Price: ¥1000 / Euro 7.00
You can find distribution on the DeathWatch Asia distribution list or simply buy direct from Music Non Stop internationally.