CD Review

Provision – “The Consequence”

By Marcus Pan

In the midst of all the darkness, blarghy growly evilness of black metal (which I won't be reviewing), ambient amateur background music ensembles and same-same gawf rockers that have been plaguing my desk, among them shines a bright spot of happiness. Like an XtC tab in the midst of the used heroin injection needles, Provision beams happily amongst itself and its labelmates at Section 44.

Provision really have a happy groove. They tend to play a nice assortment of old-skool new wave a'la New Order; lots of brighter electronics and even keel male vocals that are more humanesque than other offerings in EBM and industrial genres. The band is a triad outfit made up of Breye 7x, Jen Foxx and Carlos Covarrubias. From the opening Ideal you are treated to smooth, if a little stock, electronic synth chords coupled with brighter keyboard melodies and male baritone vocals.

Behind your Disguise is surreally similar...even the chord progressions are dangerously close to the first track so already Provision start falling short a bit on imagination. Defying Culture on track 4 rings through before I realize I've made it 1/3 of the way through the album. I'm going to say something usual here, since The Consequence has a very usual sound: It's not that it's bad, just typical.

The album's namesake, The Consequence, is my first highlight of the album. Its got an interesting future-pop feel with slinky melodies and poppy beats and movements. Perversions of Conventional Warfare turned out to be a much happier sounding song than one would expect. Trust adds in a bit of brightness combined with lower-key bass rhythms.

The Consequence is certainly laid out well. It follows all the basic forms of electro-pop and EBM music. But it doesn't create any new forms for me. And that makes it a bit blasé really, and though listenable and pleasant to hear it doesn't remain with you and becomes a faded memory without much consequence at all despite its name. A staple provision on the EBM landscape.

Contact Information:
Provision
Post: 12742 Ave., Houston, TX, 77085, USA

Click to Buy!