As a 16 year old kid, Jan Dewulf started making electronic music in the early 90's. Named after a Flemish saint, Mildreda was a dark electro project following the Belgian tradition of bands like The Klinik. When I saw him for the first time on stage I got hooked to the sound and the performance (I described him as the young blond haired god, look at him nowadays and notice the difference), it was in Sint-Niklaas! I managed to interview him right after the gig and became by accident the first guy who interviewed him, indeed back in the early 90’s!
After the first demo tapes evolved into an interesting melting pot of dark electronics with bombastic and melodic elements, Mildreda soon gained the interest of promoters and colleagues which led to fun and fascinating support gigs for bands like Plastic Noise Experience, Terminal Choice, Covenant and VNV Nation. Frustrated by the lack of decent studio gear and by the absence of any label deal, Jan Dewulf decided to set the project on hold. By the millennium switch, he started his new project, Diskonnekted, incorporating a lot of dance influences and thus leaving the darker electro path (signed to Alfa Matrix).
The rebirth started as a fun ‘one time only’ event in November 2009: a Mildreda reunion gig on a birthday-party. But after that some more gigs followed. Jan felt inspired to revisit his old dark electro roots and decided to produce some new Mildreda material. Between now and then Jan recorded 13 brand new Mildreda tracks, bringing back the sound of bands like Placebo Effect, Numb, yelworC, amGod, In Slaughter Natives or Mentallo & the Fixer, while other tracks will remind you of early Project Pitchfork. The sound is dark and haunting in a top notch production. Klinikal bombastic beats, sinister cold sequences and aggressive vocals are the main ingredients of Mildreda.
Now back to this new stuff: it starts with the logical title track: Aborted, that’s what happened for a few years and that’s how fans felt. The track has some Das Ich influences: bombastic electro with a dramatic feel. Erazor has a nice and bombastic feel, with cool effects on Jan’s voice. This Time is nice earworm of which I’m pretty sure it will be a hit on stage! Bright Side is not a sunny song, rather dark and cold with a modern sound, well worked out and pretty melodic! Anthem of Tomorrow sounds a bit like Diskonnekted, but sang with a bit more aggression in the voice. In this song I clearly hear the ideas of an atheist looking at the world around him. Into the Dark Night has some catchy synth touches making it very catchy and rendering the brightness! The title seems to fight with the sound, but hey that doesn’t make it a bad song! More darkness comes with Fire, sound wise it comes close to Diskonnekted: listen to the beats, the sound of the synths and the electronic drums and let me know if I’m wrong. How do we tell the kids is lyrically a great one. It feels like as if composed in the future, with a futuristic melodic touch. The background movie score remind me a bit of what I usually here whilst listening to any Whispers in The Dark record. More notes from the future enter with Flat earth Theory, whilst the title is referring to the past. I like the double flip between both! Stories goes further in the same way as the previous lyrics. The atheist is speaking, one can also say it’s the historical guy setting the stories from the past right, whilst the beats and melodies try to take you away from the contextual idea. The Parting was once covered by Heyaeb and played a lor during almost all the gigs (the track actually never ended on a Mildreda CD, so don’t even mind looking it up). As Jan told me this one was actually written before De Laffe Denker. You have to know that Jan was in the past part of this band too. I like this modern version. Rush has heavy bass play, the beats that count and the perfect sound. It sounds a bit like a raver, but with a harsh attitude. Pale Blue Dot goes deeper into real philosophy, taking you sound wise into trance and closing the regular version of this album.
Bonus
Originally recorded as a 17 year old future producer in his bedroom, a remastered version of the early tape De Laffe Denker (1996) is included as bonus material. This tape was the blueprint of the typical Mildreda sound. If you like the early stuff by Suicide Commando or Project Pitchfork, you’ll dig this early adventure. The Bomb is the first track and yes: you can still hear a bit that it is a demo, but it gives you a good idea on how he sounded in ’96. It’s raw, bombastic and heavy and I still adore it! Reality is a bit more worked out with a clavecimbel kind of instrumental add. The vocals are just great, just as the real drums. It just proves how good this band was actually in its early years!
Also included as bonus is a live gig recorded in Bruges (Belgium) on March 14th, 1998. Mildreda played as support for Plastic Noise Experience and Terminal Choice. A Shout is the perfect end for this record as it captures perfectly the live sound and the live feel from than, but also from now (just missing the live drums, here on data).
Well it’s clear that Jan has a nice past and a brighter future! I hope a lot of fans will dig this one as much as I did!
Mildreda anno 2016 is:
Jan: music and lyrics
Gwenny: live keys
