I immediately fell in love with Soviet's Candy Girl the first time my girlfriend made me listen to it. For a long time it was the only Soviet's song i knew, because their album "We Are Eyes, We Are Builders" (a quotation of 30's soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov) wasn't (& isn't still) released here in France. In fact, it was one of the very few tracks on the "Electroclash" compilation i found being really related to 80's synth-pop with its song structure & its openly (new) romantic feeling.

At last, i recently came across Soviet's first album on a US website & purchased it for my highest pleasure, for it stands aside the works of I Satellite, Vitesse or Colder (a french band) as one of the most thrilling example of romantic & melancholic synthpop ever created.
It comes very near to the level of 80's bands like O.M.D., The Wake, New Order, Rational Youth, Yazoo, early Clan of Xymox, John Foxx or Twice A Man (a time when dancing wasn't opposed to being sensitive).

Having by a mere chance came upon Keith Ruggiero's page on Myspace, i learned this present album existed & was actually available on CD Baby (where i ran). Being a former student of Film Art at Syracuse University (NY), Keith A. Ruggiero has developped a wide cinematic range of soundscapes aside his overtly new wave tendencies. This CD demonstrates that his compositions stand very well alone, without a single voice (except for a spoken intro on track 4, "Voyeur Capture", possibly an hommage to british director Michael Powell's movie "The Voyeur"), and is an alternative to dancefloor-friendly headbanging electro.

Some tracks are available on KAR's website with different titles, as "Construct" with its "Thieves Like Us"(New Order)-like rhythm, or "Call To Arms" (previously called "Carey Grant"), but this is overall a must-have for every Soviet & electro-wave fan.
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