EX-PI-ATE [ek'spe-at] - 1. To make amends or reparations for; atone: expiate one's sins by act of penance.
Italian Industrial Dance with pounding beats, pumping electro power hooks and true grit with strong similarities to Icon of Coil and Nitzer Ebb! This album, "Hrs:Min:Sec", was produced by Sebastian Komor of Icon of Coil. If you've ever heard their music before, imagine a HUGE growth by this young band!
"You simply cannot afford to let this EBM artist slip past your dance floor as the music of XP8 will, no doubt, be taking dance music fans to the centrifuge of lust's passion and explicit seduction, even if they must cross a downtown city street to enjoy it! Where did they come from? How did they surface so quickly from within the darkness of the EBM underground?" - www.sickamongthepure.com
The three members of XP8 keep on doing what they started doing: making music. The songs which became the album that was "Forgive" was released in several forms [to the power of "n"]. What for the group was a self produced demo, quickly worked its way across the globe. XP8 performed live, and they continued their craft in the studio, producing remix after remix, cutting new material, experimenting, exploring, writing, recording, waiting. It was all a question of time.
After splitting with their old label [blood was given, and taken], XP8 formed new partnerships: In America they signed to Statik Sky, ensuring, finally, efficient Stateside distribution and support. After lessons learnt the hard way they decided to entrust their new material to Sebastian R. Komor [Icon of Coil/Moonitor/Monofader], who became their producer.
Then XP8 entered the studio and began to take the ideas they had and made them take form. As the words evolved a theme emerged, "time". Each song was linked by the tick, tick, tick, of seconds passing. Thus "HRS:MIN:SEC" was born.
As the recordings neared completion, the German record label Infacted Recordings became their European label, and shortly thereafter also Nilaihah Records came into the picture as the band's new American label. Now we wait for "HRS:MIN:SEC" to be released, while the street date has alreaedy been announced: September 20th, 2005.
XP8 is a trilogy. Marco Visconti, Paul Toohill and Marko Resurreccion. All three play their part in the music making process. Paul writes, and sings the words. The group is based in Italy, the members are a mixture of Italian, English and a little bit of "unknown". The songs are formed in the Blue Cat Studio, Rome, Italy.
"XP8 provides the soundtrack to the countdown of the end of time. Or at least the end of regurgitated electro dance. Italy's XP8 manages to forge a backdrop of industrialized dance not properly heard since Nitzer Ebb inspired Icon of Coil. Speaking of Icon of Coil, their very own Sebastian Komor produced the album. The pulse pounding beats are tantalizing amid a mesmerizing sonically manipulated trance-inducing synth-pop melody. Futuristic music this good doesn't wait for the masses to catch up, instead groundbreaking pumping EBM like this will allow its message to be spread from dance floor to dance floor across the world played by the world's finest and in tune DJs."
--J-Sin @ Smother.net
"Brimming with potential club hits, XP8's latest release cements the Italian band as one of the EBM scene's most promising up-and-comers. Incorporating elements of trance and pop, such tracks as "Bleed and Shout" and "Purity" layer irresistible vocal hooks over hard but upbeat techno rhythms and symphonic synthesizers. "Dreamt of Blue" is slower but still thumping, a bit reminiscent of Covenant, while "Escape Velocity" is more like Covenant on amphetamines, with the dramatic vocals intact but the tempo cranked up to a frantic pace. XP8 are also huge Nitzer Ebb fans, and recently teamed up with Icon of Coil's Sebastian R. Komor to release a tribute album to the EBM legends. The influence is pretty subtle on most of Hrs:Min:Sec, but becomes glaringly apparent on "Cuttin 'n' Drinkin," right down to the reverberating shouted vocal work. "Flatline" also reveals a more classic EBM aesthetic, but despite a plethora of computerized analog bleeps and electro rhythms, it doesn't sound at all dated. Less derivative of many of their peers in the scene, XP8 have already developed a unique but accessible sound. If you enjoy such artists as Covenant and Apoptygma Berzerk but are sick to death of all the bands imitating them, check this album out for a refreshingly different take on dark electronic dance."
--Matthew Johnson @ Grave Concerns
"XP8 is the growing EBM power-offering by Nilaihah records, boasting production by Icon of Coil's Sebastian R. Komor. XP8's line-up is Marco Visconti, Marko Resurreccion, and Paul Toohill. As I've come to expect from Nilaihah, HRS:MIN:SEC is cut from the purest technological stock; Sharp, clean, and precise."
-- Shaun Phelps @ Chain DLK
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