Unter Null, the diva of Aggrotech
Unter Null (below zero in German) is a project by Erica Dunham. It's hard to define clearly her music since she produced a variety of different songs of various styles. However, terms generally associated to her music are power noise, aggrotech, and even metal. I must reckon this kind of jargon does not speak to me much so I call it dark electro because it conveys a dark/sad atmosphere and it sounds overall very electronic. This is my term for calling stuff that many people would consider as "gothic", which in my opinion is not a totally wrong conception but I think "gothic" is usually referred to by the general audience as music-performed-by-satanists-in-churches-on-full-moon-nights. Which I obviously consider as a biased conception, to say the least, but this is not the topic of the day, so I will just say to me gothic is a state of mind rather than an appearance. Being gothic for me translates into "To be happily surprised, expect the worst!".
As for Unter Null, she says she was smarter than the average joe when she was in high school, which means she was always bullied as we can expect, and her dressing in black probably didn't help socializing either. The good thing is that being the "black sheep" as she calls herself probably helped forge her character and adds to the emotional dimension of her compositions. And talking about emotion, when listening to most of Unter Null's tracks, what strikes me most is how deep her music goes into my soul. I often shiver, just listening to her voice, even without getting the meaning of all the lyrics :D If you believe the saddest songs are also the most beautiful, then Unter Null surely deserves a place of choice in your music library. You can check out her official site here. And below a video of one of my favourite titles from Unter Null:
Links:
Unter Null playlist on YouTube
http://www.myspace.com/unternull
http://unter-null.net/