From the Forced Exposure website "In
January 2000, after several smaller publications, Contriva released their first
real studio album (Tell Me When). Now, about a year later, they bless us with
a double-CD. The first CD in the set offers us a look at their earlier publications:
the first tape and the first 10 inch (both still under the name of Zimt), the
second 10 inch and the two singles (all on lok-musik); also there are three hard-to-get
sampler-contributions. The CD documents the musical evolution of the Berlin-natives
within the span of 1996 to 1999. Formed as a trio (Max Punktezahl-guitar, Masha
Qrella-Bass, Hanns Lehmann-Drums), their first recordings still had a nervous
postrock sound to them. It was after Rike Schuberty (keyboards) joined the band
in the beginning of 1997, that increasingly songoriented structures of the still
instrumental tracks became a distinct trademark of Contriva. This development
continued on Tell Me When. The second CD contains eight remixes that were done
within the closer and closest circles of friends and colleagues around Contriva.
The songs of the band have been radically worked over, while the melancholy mood
of the original material has impressively been preserved. From Iso68, Tom Thiel
(Sun Electric) and Jan Jelinek (Farben) Contriva have been done over for electro-lounge-compatibility.
Joerg Burger (Modernist) delivers a pop-version that invites you to sing along
on the dance-floor. Once there you can sway melancholically to the Superpitcher
Mix of Stuck. Isan deliver a do-over of Sure Enough, Ragazzi make Contriva sound
like Depeche Mode and Chris Flor (Komeit) charms the melodies of Contriva into
silent beauty."