Request (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Request
Type = Album
Artist = The Awakening


Released = April 1998
Recorded = 1997 Nytesound Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
Genre = New Romantic
Length =
Label = Intervention Music Youngside (USA)
Producer = Ashton Nyte
Reviews =
Last album = "Risen"
(1997)
This album = "Request"
(1998)
Next album = "Ethereal Menace"
(1999)

"Request" is the second album by the South African gothic rock band The Awakening released during April 1998. Taking a step towards the New Romantic sound, "Request" brought the band more exposure and club rotation with three singles as well as their first music video for "Rain."

Recording

Following the release of "Risen", the vocalist and band leader Ashton Nyte invested to a small digital studio and began to record the album by himself. On this album, the band embraced the electronics and industrial music sounds of 1980s new romantic movement. The production improved over "Risen", and the overall sound is calmer, mellower and darker than the previous album. The electronics gave a more ethereal, danceable touch to "Request". As a result, The Awakening began to achieve more notice in the mainstream. The singles "Maree", "Rain" and "Before I Leap" saw relatively good success in the radiostations and clubs, and more tours followed.

The new romantic influence impressed some record companies, and a music video was shot for "Rain" by the director Katinka Harrod. The video was shot in the middle of winter and it was dangerous for Nyte who performed under icy water during filming, painted black and hosed clean for other scenes. However, the video brought more public exposure for the band, and the video was shown on television. [cite web |url= http://www.awakening.co.za/ |title= The Awakening |accessdate= 2007-09-23 |author= Nyte, Ashton |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2006|work= Awakening.co.za |publisher= |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]

In March 1999, the album was re-released on Nyte's own label Intervention Music and lisenced to US via Youngside. The bonus track on the re-issue, "The Safety Dance," is a cover of the hit by the 1980s synthpop band Men Without Hats. "Myst" is an instrumental outro consisting mostly of piano and dark electronic sounds.

Track listing

#"Request"
#"To Give"
#"Rain"
#"Carnival"
#"Before I Leap"
#"Maree"
#"Tamzin"
#"Marked"
#"In the Unholy"
#"Where Roses Grow"
#"Myst" Bonus tracks on United States re-release:
#"Before I Leap (dub-coma mix)"
#"The Safety Dance"
#"Request (reprise)"

References