They're dispelling something here...I'm not sure what...perhaps the notion that modern electronic music must be either 'intelligent', ie complex home listening, or 'dance floor-friendly' (you know what that means). Either way, this is big, meaty, bouncy album that carries the weight of what you want from butt-shakers (did I really say that?) with a lot more going on in terms of arrangements and ideas. With the big bursts of cheesy quaver strings on 'Handsome Talks The Talk' come thundering drums, cymbal breaks and all manner of mixological shenanigans (yes, shenanigans, I've been wanting to write that for ages). Many influences, but thankfully no absolute genre-bound numbers here. 'I Shouldn't Even Be Here' sounds like a title to suit anyone who's been in the wrong club, and it starts as a sluggish, distorted beat before gradually taking off at a brisk march towards a kind of ecstatic triumph that's still tinged with dread. They programme a mean break, one strong enough to carry a tune and constitute it's core, on 'In The Bull Run'. Boomkat compares the piano on 'Statical' to Keith Jarrett, but I don't know which of his albums they've been listening to, and it doesn't matter because any reviewer of a modern electronic album who can shoe-in KJ is all right by me, even if it isn't appropriate. Can I mention Bud Powell, just for the hell of it? They end on a Schaefferesque note, in which there aren't many notes at all, but lots of silence, and what sounds like the non-silence of a record running in music-less grooves. Just fine, that is. Oh, and an electric bass gets a look in, a lovely touch on 'Watching The Ships Go By'. File under 'Post-Shackleton Next Level Prog Beat..er...whatever...but don't quote me, please.
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