Lepht

but: first thing i noticed about this album is the total lack of gimmicks. no All Your Base samples, no 90s rap, nothing; just pure, classic synth technique with a flow like mercury and a sound that made me loop it twice. the production is excellent, the quality of the mix is eminently professional - i'd want to use this to get any club going, but i'd also listen to it in the bath, if you take my meaning. Synthetic Sinergy is a talented artist who can even use old-school tape slowdown-speedups and Daft Punk-esque robot voices without sounding stupid, and Waves of Energy is an album with some seriously consummate flair that i'd recommend to anyone with a liking for nice, deep beats, complex patterns and the good new days of trance.

L

first up, Klass, i'm sorry it took me so damn long to review this album. it wasn't because of the quality, believe me. second, review:

if you've never heard DJ Klass before, you'd be forgiven for going through the rest of the past albums and getting frustrated once you'd heard this one - it's a pretty strong change of direction, and it does show in comparison to the work he's done in the past. this is much more of a varied album, to the point that some of the tracks sound like they were written lightyears apart from each other - A Child's Art has all the mood swings of your average three-year-old, from the mass effect of the sampletacular Viva La Revolution to the quietly powerful Il Possedait Un Galerie Sur Paris. in this case, that's not a bad thing either - the range gives you an idea of just how versatile DJ Klass really is, more so than previous EPs, and showcases new elements like the use of the bongos and his increasingly artistic use of related samples; check the track Amy Lee to see some pretty damn cool things done with just a bassbeat, a Chinese melody and the natural rhythms of the human voice.

speaking of samples, though, watch out - some of the children's speech ones are a little on the creepy side. that's my sole complaint; A Child's Art even makes its porn music sound good.

L

whoa. this is completely different to the other Binary Mind stuff - it isn't an electro album, it's an audial travelogue. (see the description of the album for what i'm talking about.) for this, i have to admire it: i like unusual album concepts, and albums that hang together well enough to sound like a synthesis of ideas rather than a random collection of tracks, and Bloody Mary does that.

but damn, is the music ever weird. the massive gulf between this and, say, the Binary Mind CD1&2 is that the collaborators on this album seem to have a completely different style to the artist themselves, so i'm hearing all these harpsichord-esque synths and Argentinian folk melodies and shit and to be honest, i'm just weirded out. it's really not something you'd play for other people to dance to, and it's not something i personally would be able to listen to again. i guess if you like folk and electronica, this'd be your bag, but it's not exactly Gogol Bordello and i'd be lying if i said it would go down well with the usual denizens of either genre.

that said, it does have a very nice album cover.

Lepht

okay, so i'm a biased jerk. when i hear "Deutsche rap", i think Aggro Berlin and Sido. i don't think Seventies groove guitars, artistic album structure or social observation that actually observes more than crack, bitches and bling, and i sure as shit didn't expect this: Personen is a unique album, done in a bizarre style that sounds like the bastard child of hip-hop and indie rock.

because of this, obviously, it ain't gonna be everyone's thing. more traditional rap fans are gonna be pissed off to the core by the guitar motif - that Seventies groove i was talking about - that resurfaces under the skin of every single track on the entire album, even on tracks like Der Pate or Der Ethnologe where i would've said it really didn't fit with the song, and even though i speak both languages, it still weirds me out to hear an artist mish-mashing German and English together (Der Pate does this a hell of a lot, and it's not the only one).

but Personen shines through its faults. it runs like a play, or a vicious video documentary: the characters are fiction, but sharply observed and theatrically exaggerated so you recognise them from your own life, or from your own imagination. it's like a caricature of the city's inhabitants, or an exhibition of what we see of them, and it's something even those who hate groove, art and indie can empathise with. the vocals are smooth and flowing, the backing thematic if slightly repetitive, and the concept utterly unique. listen, and see if it changes your own impressions of your home's Personen.

Lepht

for a first EP on what sounds like low-grade equipment, this ain't bad, and Neural clearly knows his shit when it comes to using said equipment. this isn't classic ambient; it's got a much more cybernetic sound, and a high tempo despite its calm mood makes it a good mix-up for the middle of your chill tape. the relax factor's pretty high, on the same level as Zeropage's Ambient Pills album, so it's a pretty good stock EP for anyone who liked that.

i don't think there's enough in this genre. someone should make Neural an album cover; the Jamendo EPs and albums without them go unnoticed, and in this case, that's unjustified. there's a nice selection of tracks here, and they're not crap; for a taste, listen to Calculation.

its downside is that there *was* a bassline, obviously meant to be a good solid one, but it's been swallowed by the conversions the music's gone through. my advice? download, re-equalise, kick back and enjoy.

Lepht