last time round the hexstatic boys went for the full on audio-visual excess, with the album having an accompanying dvd of 3d video grafx. given certain circumstances, i suspect it was quite a headfuck and could be said to be superfluous to the music on offer.

this time round they have gone back to their well known electro roots and just focused on their collection of analogue noise making toys, and synth pads to create a rather wonderful set of timewarped tunes.

using a consistent palette of sounds throughout, the album has a solid 80s electro-funk sound that fans of les digitales rhymes will lap up. of course, this could also attract the naysayer’s giving it the its all been done to death accusations, but let’s ignore them, and just enjoy the loops on offer.

the album opens with a great triple bill including the superb goldfrap-esque roll over , as exposed on the recent 12″ sampler, so its not until later in we get to new material.

of which, the mad sequencing of the paul hardcastle sounding prom night party is a perfect slice of early rave pop that will have boys and girls gyrating in all the rights night spots, and tlc descends into a frazzling intelligent d-n-b after a rather nice ambient opening. the hard stereo phased vocoder parts make headphone listening a dizzying experience to say the least.

move on feature uk rap future stars, profisee and ema j, on top of the sparkling production, but doesn’t gel in quite the same way as his appearance on the hilarious subway, in which profisee goes on about the underground, and hits  vocal perfection where his style interacts with the jittering synths in such a way that it makes for an addictive hook heavy combination. from this urban hitter, we get the completely superficial, ed banger styled mash of dirty analogue noises with lab rat interlude, with added distorted vocoders to make for a fun few minutes in which someone harps on about being like a lab rat. not exactly deep and meaningful, but a lot of fun. which is more than can be said for the final section of the album, the instrumental newtons cradle and newaves, that feel to drifts on with their love for clipped digital presets, and don’t really connect for some reason, all the usual ingredients are there, but i don’t feel them.

thankfully, though the album closes on a blinding finale, with the welcome return of the bleep we can at last throw our arms in the air and rejoice, especially as the bleep is strapped onto a huge justice pilfering track, bust.

a simple but effective keyboard riff, a vocal snippet here, an s’express sample there (probably not s’express, but hey - you get the picture!), with even a klaxon appearing in the mix, and that’s it jobs done, except for the needed speak-n-spell sample advising see you next time, and for all the slight concerns that the album is not exactly breaking any new ground, and in fact often re-treads several well worn paths, i genuinely look forward to it.

 

more detail : here