Date: Aug 4, 2005
Text: Damion
Taken from: www.psyreviews.com
Vote: 8/10

Debut album from new Paris label Red Cells completely overturns the idea of what you’d expect from a French label – no sign of Talamasca, less still of Triptych, and some pretty tuff bits to boot. Silicon Sound open up with Modulate, a perfectly decent opener with nice floaty melodies (as you’d expect) but it doesn’t really catapult you where it promises it might, before Chromatone comes steps forth with Automagic. It’s a harder-edged sound for him with the melodies bouncing nicely on top of a tuff backbone, a bit like a “more South African” protoculture if you see what I mean. Artifakt’s Razor has a huge-ass breakdown that drops into a nice, chunky groove with plenty of space and a suggestion of incoming darkness jostling with topend flurries. Phyx takes things a generous step in the dark dir ection, Ghost Blade being a manic and frenetic stomp towards the darkness. Belting: the final breakdown and stomptastic last run just beggars belief! Triskell’s Tensegrity is another killer, and sure reason to kepe an eye out for this guy. Gnarly as hell, but with this sort of European finesse to it, much more stylistic than you’d expect to fit in well with the SA and Israhell artists. I love the middle percussive run, which doesn’t segue as much as explode into the final run of mayhem-with-a-twist – it whips you up but leaves the floor firmly holding for the big one when you drop your bigger guns…. Such as Sonic Machine by Phatmatix vs Audiobrains. Utterly huge, it rips at you before making eyes at your girlfriend and nicking off with your wallet, going through it looking for drugs, eating it and then chucking it on the floor. And then it shits on it. On your wallet. Shits on your wallet. The ever-lovely Digital Talk is back with Mathematrix, one of their more energetic tunes latel y, it’s got that spark right from the start. The sounds flying around on this one are cracking, it reminds me of old GMS (when they were truly growling and mad – know what I mean?) and it’s got that full nighttime gnarl about it. Phatmatix is up again with Back To Earth, kicking off with full power black chai dark madness, then dropping a beat before heading into a caustic-autistic breakdown and on into an anti-anthem that’ll really get the dancefloor motoring. Phew. Luckily Blue Planet Corporation is on hand to ease it all downhill, a very nice slice of what the man himself used to do so well (more! please!). It’s a nice album this, pitched mostly at the nighttime crowd, with the majority of the tunes fitting that hectic bracket. A fluid, tight album with some great moments.