Search - Frank Bretschneider, Taylor Deupree :: Balance

Beauty in the Details

Brian Young | Portland, OR, USA | 04/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been following these two artists for quite some time and have always looked forward to the two of them getting together for a project. This isn't the usual blend of near-silent laptop glitch tracks often associated with the whole Microscopic genre. In fact, a lot of that genre seems to be slipping away into pure silence indeed, with an occasional blip or static hiss that pans across your soundfield, sometimes damaging your speakers, tweaking and irritating your eardrum into droning stupor, and on occasion, even putting the listener into a cold sleep.I can assure you that there is much more to offer with this release, in fact I'd say it is one of the very best releases of the whole Microscopic genre, or whatever its being called these days. The usual pops, clicks and bleeps are evident throughout the disc along with panning insect static and electric bass trembles. The album is very fluid and flows well, taking you in and out of mainframe environments, digital pathways and rubber-metallic ecstasy. Bleeps, bells, whistles, static, hiss, bubbles, rumbles, rubbery kick drums, panning high-hat clicks, ticks, and telephone dial tones chug along like a humming electric train traveling through soldered silver highways. This is the sound of communication, pulsing through the wires of our electronic life.This is not cold, minimal static. This album has life, fluidity and emotion."