Search - Bobby Karate :: Hot Trips, Cold Returns

It seems the experimental mathematics of this surreal jolt-in-the-ass are trying to construct audio landscapes in your eardrums. This is truly music for the advanced listener; one must unfocus his or her attention to really comprehend what is going on. There's a strangely hypnotic harmony in the piercing highs and crackling mids, resurrecting an Aphex-Twin-like mystique; a cerebral meltdown you'll fall victim to when you forget the album playing. The music in the anti-musicality here is what's to be embraced.

Track five, "Jay's Object," contains the versatility shown throughout. A popping bassline stabilizes the track which otherwise might be absolute jargon; assault with a hybrid of a cow bell and an uzi, swirling static distortion, and all manner of random tweets and highs set over a mild and robotic canvas.

The effects capitalized on deserve appreciation as well - ghosting, mono-toned pitch shifting, and time stretching - to name a few - are completely rewired and formatted into something Richard D. James would even tip his hat to.

Track nine, "The You Know Who Labor," is about the most fun on the album - it appears an electric guitar is tortured with echoes, reverbs, and a beating and unrelenting bassline that all the synth-washes and sonic perversions revolve around.

As a whole, the record is similar to dropping a 15" subwoofer in a bowl of Rice Krispies - very glitchy, all skipping and slipping, with unexpected fades and switches. You never know what to anticipate, and if this type of digital-analog warfare is your particular forte it's a nice ride. Completely mindless, yet precise and calculating. --Ian Toth / 30music[dot]com