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The music relies heavily on bassy, machine-like noises, with vocal snippets, whirs, clicks, and other fragments of sound placed over the top in various abstract ways. The tracks generally sit somewhere towards the bottom end of the speakers, and as such a feeling that something is missing at the top end permeates a lot of the tracks. Not to say that the music is poor – in fact the creativity on show is quite astonishing – it all just seems a little sparse. Some highlights – "Part III" builds up from the distorted chirpings of electronic chaffinches into a very industrial machine-like rhythm, often twisting and turning around slithers of glacial melody. "Part IV" starts off with swathes of an electrical storm, before descending into another mechanical beatscape. On the whole though, the album left me feeling a bit empty. There are enough sparse beats and bangs, bumps and grinds in here to satisfy the discerning heads, but not really enough character that suggests something new to offer. Also, on the whole, the tracks are unnecessarily long (some clocking in at more than nine minutes each!). Autechre has its moodiness, Squarepusher has his jazziness, Aphex has his lush melodies – I just feel Neiteler needs something to hold the abstraction together before it really hits its own individual spot. MIKE WHYTE |
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