Drugs, lots of drugs.

---

Review of Pendulum Live at the Arches on the First of November.

6 hours of electro brilliance @ The Carling Academy

---

Well it looks like I picked a doozy for my first review of a live gig, the Radio Soulwax Fancy Dress Hallowe'en Party.

---

Whilst X-Factor is winning the TV ratings war in the search for the perfect pop act, Hybrid has released yet another genre-busting album combining orchestral backing and dirty complex breaks with pop vocals and melodies.

Should the thousands of hopefuls be looking to the Swansea-based dynamic duo for inspiration, or is their new album I Choose Noise not quite what the judges are looking for?

---

I had real trouble reviewing this album. I kept putting it on with the full intention of sitting down, listening and critiquing. Problem was, I just kept 'forgetting' to pay attention. Okay, the first couple of times could be put down to tiredness/restlessness/having something on your mind. The 8th or 9th time? Let's face it, my life just isn't that interesting (or eventful). The promotion leaflet I received with the CD stated that, lyrically, the album dealt with the trials and tribulations of life "...whilst presenting an upbeat way to survive and get through it all". That, I'm afraid, is a lie. This album is not upbeat. It has, altogether, one tempo. That tempo is 'dirge'. The opening track, Stay, was a strange amalgamation of Muse-like progressive rock, 80's electronica (complete with 80's sounding lead vocalist) and James Bond theme. In fact, alot of the album listens like it was written for the dark and rainy action sequences of films like Batman Begins. ...

---

Dance music eh? I like it. I don't like sitting around listening to it. It's called dance music for a reason and that reason ain’t sitting around your flat while reading a book with it on in the background. Unless you’re on drugs of course. Which is where Shaun comes in. Shaun’s invited a few pals up. Shaun’s my flatmate and he’s on a couple of pills. So are all his pals apart from Swifty who’s just drinking. Me? I’m out of my tits on painkillers and pale ale. This is my only chance to review this album in a state where I actually wanna hear dance music. Let’s get it on. “That’s fucking eerie”. The first words anyone has said since the album started. Shaun mutters them about 20 seconds in and he’s summed it well enough. After a load of shite talking about 80s movies Shaun cuts in again “This music’s amazing for getting out your nut. Takes about twenty minutes minutes to get going then it pure bursts in.” It actually takes two minutes twenty six seconds but it does...

---

This single was mixed by Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, who commented about his involvement with the band; "I get approached all the time to work with bands and 99% of the time I have to pass because I've heard it all before. Darkwater have a sound wholly their own and that originality is what attracted me to them. And the band just fucking rocks!" A huge compliment to live up to and Darkwater certainly do their best to do so. This band is fronted by “alternative” model, Lora but they are a Glasgow based electro-rock band. Lora was recently voted a Super Vixen by readers of Bizarre magazine. What does that even mean? Perhaps more interestingly, Jagermeister have just signed the band up for sponsorship and with this the band have been booked to headline the White Air Extreme sport festival on the Isle of Wight on 1st September and The London Edge alternative fashion festival in Olympia the following day. It certainly appears that someone somewhere wants this band to...

---

New album from Canada-based duo Chromeo

---

If you're looking for music that grabs you by the throat, you won't find it here. If you're looking for something to stick on in the background while you grab someone else by the throat, you could do a lot worse. Vuneny started started out doing film scores, a fact which is readily apparent from their sound. Floaty, ethereal (if we lived in a world where it were possible to use the word "ambient" and have it mean what it's supposed to, I'd throw that in too) electronic rock crossover stuff, drawing influences from trance, dub, drum 'n' bass and elsewhere, managing to be remain original without ever really becoming engaging. At their best—the jagged-edged, dub-flavoured Curse of Sound—they still sound like a rather bored version of Tomahawk. Essentially, what the album lacks is emotional impact. Without a film to accompany it (it screams "movie score" from start to finish) there's not really anything there to connect to. As music to pop on while you're...

---

No, this is not a pro-fascist project. This is in fact a Speedcore project from Techno legend Oliver Chessler. Stepping outside the trend of reviewing new material, let’s take a look back and give some well deserved recognition to Oliver Chessler's Speedcore project, DJ Skinhead. The glory days of Gabber are well and truly over, but a few recent genres have developed in the same direction, mainly Digital Hardcore. It’s no surprise that a record like this manages to slip through the net unnoticed, it has connections to a certain thug culture that listens to it. Putting that stigma aside, this is pure vitriolic Speedcore at its finest. We're talking heavy, pounding bass lines with some seriously cool Techno progressions. High pitched synthesizers cut through each chorus with marching lyrical chants from Oliver Chessler himself. “The Pain Mix” of Extreme Terror has got some Metal influences in it, with grinding guitar and vocal screams. By far one of the best tracks on...

Rising Canadian DJ's new record

---

This sometime LCD Soundsystem remixer's has just fallen out of a time capsule. Dated beats and bleeps dominate this sluggish record, even the cover versions are caked in dust, Burning Down The House and Down In it? But first the good stuff, Louder Than A Bomb is a great slice of raved up rap and You Want Me is great camp dance pop. But even then there's tracks wouldn't even be Moby bsides, they're everything you would expect to hear on something ten years ago, not in 2006. The main problem with Sexor is that it never really gets going, the beats never hit hard or fast enough and the melodies aren't usually there, especially when a song such as Good As Gold is starting to catch your interest you find yourself wauting for something to happen. And at sixteen tracks being bored is offensive. www.tiga.ca and his album is out now.