in case you weren’t aware, this homage to glam infused krautrock styled motorik grooves is actually the latest project by steve webster and toby jenkins.
having released music on the ever wonderful memphis industries label as fort lauderdale (the brilliant pretty monster still gets plenty of airtime @ ireallylovemusic hq), and then the darker synthetic moods of black neon, the lads have since packed up their bags and moved camp over to dc recordings to make this eccentric 35 minute album.
starting off as they mean to continue, the album heads straight for the heart of the matter with a catchy riff and melody slice of weirdness, infinity plus one, a track that morphs into black forest gateaux, a brilliant instrumental full of thobbing sequencers and analogue synths.
clearly someone has been picking up some old keyboards off ebay/studio clearouts, as these 2 combined tracks create a great 7 minutes opener to the album that sets down the way the rest is going to play out.
basically over the 10 tracks on offer, the album is split between longer heavier instrumental grooves that invoke such associations to kraftwerk and even tangerine dream, whereas the shorter traditional radio friendly songs are pure t-rex.
the creeper has to be a closest vocal nod to marc bolan ever.
all of which makes this album a severe case of audio schizophrenia. however, when it works, it really works.
major blitzkrieg and the albums centrepiece, moto neurono, are by far the most interesting tracks, where the lads prove that after years of hiding their dance floor desires they just want to hit the beat and ride with it and layer on top some mad guitar licks. if they had made a whole album of psychedelic techno glam jams, then i would be probably declaring this as my album of the year.
as it is, the schizoid nature can make the album feel somewhat unsettled.
none more so than little switch, a song that in demo form probably sounded great fun, but in reality is nothing more than one chord and a repeated vocal.
this small hiccup aside, and focusing on the good’uns (ie. the rest of the album), you cannot help but want to turn up the volume and rejoice in the combination of simplistic bass lines, layered guitars, and machine noises. clearly the involvement from j. saul kane, aka depth charge, on the mix has added some extra all important oomph factor to the end results, as the album sounds great.
now, if only they’d do an oasis, and release an epic 23 minute (if not longer) version of moto neurono, a monster sized riff-n-groove that’s just too damn good to leave to hidden away on the album.
more detail : here