CD Review: Huoratron, Tribune & Datsik

Review by Steve K

Huoratron: Cryptocracy

I literally can’t get enough of this album.  The songs here might not necessarily be recognized as “music” by mainstream listeners; this one is pure, cutting-edge of Big Beat Electronica.  Diverse digital noises are looped into repeating patterns and then layered together, creating a mosaic of sound that evokes rhythms and progressions all its own.

Each of the long, technically complex songs that make up Huoratron’s debut album are hypnotic, rhythmic, addictive and manic.  Since I ripped and uploaded this one to my MP3 player, I’ve literally not been able to stop listening to it, and I can’t imagine getting bored of this one any time soon.

The songs are also begging to be passed around to other DJs and MCs on the scene, to be mixed, remixed and reshaped into wholly new entities.  The music here is unbelievably rich and complex for the genre, and such songs are always greeted favorably in the fold.

I’ve enjoyed this one so much I’m only taking partial marks off for the missing metadata on the disc.  I wholeheartedly recommend this to any fan of Electronic music; ‘Cryptocracy’ is a definite keeper.

Huoratron: Cryptocracy – 9.5/10

Last Gang

Tribune: Elder Lore – The Dark Arts

This album combines the contemporary elements of Melodic Metal with the more classical complex progressions and changes used by veterans of the genre’s Golden Age groups. Bryan Baher’s vocals are brilliant: one minute he’ll be screeching, growling and roaring as the drums and bass and guitar fire machine gun volleys and artillery blasts of music, then, stopping on a dime, he’s singing downtempowith fluid grace.

Tribune explore different ideas on each of the songs on the album; from overtly paying tribute to Alan Moore’s work on the Swamp Thing title back in the 1980’s with “It Came From the Swamp” to entering the mind of a serial rapist/murderer (who may or may not be the cursed Paul Bernardo) on “Chemistry Arrives”.  I’m not entirely sure, but I think “We The Black” may be an ode to Tyler Durden’s Project Mayhem.  If so, it’s a fitting tribute.  But perhaps most brilliant on this one is the album’s final song, “The World’s Greatest Cynic”,an indictment of war as seen from the soldier’s point of view as he comes to realize just what it is he’s doing.

All the songs here are thought-provoking, taking us briefly into the world as seen through the lenses of darker eyes than our own.  It’s the type of music whose content might actually start some great discussions among friends about pretty much any of the song’s topics of interest.

Tribune prove themselves an imaginative, intelligent and technically proficient band on ‘The Elder Lore – The Dark Arts’; if you’re a Metalhead, you should definitely be listening to this one.

Tribune: The Elder Lore – The Dark Arts – 9/10

Independent

Datsik: Vitamin D

For those of you who like their Dubstep with a little O.G. Hip-Hop flavor with a dash of Trip-Hop thrown in for spice, perk your ears up for ‘Vitamin D’, the first full length release from virtuoso, Datsik.

Sounding like a cross between the Propellerheads, The Crystal Method, early DrDre, a Chrome-Toaster model Cylon and the sound effects board from ‘Tron: Legacy’, Datsik’s style is distinctive and immediately recognizable.  It’s a fun, trippy, loud and layered album, a solid addition to the Dubstep pantheon.

Datsik has worked in the past with artists such as Steve Aoki, The Crystal Method, and the Wu-Tang Clan, and reciprocally, there are a few distinct voices added to this album, including Jonathan Davis, on [Track 5].  Oh, yeah that’s right! This one’s missing metadata too – particularly irksome, as I was sent a digitally watermarked CD.  Again, record companies: if you can take the time to watermark the CD, you can take the time to add the artist and track name info to the disc!

Once again, this glaring oversight mars an otherwise perfect CD.

Datsik: Vitamin D – 8/10

Dim Mak