002 Avant Garde – CandyFlip

A new album from these boys is long overdue, and big up to Candyflip for getting in there and releasing it. The vibe here is very different to what you may have expected, likewise different to pretty much anything else out there that could be competing for your money. The album moves through bouncy and melodic progressive, through to darker and crunchier nighttime moments, and then back out the other side. Eternal Sleep opens out smoothly and synchs into a Vangelis-like sequence. Vangelis. Very Vangelis. Modern Movement is magnetic as hell, and the midsection explodes into this big melody, sounding like a genetic hybrid mutant of something Son Kite had a nightmare about. It’s sort of gnarly, sort of uplifting, sort of fullon… and the overall effect is to throw legions of energy out at you. Myth Of An Angel moves well, but the euro-ey synth lines will put some people off this one. It’s a good high-end, but it’s very high, if that makes any sense; likewise Thunderblade, whose bubbly groove serves to hold the attention and vibe nicely enough. X-Istanz sees the melodic side burst through to the full, melodies definitely win the battle. Then on into the next phase, and Trapped In A Hypercube is instantly much deeper. And bloody good actually. Lower-set groove, a more bendy midrange, all works very well, and with a nice magnetism about it. Conscious Minds I love, it has an awesome gnarly groove, thundering around in the lower regions. Midrange sweeps and vocal cutups move around the middle in a way that reminds me of Hallucinogen’s Spiritual Antiseptic (not sure why). Clock Next Door brings the themes together, and does so somewhat messily, with quite a large melodic lead that seems to detract from the (interesting) stuff that’s going on lower down. Finally Irrational Impulses is all about hooks: the bass pumps along, the topend grabs you and is very euro-ey… opens up into some great stabs in the midrange, carrying it out into a cute, euphoria-friendly rushy finale. For me, Tegma work best when they’re building a darker pattern, morphing it along and getting all cinematic with it. The fluffier moments are good, and would definitely do the business at the right time.