Sonic Solutions – Timecode
Various Artists
Yay. Broken Toy’s remix of Damage’s Bringdanoise knocks spots off the original, it’s a heavy-set, clattering beast of a track that just gets the energy stacked up like plates at a carvery, before flinging them out at you frisbee style, smashing into the backs of your family’s heads. Digital Talk’s Far Side is a lot less dynamic than some of his older material, this seems to lose its way here and there; it lacks energy and most any point in the track sounds identical to the rest of it. Much less disappointing is XTra Unit’s Mutant Rebellion, a fucking great record. The energy here is just great, it’s tingling with excitement as it builds up classy line after classy line until the breakdown where it drops in about four seconds of Backstreet Boys (or is it N Sync) before getting seriously, seriously meaty. A. Fucking. Belter. We’re also in for quite a ride with Chromatone & Random’s Alien Hunterz, currently top of my list of tracks to play when the vicar comes round for tea. Except not. It’s busy, monu-metal stuff with more acidised scythe-slashes than you can lose your lunch to, together with a pulsating, twitching bassline. Phatmatix’s Human Poison has a neat sound, almost like it’s several years ahead of its time, beamed back through insane broadband connection. The riffs are all solid, there’s plenty of changes going on, and it straddles that line between kickin’ and too-hectic perfectly. Shift’s music has always been, for me, about as friendly as testicular cancer and once again the lad doesn’t fail to disappoint. Terror Former is just rude, its vibe seems to slightly ‘lag’ making it sound lazy, but then the layered rudeness and energy on the top keeps the flow going strong. Phyx’s Contraband is pure bread and butter for this end of the trance spectrum. It escalates like a dream, keeping you guessing as it goes along, with clashsplash percussion leading the way. By the time it finds its feet, it drops you headfirst down a waterslide-like riff that’s just a dream… utterly tight, effective, delicious music. Azax Syndrom’s Asnamus is better than some of his other more recent output. His sound seems to have got a little more sanitised lately, more in keeping with yer normal fullon stuff but this still has the fat energy that he made his name with. Still a far cry from his earlier material, and this sounds a little like early GMS to me. Anyway, it kicks and it rinses (in equal measures), with a midrange that’s to die for and carries you kicking and screaming along with it. The only one here that doesn’t really deliver is Artifakt’s Dendron. Notable for taking discord to a new limit with some atonal chimes, for some reason it’s limp and despite a corkin’ post-break drop, the production is a little too fluffy and negligible to do the tunes patterns justice. But anyway – cast that aside, and you’ve got one fuckin nice compilation here. Where Timecode used to be scary, scathing scratchy music, this stuff has combined that neatly with a fluid and addictive sound to create a wonderful, warm feel. Great stuff all round – we like.
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