Now this is different. A techno disc featuring rap vocals and guitar loops recorded by one of the music industry’s heaviest weights: Dino Cazares from Fear Factory! Yes, that is correct, it is actually different enough to become part of my collection; and I’m a metal head!
I believe a lot of the Triple J-listening community would have heard the first track off this, their debut album: ‘Underachievers’. From my point of view this is the catchiest and least disjointed of all the tracks on the disc; some which border on the self-indulgent. This is a shame, because at times you end up thinking to yourself, ‘if only he had have…’, or ‘only it were more…’. Anyhow, it is still an unusual and new sound, and I like it.
The artwork must have taken an age to create because it is so intricate, involving different backgrounds and images and all this stuff that looks so cool – it’s fantastic. Obviously the computer generated tuned had a big influence on the artwork, too. Cool, I am a big fan of computer assisted design. One thing that was also different was the length of the tracks. Often with techno you’re wading through tracks that seem to go on forever, but Junkie XL has been able to keep the songs down to the typical three to four minute, radio-friendly limit with only a few tunes running long.
If you don’t already have this, then get it. Hey, even I have a copy and I’m supposed to hate techno. But I don’t really; that’s just the common perception.
3.5/5
