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Archived Reviews
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The duo of Ttam Troll & MC2P4 have been around making a unique style of electro-industrial music for many years now. Indeed the material on this album dates from 1991/92 (although this special edition saw the light of day in 2004) & while the mix of FLA-type vocals with dark industrial synths with a mood & approach that has a strong new-wave/post punk feel (the authentic-sounding bass work of "Strafing Children" & "Limerick Lights" being the most obvious manifestations of this) might make it sound a bit dated it has actually stood the test of time pretty well, making for an album that's ripe for re-discovering. The opening "Get Inside" acts as a good indication of the album as a whole, launching straight into its hard-hitting rhythmic path with a number of isolated dark melodic motifs contributing to what remains a no-frills feel. For the most part the tracks are pretty linear in nature, sounding pretty much the same from start to finish, an approach that usually makes for tracks that sound more like musical sketches than finished pieces but the duo easily avoid that particular pitfall is as a succession of bold & gutsy soundscapes take centre stage on tracks such as "Minds Curl", where gutsy synth sweeps & mutated voices set a gloomily abstract atmposphere over an incessant, mid-paced rhythmic backing & the quaintly-titled "Fuckin' Hippies" where the punchy rhythmic cascades provide the backbone to another ominous workout. Both "The Face" & the penultimate track "Virus" display a greater melodic presence which adds an extra dimension to the music without diluting the established no-nonsense feel, especially on the latter track where some very cool simulated siren effects (done via analogue pitch-bending) & accoustic-sounding percussion contribute towards a fuller sounding piece that really motors along. The obviously improvised mess that is "Prince Of Darkness" closes the album in a more freeform manner as an incessant yet shapeless rhythmic malestrom vies for space with some equally unfocussed quasi-melodic synth work before collapsing into a chaotic mess. Not the most successful track they've ever done but that's the nature of improvisation, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Overall, though, AQ? prove themselves to be an unjustly overlooked band who are still worth checking out. |
