Xenofish - Decoder

[Trance2MoveU]

Artist: Xenofish
Title: Decoder
Label: Self-Released
Date: October, 2013

01 - Rise Against Myself (90 BPM)
02 - Broken Interface (120 BPM)
03 - Spectral Edges (180 BPM)
04 - Forward (180 BPM)
05 - Sanctus (176 BPM)
06 - Rea (176 BPM)
07 - Arashi (176 BPM)

This is the sophomore effort of Christian Becker and I like to think it's the companion album to his debut the same year Encoder.  Rise Against Myself brings rich electronic hums and a hard beat.  What a great downtempo intro that is clearly not taking it easy.  Broken Interface is the sound of artificial intelligence coming online and becoming aware.  If this wasn't part of the cyber-futuristic theme this would come off as just noise.  It still might, but it fits and it helps illuminate the type of world he wants to place you in.  The machines are back, and...they don't seem happy.

3rd track BOOM!  Drum n Bass.  The bpm's are very high, but the breaks still rule!  And out of this one comes a nice, groovy rhythm and then almost imperceptibly it became a dnb track again.  Well done.  Forward and Rea are a brutal assault that will pin you back with their rapid fire arpeggiated leads and thundering percussion.  The break in Rea is so welcome, I can almost hear myself panting with the faded drums in the background.  Where as Encoder ended with a soft ambient closer Arashi is more in your face carnage, but softened slightly by the ethereal vocals of Hatsune Miku.

I love futuristic music and if your thing is electronic mayhem with a science fiction theme then this is your guy,  The production is out of this world and I applaud him for not just making an empty drum n bass album with little variety.  It is an intense, almost too much voyage, but the skill he employs is amazing.  It's like...electronic surgery.    

 

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