Starting off with a hard mix of industrial's slamming guitars, drum 'n' bass' quick drum beats, and a lot of screaming, "It" begins the CD. The music itself is good. The guitar slashes through the song with lots of angst, while the drum beats jab and run all over the song. But the one thing that is annoying about this song are the vocals. Most of the time they are over bearing and back the music into a corner, allowing it no room to breath. Other times they are decent, distorted and blending in with the guitar as they scream out loud, which occurs near the middle and end of the song. But the damage has been done in the beginning. "9:59" slows the pace down a bit. Rather than throwing brutal guitars screaming into your ears, they tone everything down a bit and compose a number that leans more into the drum 'n' bass spectrum of the genre rather than the industrial side. The vocals are dark and hidden, peeping their head out of the door as they sing over music. But during the chorus they fully expose themselves and come out and release their vengeance on you. The drums are light and fluffy, as they speed through the song, but the rest of the song is predominately slower than "It." The vocals do scream and add a little speed to the song, which contrasts the song most of the way through, but the internal heart of the song is a mid tempo number. "Ex" is a quick, one minute and fifty five second song that goes nowhere. A bunch of space-y signatures swirl through the song, while the bass pulses through the music. Very quite and light, it seems to serve the purpose of a "relaxer" before their next number. If this is the case, it does its job, but seems very out of place doing so. "Other Voices" is a ravers delight. Deep vocals enter in over a very dance-driven beat. A techno meets dance/rave song with a bit of an industrial feeling. Listening to this song, I imagine a bunch of kids dancing and going crazy, as the wild club lights spread throughout the crowd. Light bounces off the moving bodies, all the while the DJ is up on stage spinning this number. "An Airport Bar" finishes off the CD with some more industri-ave beats, this time lasting eight minutes. A bit too long for my attention span, though.

For anyone that is a fan of drum 'n' bass as well as industrial, and would like a band that combines the two, this is the band for you. At times they can be very angry and scream their heads off, while other times they trade in the screams for dark and deep vocals spread out over a dance beat. I'll give this CD a B.

Cryptomnesia: Hypnerotomachia

Cuffs, The: Bottoms Up

[Issue Eight // May 1998]