Although it is true you'll be dancing non stop throughout this album, the fact remains that it gets very repetitious at times, often dull, and loses all the creative energy that makes it spark. "Infrarot," the opening track, for example, continues with the same beat, beat, beat of the drum machine, throwing in various instrumentation to keep things lively, and adding more drum and bass sounds as the song progresses, even popping in with a synthesizer. But, the foundation on which the song is built never changes, and even with all the mixing up and additional material he throws in -- which helps keep the songs very lively and entertaining for three minutes or so -- after its time is up, the song still continues on. Basically, each song over stays its welcome. If you listen to each song for the first three minutes though and then jump to the next one, you might find more joy.

The repetition and lengthy songs are hard to ignore. Though he shakes and stirs up each song, the contents still manage to sink to the bottom and bring the song down. If you're looking for a disc to make you dance and you can look past the fact that it will eventually grow tiresome, then this might be for you. Otherwise, you might want to think twice. I'll give it a C-.

Depression / Mesrine: Split CD

Deranged: High on Blood

[Issue Twenty-Two // August 1999]