
The album opens abruptly, with the beats and noises of 'Aftermath'. It quickly becomes clear that we are not dealing with a normal ambient/downtempo album. I mentioned the name Aphex Twin before and I think the godfather of intelligent dance music will rather often appear in your mind while listening to this stuff. Complex beats, noises from highly advanced planets and eerie field recordings create unique pieces of music. Sometimes harsh and unforgiving, sometimes dreamy and gently, like in the sweet ambient tune 'Lighted Room'.
'Out Of The Surface' feels like Plaid doing something with breakcore, which is bizarre, thus quite interesting. Although my personal preferences go out to less nervous tunes like the beautiful closing track 'In The Red'. Yet, before we can fully enjoy that, we have to undergo a whole lot of seemingly unstable rhythms. 'Caustic Network', the opener on CD2 threw the Autechre reference into the mix. 'Dream Part' flirts with harsh noise and 'Feedforward' seems to experiment with Speedy J's 'A Shocking Hobby'.
So there you have it, a weird electronic album for weird people but one that will quite often surprise and dazzle you. If you're into any of the aforementioned acts, you definitely need to get your hands on a copy of these two shiny CDs. There is no artwork so there is nothing to distract you from the sonic trip you're about to make, courtesy of Von Tesla. On the other hand, if you want music to be easy digestible and ear-friendly, perhaps you shouldn't be here...
Serge