Imperative Reaction
“Ruined”
(Metropolis Records)
Gary Numan inspired moody synth pop. Dreamy and dark with atmospheric drifts of melodious keyboards and somber lyrical delivery. The staples of popular mainstream electronic inspired music are represented but tapered with an almost early 80’s new wave craft approaching New Order’s ability to craft bouncing synth pop, complete with bubbly sounding breakdowns. The actual musical progressions and movements are pretty standard and used, suffering the glut of weakness that surfaces in such electronic driven music, namely the drum machine like push of tempo that keeps the songs pumping through on that unrelenting dance beat.
A few interesting intros and breakdowns do little to fix the shortcoming of sluggish and indulgent electronic wankery. Solid enough on it’s own merits as some numbers snap and pop interestingly enough to merit a spin if you like electronic music, but Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM are just too scary. Recorded as a two-piece and taken live with 3 members (the guest track with female vocals is the most dismissible track here so it doesn’t count), this is completely electronic driven with zero guitars or traditional instrumentation.
Keyboard jockeys unite, as this should qualify with enough competence to warrant some listening time. Nothing breaking ground, but a listenable diversion.
