Restored

Album review

Something of a grim cousin to Antonelli Electr.'s Love and Other Solutions, this double 12" roams around most of the stylistic ground covered on Marc Houle's Run Stop Restore 12", released earlier in the year on Minus. None of the productions are quite as bone chilling as "Geometry" or as snappy as "Arrows," but they all add up to an album (at roughly 50 minutes in length) that can be listened to from start to finish. Each track is made of lean minimal techno, albeit with a few key melodies that indicate a deep knowledge of synth pop -- what to use, what to discard. A couple tracks, such as "Pepper" and "Clock Width," wouldn't be out of place in one of Dan Bell's DJ sets of hippety-skippety techno, while a few others are more like mood setters that stalk around as unnervingly as anything on the 240 Volts label. It's surprising that it was released only on vinyl -- it works just as well as an album geared for driving or home listening. It's far too multi-functional to be confined to club play. Minus fans aren't likely to look upon the release as a classic of the label's catalog, but it's bound to be thought of as something that didn't catch a just amount of recognition.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo