Eat Static - "Alien Artifacts"
(Mesmobeat Mesmo CD7)
Eat Static - "Alien Artifacts"
(Mesmobeat Mesmo CD7)
From Aural Innovations #29 (October 2004)
This is the latest release by Eat Static (remember Joie and Merv from Ozric Tentacles plus friend Steve Everrit). I was hoping for a new CD but Merv has been too busy with his other projects (Hi Fi Companions, Dendrom, Simon Posford collaboration) and Joie (living in the forest and Here and Now Band) as well, is the excuse we hear. Anyway, this is a collection of unreleased songs from 1998 to 1992, predating the Abduction CD-LP. None of these songs (except Alien 92) have appeared before unless they were on some obscure compilations that I am not aware of. "Gimmie Song Drugs" opens the CD and is a pretty cool song but the sound is not nearly as sonic as what they had produced and you can really see how Merv has improved in his drum programming if you compare this stuff with Dendron or In the Nude. The way the cymbal sound is a bit annoying on some tracks. "Tabtroid" was not very interesting. "Into A Dance" has a cool beat and a kind of ambient free floating spirit as it builds. "Clash Of The Titans" also has these new agey synth sweeps but then they layer on all sorts of cool stuff as the track builds up. This is classic stuff. "Dance Your Sex" is a pretty bizarre song with strange hammering beats and a sample (dance your sex). Strange synths and sounds layered in. Strange. "Technophobe" (“we have the technology”) again is a mix of strange sounds and samples and layers of synths floating back and forth into the sound. Some really cool sounds on this song. "Neck-Tar" is a lot like one of the songs on the Alien EP. Alien 92’, this is a different mix from the Alien that appeared on the Alien EPs CD. The mix is not as fat sounding and some of the stuff is mixed different but a pretty similar track. "More Than Flesh And Ganesha" close the CD. Well, not the best or the worst of Eat Static but something to chew on while we wait for the next real CD.
Reviewed by Scott Heller