XP8 - Drop The Mask

Written by Sebastian Huhn Sunday, 24 January 2010 14:51

Title: Drop the Mask
Artist: XP8
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 22nd January 2010
Label: Infacted Recordings

Album Review

The last hammering beats of the recent single ‘Want It’ have barely faded your conscience as the next attack on our auditory channels has been prepared and unleashed with the new XP8 full-length. ‘Drop The Mask’ is hopefully able to live up to what the single promised already.

A synthetic fire alarm announces ‘Blind’ and forecasts this to become one hell of a party. Indeed, the beats that soon kick in ask nothing less of you than dancing, and here and there if possible, be pleased about the flawless production work. The next track ‘One True God’ breaks with powerful bass drum and dark atmospheres, as well as vocals roughly screaming out their fury and desperation. ‘One Pill Missing’ will be a candidate for heavy rotation in one or more techno clubs. That is to say if those beat addicts there will be able to handle the shadowy and vicious set of emotions that comes with it. ‘Breathe The Poison In’ brings not quite dance-floor suitable fodder to your speakers with a multi-layered down-tempo build that creates increasingly dense drifts of ambient meandering, revolving around an excellent vocal delivery. With their cover version of the SHE WANTS REVENGE track ‘Out of Control’, XP8 have perfectly transcended the sexual energy of the original to an all electronic fabric, submerged in pounding club beats.

A breath of fresh air comes with the title track and its guitar sections, no matter if sampled or not. Otherwise, the track goes pretty much the same ways as many others on the album already did. ‘Scorpio Eyes’ already makes up for that, in my eyes, lack of more originality on the title track with a pleasing, poppy vibe, and even the operatic background vocals are not out of place here. ‘The Art of Revenge’ had ‘Our Time’ and ‘Drop The Mask’ has ‘Our Time (Pt.II)’. The difference between the two parts is their entirely different make-up which on part one was aiming towards the clubs. But on part two, the goal is to invade the stereos of sonic purists and sound fetishists with more complex structures and orchestral sublimity. XP8 are really persistent in following their chosen path, also on ‘Drop The Mask’. They might not always succeed in standing out of the masses, but all in all have crafted a convincing body of work above the average.

Tracklist

01. Blind - 4:30
02. Want It - 4:50
03. One True God - 4:25
04. One Pill Missing - 4:46
05. Breathe The Poison In - 4:22
06. Awake, Restart - 4:17
07. Born Dead - 3:57
08. Out Of Control - 4:08
09. Drop The Mask - 4:25
10. Scorpio Eyes - 5:35
11. Out For Blood - 4:20
12. Bad Guys - 4:20
13. Our Time (Pt.II) - 6:22

Line-Up

Marco Visconti
Marko Ressurreccion

Website

http://www.xp8.org/ / http://www.myspace.com/xp8

Cover Picture

Rating

Music: 7
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10

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