ELECTRONICA

Latest releases reviewed

PREFUSE 73
Surrounded by Silence
Warp
***

Electronic acts are prone to abusing monikers, but Scott Herren is a real repeat offender. Having had a hand, act or part in Savath & Savalas, Delarosa & Asora, Piano Overload and La Correcion, Herren reaches once again for his Prefuse 73 cap. One Word Extinguisher, the 2003 Prefuse album, flipped his glitch-hop template to a wider audience, its alien sounds and textures sounding remarkably and oddly smooth despite the chaos in their midst. Chaos is absent from Surrounded by Silence, with Herren using various DJs, MCs and singers to provide the glue between tracks. But despite the presence of such vocal talents as El-P, Ghostface, Aesop Rock and Beans, there's a jarring lack of coherence to the album. It's only when Herren keeps all the buttons and faders for himself that any real magic shines through. On this evidence, Herren remains a fantastic producer, though one still in need of some quality control.

www.warprecords.com  - Jim Carroll

DOUBLE ADAPTOR
Live at the Village Vanguard
Osaka
***

If squeaking and squawking electronica is what brings the sunshine into your musical life, you will greet the arrival of this happily contrary album with open arms. A self-proclaimed "miniature improvising electronic bar band", the currently Dublin-based (but Berlin-bound) Double Adaptor give a whole host of genres a few digs, slaps and nudges on their debut album. Roy Carroll and Keith O'Brien are seasoned new music pros, ensuring that Double Adaptor's wayward mischief has the technical nous and musical grounding to prevent the tunes from simply buckling and collapsing under the weight of freewheeling sonic juxtapositioning. In other hands, Live at the Village Vanguard would come across as wilfully indulgent, but it's to the pair's credit that their modulations and manipulations don't give the music (or indeed the listener) a permanent frown. www.osaka.ie  - Jim Carroll