Crystal Method: "Divided by Night"
TobiasIt may be relevant that the orb comprising the cover of Crystal Method’s reply to their platinum-selling 2007 album Vegas is more symmetrical and just plain interesting than the lava-cracked cookie on the cover of Hot Chip’s last record. After all, CM were an integral part of the rave sound the Chips and their associates are sort-of trying to revive.
Here, not only have the LA duo schooled their descendants on making up a weird-looking circle, they’ve brought out the heavy guest-shot artillery in a half-successful attempt to make the music next-generational, ie more commercial. At album opening, the title track wastes itself with six degrees of Martian turntablism, a bold if unusable headphone idea that lends no clue to what’s coming next, that being New Order’s Peter Hook, tiredly microwaving his old outfit’s pliant bassy vibe for Jordan and Kirlkland to slap some dated game-show-electro and phoned-in Oakenfold around.
And so it goes, hitting and missing: “Sine Language” and its too-cool electro (which seriously could have done without the doofus yammering from LMFAO), “Double Down Under” bringing the heaviest guitar sound since the discovery of electricity, and Matisyahu submitting a dubby call-to-prayer leading in to some breezy raps.
By Eric Saeger
Homepage: Crystal Method