Bitcrush, the latest solo endeavor from Mike Cadoo, takes both themelodic and gritty elements from his prior work in Gridlock and thenow-defunct Dryft and splices them with an urban sensibility. Morecoherant and accessible than anything Cadoo has done previously, Enarcis a logical musical progression that retains a filmic nature whileembracing the notion of traditional song structure. Fans of his workmight find themselves caught off guard by this at first, but theresults are, to quote the soon-to-be-ousted President Bush, superb. Theopening cut "Engale" starts off as expected, with a growing hyponoticdrone peppered with punchy, crunchy percussion. Yet despite the presentfamiliarity, it quickly becomes clear that Bitcrush is not just anotherabstract experimental soundscape act, as the pleasant introduction oftraditional instrumentation on "Untilted" reveals. Moaning with digitalnoise, "Arjon Tenpher" dazzles with dubbed out drum loops and creepingsynthesized melodies. "Habitual" shifts gears from its relativelystraightforward hip hop groove by climaxing with disjointed junglismand an acid teaser lead line. The stunning and irrepressiblyhead-nodding "Eye Koto" blows the roof off the motherfucker with aBristol inspired jam of plucked twangy guitar, huge beats, and DSPmanipulation. "Frebasyc" rocks a Peter Hook-style riff over sharpstuttering drums, with the only missing desired addition being vocals,which apparently will be incorporated into future Bitcrush tracks."Carbon" locks itself in the echo chamber for something somewhatresembling the recent 303-obsessed Wagon Christ album without thekitsch. Conversely, the untitled hidden bonus track does a 180 degreeturn as a straight-up shoegazing indie rock song that could easily windup on college radio station playlists. Standing defiant before theblown out hull of IDM, Enarc is an aurally arresting affairthat stays captivating throughout and raises the bar for Warp noodlers,Ninja Tune wannabes, Planet µ wankers, and the rest of their ilk. Read More
