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Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Review: Cryogenic Echelon – 'Taste Of Failure'



'Taste Of Failure' 

Cryogenic Echelon are not ones to rest on their laurels. Having only released their retrospective collection 'Anthology' back in July, the band are back with a remix companion featuring a brand new track. Sometimes remix albums can leave you pretty cold and bored as existing club hits are often simply recycled into new club hits. But every now and then there are those that you genuinely look forward to. And this is one of those rare occasions.

The antipodean project is only a few short years old, but they have already built up an impressive reputation as an innovative and exciting act. Which in turn has seen Cryogenic Echelon in demand for remix duties. The quality of their remixes has once again paid off as artists such as Grendel, The .invalid, Machine Rox, Ctrl Alt Del and Draconic Elimination Projects get in on the action on 'Taste Of Failure'.

The only new track on the album is the mind-bending 'Full Throttle'. Glitchy, distorted synths, meld with robotic and distorted vocals. Hard dance beats power the track forward, and the icing comes in the form of the melodic female vocals that hang above the distortion. It is a great mix of harsh and melodic that gives nods to the likes of Juno Reactor and Comaduster.

The remixes are all fairly club orientated for the most part. Although there are some interesting contributions from the likes of Machine Rox who adds some heavy guitar to 'Soulstorm', Ctrl Alt Del's dubstep-heavy take on the same track, and Draconic Elimination Project's slowly building version of 'Elixr'.

There is plenty of variation to keep both fans and DJs happy with the remixers offering up ebm, techno, dubstep and industrial rock versions of the original songs. That alone would be enough to keep the band's name in circulation for a while. But 'Full Throttle' is the real star of the show. It's another strong original track that serves to whet appetites for another full-length studio album.