Sandoz - 'Digital Lifeforms Redux' (The Grey Area)
2/5
By: Clara Burtenshaw
It is difficult not to write in a retrospective tense about a CD that was essentially released eleven years ago (though obviously missing the crucial bonus disc that convinces the listener of the necessity for two versions of the same album in their musical compendium). But, in the Grey Area's salacious mission to emancipate and beatify the legend of Captain Kirk, it seems only right that the second chapter of his story and the belle epoch of the post-acid-house electronic scene be anthologised too.
The founder of Sheffield's legendary electronic cut and paste experimentalists Cabaret Voltaire had commented that he had been particularly pleased with the material contained on 'Earlier...' the compilation released head-to-head with 'Digital Lifeforms' : 'I almost think it's the album I should be making now.' If life perfectly imitated art, this long-player would probably receive the same press hurrahs as its predecessor.
And though it seems almost sacrilegious to criticise an album that received acclaim in its heyday, we shall nonetheless, being too young to feel obligated to a nostalgic celebration of the techno-nerd, and feeling that this LP should be judged within its current musical climate. There is also the faint whiff of 'record label cashing-in on revival', which becomes acute when a Google search yields a couple various sites still selling the original.
Unfortunately, however pivotal Sandoz may have been and may continue to be (for it would be impossible not to point out the obvious parallels with groups such as Orbital) the songs on 'Digital Lifeforms' differ very little in style and content. This may not be an altogether bad thing, and quite frankly, rockfeedback is quite open about its not being the most qualified to tell and pick techno songs apart (so sue us), but the raw, spontaneous feel in Richard H. Kirk; the hiss from the original cassettes and general want of production, makes the music and his role in this evolutionary process all the more impressive and pertinent within today's world of computers and auto-tune.
Relevantly, the equipment around then compared to that of the earlier album may have been the computer equivalent of the Apple Mac to Microsoft Windows 2000, but, even still, like waiting for a song to download on Kazaa, the tedium could be likened to two hours of watching paint dry.
Artists in this article: Sandoz
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