Solid State

Album Review

Electronic music appears to be reaching the outer boundaries of its own sound. Much like rock & roll 30 years before, there evidentially isn't an endless well of original ideas. This means that coming up with something strikingly new for today's artists is much more difficult that it was for the first groundbreakers a decade ago. Even in the left-field of IDM, it seems impossible not to sonically reference Autechre or Aphex Twin to some extent. That being said, Funckarma clearly owe a substantial debt to the former, as their audio creations are built mainly from the same abstract crunchy beats and dissonant melodics. They also enjoy a healthy dose of Aphex's brutal/gentle duality on tracks like "Emplinx," where whimsical chimes give way to heavily processed shouts of despair. Yet even with the heavy weight of past precedence confronting the duo at every turn, Funckarma still manage to find their own clever angles, like the brooding live violin on "Bace" or the underlying trip-hop-inspired beat on "Iolala." But perhaps instead of using a scale of invention, one might just take pleasure in the entire album, which is produced with the same articulate notions of noise and music as the best works of their predecessors. Solid State might not be as shockingly original as it could have been ten years ago, but it is so masterfully executed and overwhelmingly enjoyable that only the most abject purist would give a damn. This is quality stuff.