Dryft - Cell

Starts off sounding hard techno with jungle qualitites. Fast paced, futuristic beats with melodic floating ambience soothing our souls. At times the music sounds dark, more so during the beat. When the ambience interludes, it remains heavenly, only to forcibly break back into that hard edge techno. Both seem to work well within the track. The ambience in the background with a little over -1:20, make this track really hypnotic, and could seemingly go on forever.

Track two -
Continous on that crunchy sounding techno. The beat starts off slow, but big sounding. Drum and bass type madness mixes in, creating a montage of blisfull samples. with -3:10 it makes a nice change into another beat. The track finally builds to a dancefloor frenzied mix. It slowly fades out for the last minute, and does so in a rather peaceful fashion.

Track three -
Dark, hard, jungle, industrial edges mixed with some slow melodic synths mixing within the entanglement of beats and static like behaviors. Reminds me of Daft Records material. With -3:17 there is a nice psychedelic sounding spoken/sung sample. Not sure the source, but it is fitting with the track. (has to be my fave track thus far).

Track four -
This is harsh material. Driving, doom filled beats. This is some brutal drum and bass beats with one of the best synth cords used in this album.

Track five -
The darkness remains. Another hard driven jungle track. A drifting surrealistic melody looms around. The track picks up within the last minute. This track could easily be longer, but is still a nice venture.

Track six -
This track slows the mind set a little. It is a simple drum and bass beat mingled with floating ambience. Suddenly with -2:48 you can sense a change. It developes into a dark and massive sequence. The beat then changes and heads in a different direction. The track still remaining dark and elusive as when it started.

Track seven -
Is slower yet. Again, it opens with a simple beat, and some floating synths in the foreground. With -2:15 that all changes. It becomes a full fledged nightmare of noise and heavy jungle beats. Hardcore noisey jungle, which ends as soon as it began, only to come back and slap you in the face. The ambience is dark, and is the best mix of music thus far.

Track eight -
A simple synth chord, mixed with a laid back jungle styled beat. This is very nice and melodic sounding. It brings you through a sonic journey. It is all nicely put together with -:50 left.

Track nine -
A brighter sounding drum and bass. More of a morning feeling to it. It is a rather beautiful track, with the melodic side taking over.

Track ten -
Again, this track starts off as ambience. Slowly some playful synth samples blend in, bringing to life the ambience. The sounds of a beat trying to kick in, but does not ever fully manage too. The track quickly slips into fading bliss.

Track eleven -
A nice bass beat starts off the track. Some samples help the track build to a slowly reverbrating chilled out electronic piece.

Awesome album.

Ah yes, the first solo release from Mike Caddoo of Gridlock (note that he records under the moniker "Bitcrush" now). How does the music differ from Gridlock? Well for starters there is no raspy vocals... Which is kind of odd considering Caddoo was the one who provided the vocals for all Gridlock material. Cell is basically a faster, more drum & bass driven version of Gridlock. Odds are if you were a fan of Gridlock's first 2 albums then you'll dig this release because it was made in the same "dark" era for Gridlock.