Female - Into The Exotic

Together with "Pelotone" and "Red light district" EPs, Female's debut album, "Into the exotic", makes out the highlight of his often roller coaster career. Basically, this sounds as all his subsequent work, but since this is where he introduced his trademark dry, linear and mono sound, I guess this is where it's done the best, due to the fact mr. Sutton actually had some fresh ideas back in the day. Not that it's all good though; all tracks follow the exact same pattern, with little to no determination to introduce anything but stripped down, repetitive rhythm textures, with constantly present clicks and clacks layed over the percussion. Luckily it all doesn't go on for too long, as even a full forty minutes of this style gets tiresome. Most tracks don't stand all too well on their own, many of them share a fair amount of identical sounds and effects so you'll have a tough time picking out a favorite, let alone separating tracks from each other. While it is true that if something sounds good, I don't mind hearing it four to five times on a single album, nothing here sounds good enough to make it stick through eight consecutive tracks. Most of this album is just too bleak and pale in sound, where most tracks sound like reworks of each other. If he had re-cut it, and released two four trackers on vinyl, I would have appreciated it more, but the way things are, this is one of the Birmingham techno releases in my collection with not so much time spent in the CD player.
Still, most of these numbers can work the dance floor, although not as effectively as most other Downwards releases. My honest opinion is that Peter Sutton does his best when sharing studio with his brother in arms Karl O'Connor. While this is unquestionably his best effort to date, many Downwards fans and more demanding listeners will feel kind of empty after the running time of "Into the exotic" is up.