Pendulum (3) - Spiral / Ulterior Motive

I have some words about the B-side, 'Ulterior Motive'. If you know Pendulum's dancefloor-smashers, with their usual unnatural drums, stupid melodies and stuff - so anyways; if you mainly feel it's hard to listen a tune of these boys, I really say you can try this one. This is rough and raw drum and bass with a pulsing deep vibe, thanks to its endless stabbed lifting bassline. Risky cave-drop sounds leads into this underground train, all the sounds and melodies lets you feel from the very start that something stinks. And really: when you arrive to the drop, some bad word leads you into the jungle. The march is like some rubber techno..very monotone.
I think if you like the term 'tech', probably you'll dig it.

Spiral is, at least for me as a (primarily) trance listener, a groundbreaking track; a fusion of drum'n'bass and trance. Or, at least, it takes the song structure from trance and fills it with beats and samples more common to d'n'b. A pretty laidback and fast piece, it is none too agressive and features some excellent hypnotizing vocals. The other main feature is a sweeping, analogue-sounding bassline: nothing short of massive! My only problem with this track is that the main (break)beatline is too weak, too shallow and short on punch... I'd prefer some harder kickdrums in the loop (which also is a bit repetitive), but maybe thats just the 4/4 lover in me speaking...