Recoil ‎– subHuman

If this was worth seven years of anticipation, 'SubHuman' will disappoint many having faith in one of Britain's most profound music/sound producers. Recoil sadly has nothing more to offer - once discovering (and absorbing) electro-blues paths (already established on the third album 'Bloodline'), now it is a fair share of predictable repetitions, practically going nowhere.

In 1997 Alan Wilder virtually cut all wires with his former megapopular band and created what remains one of the finest albums of the 90s - Recoil's 'Unsound Methods'. Unlike previous work, where still-vivid Depeche echoed his solo project's patterns, 'Methods' were a considerable twist towards darker sound mixing edgy jazz and ambient music with impressive gospel and spoken-word type vocals - justifiably a lost link between Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine' and Portishead's s/t album. However, when 'Liquid' - literally a sequel, appeared in 1999/2000, surprise elements were sadly gone - despite impressive deliveries by Diamanda Galas and The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, Wilder's submission to blues now seems a cliche he somehow explores endlessly without particular results.

Since the year 2000 a lost has changed - Recoil fans constantly wishing for new Recoil material; endless questioning about it to some extent probably affected Alan to continue - unfortunately, 'SubHuman' has very little, if anything, to offer, that Recoil didn't try out earlier; as 'Unsound Methods' seem to be one particular 'year zero' for Wilder, repeating his droning drums and flirting with blues and gospel, the new album sounds more like a set of remixed leftovers he didn't know what to do with earlier; positive thing about it is Wilder has all the freedom to do so, to exhaust 'Unsound Methods' to bits but when it comes to a producer of his calibre, 'SubHuman' should have added more substance than plain repeating.