Four albums in just as many years may seem like a task hard to accomplish. Consistency is questioned, and quality is put to the stand. But, when all four albums are generally considered quality material, and when the man responsible for producing them is Anthony Childs AKA Surgeon, the impossible becomes quotidian.
Not only did he suck the best out of his previous three releases, but he built upon it all and created four tracks, or better yet multiple segments and moods flawlessly mixed into one piece.
What is that you want to hear when you listen to Surgeon? Abrassive rhythms, heavy, dry and monotonous percussion, eerie synth work, disturbing frequencies and noises, from infectious dance floor drive through to thought provoking electronics. Well, it is all here, and done with more confidence than ever before on any of hie previous efforts.
Absolutely amazing!
He goes as far back and gets influences from his old classics like Magneeze, gives a nod to the eighties EBM and industrial scene, a dose of the good old Downwards influence (hell, there is even a recorded phone call by Regis thrown in the mix here at the end of the third track!), and rounds it all off with precise mixing. Like somebody stated before me, there are only four index points on this album, though I have to admit I have never felt like I have listened to less than nine tracks.
A quantum leap above his sophmore and unconventional "Balance" album, which already was a clear step above his two dimensional debut on Tresor, "Basictonalvocabulary".
You just cannot go wrong with this one. At the time of writing this, "Force + Form" still stands as the master stroke of Surgeon's career.

To be honest I couldn't agree more with the former reviewer, this album is the absolute creme de la creme if were are talking about techno. This album triggered my love for techno and I am still in love ever since.


In all kinds of way this is a revolutionary album. It consists of track all about 10 minutes, which are actually 7 or 8 tracks. The tracks are sort of mini sets. Besides that, it mixes Surgeon's well know hard and raw industrial techno style with ambient athmosferic soundscapes, something I haven't heared before, not in this form anyway.

And every part of this album is totally unique, freaky, haunting and very captivating. The remakes of this album, which are more functional dj tools, are worth a listen too.

Delicious, intelligent and groovy. This is an album where relentless drum loops give architecture to mysterious sound effects. After the brief intro, "Ice" delivers echoes of picks hitting crystals through a cavernous, throbbing cave. "Black Jackal Throwbacks" goes through three phases of wicked pulsating basslines and beats, with a thematic sound effect recurring. "Returning To The Purity Of Content" is 4/4 techno with shuffling samples that sound like it is clawing backwards (IDM moment). 6:50 in, the ever-experimental Anthony Child emerges with disjointed efx, voice samples from old places, telephone conversations, feedback, and tapes stutteringly fast-forwarded. The point to the dissonance is that as it dissolves into "At The Heart Of It All", the most melodic and modern-sounding of the 4 pieces on this CD, the contrast emerges. Whilst the last 3 pieces appear to explore a space before time, the final piece concludes the arc with modern-day electronica (refer to the introductory coo of synths). Beats build up the track until the synths fade off, leaving stylish beats syncopated with a busy clatter of whats-it's, to be bolstered by an electrifying low-fi doop. I hate the label IDM, but if it were to exist, this would be it in the shining form of Techno.

While not similar to them musically, this album is a tribute of sorts to the seminal industrial/experimental group Coil:

- "Force + Form" is the name of the label on which Coil released much of their early material.

- The phrase "Remnants Of What Once Was" appears in the liner notes of Coil's GOLD IS THE METAL album.

- The phrase "Black Jackal Throwbacks" was etched into the run-out groove on Coil's ANAL STAIRCASE 12".

- "Returning to the Purity of Current" was the subtitle of a CD reissue of GOLD IS THE METAL.

- "At The Heart of it All" is the name of a track on Coil's SCATOLOGY album.

At a point in time when techno had become a bit exhausted in terms of musical development, Anthony Childs, the British techno producer who calls himself Surgeon, managed to push the decade-old genre forward with his Force & Form album. It was at this point in the late '90s when techno songs had evolved into sincere tracks, short cycles of looped rhythms characterized by repetition and a lack of progression. Jeff Mills' Purpose Maker releases such as Kat Moda had perfected this practice of producing music with DJs in mind rather than the home listener. The reason Force & Form can be seen as such a breakthrough rests in its status as a record just as appealing to home listeners as DJs. Child accomplishes this challenging task quite brilliantly. There are four sides of vinyl on Force & Form, meaning that the four songs on the album each get an entire side to itself. Drop the needle at the outermost groove and the spinning record will emanate a ten-minute adventure into cycling tribal techno rhythms with heavy percussive bass. Unlike the Maurizio records, which also spin for epic lengths, the songs on Force & Form actually progress through actual movements, where rhythms change and new arrangements construct themselves as if two different techno records are being seamlessly mixed. Each of these four songs begin with several minutes of repetitive techno rhythms similar to the sort of tracks Child recorded for his Basictonalvocabulary album. After a few minutes of locked groove-type sounds, the songs then shift with the low-frequency bass rumbles being eclipsed by tranquil atmospheric tones. Soon the serene subtly of these high-frequencies gets shattered by the slowly growing construction of the next monolithic percussive hailstorm that will carry listeners through the final few minutes of the song. As if the rhythms weren't marvelous enough — challenging even Mills himself as the latest contender for king of techno dancefloors — Child's ability to craft brave multi-sectioned epics makes this an even more incredible album than anything he had accomplished up until this point. His debut Tresor album from two years earlier, Basictonalvocabulary, only hinted at his potential to become one of the genre's most important producers.