Monolake ‎– Atlas

user: chis chis
occupation: skilled musician (listen to his goa-trance-polka material on his myspace)
objective: to destroy good music at all cost

Keep this in mind while reading this review. This user is the black plaque of good music. To some extent I've learned a great deal from his words, if he hates it I know I'll love it.

Big minimal dub-step-techno with the usual pad washes and the equally usual, glitchy Ableton-ry. Pristine production, as always, but whereas Alaska / Melting both had minimalistic hooks that were enough to keep the tracks going for their duration, here there is nothing of the sort. Polaroid, with it's rolling FM synthery is an even better example, and it completely justifies its length because of its "hook". Not here, sadly.

Atlas features off-kilter, strained flute sirens which annoy rather than inspire, there is little melodic going on here, Henke going purely on atmosphere. Titan fares a little better, but the big dub-stabs are becoming tired and cliche'd as all hell, and don't seem to form into much more than the odd note played here and there. LAZY! Is Monolake taking lessons from Intrusion? Ugh!

I'm pleased to see that Robert is keeping his productions "harder-edged", so to speak, but they are still mostly exercises in production, and the process is once again more interesting than the result. Robert: go visit Surgeon, remember, that guy that did that remix for you? That was a match well made, and you should take from that!