Mentallo And The Fixer* – Enlightenment Through A Chemical Catalyst

Albums with this much density and detail do not come along often. I'm going to preface my remarks by stating one thing: you either are on board with Gary Dassing's musical vision or you aren't. I am. Am I ever. This has been the start of huge arguments with other "fans", you know, the ones who tuned out after 1997's "Burnt Beyond Recognition". The ones stuck in a goddamned time-warp who keep wanting a re-tread of "Revelations 23".

I've followed Mentallo through "Algorithm", into the quixotic double and sometimes triple entendre that was "Love Is the Law"; I even found a lot of merit in his last outing "Vengeance is Mine". Now with this new mouthful of an album, the other three make a lot more sense. Dassing has stated that this work is what he's been trying to do all along. He's done it by all that's holy, he has done it and then some. Right from the start with "Once upon a Time", Mentallo lay down the ground rules for an album that I can only describe as an outright war with one's self, with their world and with their very beliefs. I don't think there's going to be another release this year that will outshine the brutal yet surprisingly coherent power of "Enlightenment Through a Chemical Catalyst". Even the liner notes exude excess with a nice essay on the Plus Four concept which in the end though it would sound lovely on the scale described, would be disastrous if ever acted upon.

The second disc contains another sixty plus minutes of magnificently executed pieces that make me very very proud to be a fan of electronic music as much as I am. No other medium could ever come close to this level of precision harmonics. If you don't plan on buying the limited version, let me implore you to reconsider. You'll be cheating yourself out of some seriously stunning sound scapes.

Oscillations run wildly through aural fields littered with rich textures and arrpegiations which begin and end in chaotically irrational patterns. There is melody, there is structure but it exists within the framework of Mentallo and the Fixer and to a lot of people, this would automatically preclude ever mentioning melodic content in context with one of their albums. But I hear it, I hear it howling and screeching in a sinister cacophony which is unearthly. Mentallo are the sound of things to come, be grateful they're with us again.