Rated 3/5
Flashbulb, The - Flexing Habitual
Review by
Schwenk
Nov 06, 2006
(edited over 3 years ago)
So here it is, Benn's take on breakcore. After anticipating this release for several months, I was sorely disappointed when it came in the mail and I finally listened to it. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes long, It should have been an EP in the first place. The songs are too short, which means almost none of them afford any time for development. In addition to this, none of the songs have anything constant at all. Benn, it's okay to have the same snare hit on 2 and 4 once in a while! The album also features exhausting use of pitch shifting, which grows old after the first two tracks. Even the melody to the best track, Chik Habit, was lifted from a band called Mucca Pazza. Overall, the album sounds like it was recorded very hastily. It's enjoyable only if you lower your standards.
Sloppy job, Benn. Do better next time.

For an EP that sits perfectly on a 12", I think this it's very accomplished. I've already witnessed tracks like Chik Habit and Amen Iraq serving perfection while being DJ'd at parties. Tracks like Ninedump and Lucid Bass III are challenging, and are served best with a pair of good headphones and a decent attention span. In my opinion the album is a great step in breakcore, it turns the limits up a notch without sacrificing the listener. The bpm never seems to get out of hand, and there's nothing in this record that deliberately sounds 'evil' or 'hardcore'. It's simply a huge array of sounds that are put together so tightly that it's hard to even imagine what the studio sessions must have looked like.
This is some next level stuff Benn!