Troubleshooter – Switch-Flicker

Versatile album, going throught many different styles, beautifully blended together. Sometimes hard and bitter, sometimes soft and nicely flowing behind you ears.
Not something you will throw away after listening one or two times.

This is the highly anticipated, debut album of Troubleshooter [AKA Rob Holloway] following two very impressive 12” Vinyl Eps for the Modern Love imprint.

The album kicks in with the title track, an atmospheric piece with some nifty, clinical digital sounds. The bass frequency enters at the mid-point, beefing up the track to a bleepy climax. Next up is ‘Nano Technology’ mid paced, glitchy and crunchy, putting me in mind of Funkstorung in the mid–late nineties. It would definitely be suited to the ‘Musik Aus Strom’ stable. Then comes a great acid track ‘Moog Modular Acid – Part 1’ well suited to the dancefloor and wouldn’t look out of place on AFX’s Analord series, a stormer. ‘Compuphonic’ is next, a spaced-out piece, which gives the effect of a large choral backing, with more great digital FX from Mr. Holloway. A funky, crunchy, slow burner ‘Dark/Light energy’ has a beautiful intermittent melody. The next 4 tracks move into more industrial territory, ‘Filter-Shift-sequence’ is atmospheric, with a dis-embodied vocal, and an almost classical style. ‘Robot Climax’ is a short track with some sharp digital stabs, and an increasing tempo to frantic levels, not dissimilar to Autechre. ‘Pyroclastic Flow’ feels quite eerie, steady paced with fractured beats and great keyboard skills. Crunchy, detuned and robotic ‘Chaos Mathematics’ reminds me of the great Richard Devine. Next is ‘Chaotic Intimation’ which contains a bizarre phone message [integrated into the piece so well, it rivals Prefuse 73’s ‘7th Message’] and a simple melody, alongside machine vocals, all moulded, with great effect, into a stunning track. ‘The Afterlife’ is airy and laid-back, with lush synthetic strings and a melody to die for. Both gentle and powerful, it put me in mind of Bola. The album winds up with ‘Churchgoers V2.2’ with synth organ, industrial beats and squashed climax. If church sounded this good we’d all be there.
This album was well worth the wait, a wonderful, sprawling electronic journey, which is definitely worth taking. Outstanding.