CD, Sistinas, 2006
www.sistinas.com
Are you tired of album after album of same old Power Noise? Tired of lack of variety? Want something a little more interesting to get your headphones round and your feet moving? Well Cacophony’s “Transmissions” might just be the album you’ve been waiting for.
Cacophony is made up of one Mercurian, MK-34179, who apparently was on a routine mission from Mercury to Saturn and somehow crashed on Earth. The ensuing radio distress signals were misinterpreted as dance music and thus “Transmissions” was born (in the meantime the alien is stranded on Earth until 2013). All fairly simple and straightforward, yes? Far from simple, actually…
With every track titled as a series of ‘transmissions’, the album starts off fairly innocuously – with lots of intense harsh abrasive beats, that occasionally touch upon more gabber oriented sounds – then it suddenly finds a groove in “r02t04” which happens to be an awesome track. This track has ‘club friendly floor filler’ written all over it, with a touch of melody, beats and a solid groove that is contagious to say the least. Following the playful transmission “r02t05”, transmission “r02t06” is another highlight but for totally different reasons, it is a very gabber track – hard, pounding and relentless in it’s assault on your eardrums – a style that some noise artists are a little afraid to touch. Simplicity can either be a good thing or a bad thing and, in the case of “r02t06”, is a good thing. Slightly chaotic, “r02t07” takes a while to get going and is a little bit too repetitive for my tastes, although it does find its pace about half way through. Somewhat easy to overlook but a true pearl is transmission “r02t08”, another track with a definite groove to it, with good balance between beats and melody.
Overall, “Transmissions” is far from a bad album but, just as it finds its momentum, it loses from time to time due to a couple of slightly misplaced tracks here and there. I can definitely see the appeal in Cacophony as he picks Power Noise and freely adds elements from various other genres and influences – like gabber, breakcore and computer games – avoiding the stereotypical formulas in this genre, and doesn’t seem afraid of kicking things up a notche, which is to be commended. The issue with “Transmissions” is that, as a whole, the album may be somewhat chaotic, a collection of powerful and interesting tracks that, when grouped, lose their individuality. Nevertheless, “Transmissions” is littered with flashes of genius, and if those are concentrated upon (more “r02t04” and “r02t08”, please!) then I believe Cacophony can be a truly interesting artist to watch out for in future releases.
[7.5/10]
— Kate Turgoose & Miguel de Sousa