Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes

EGYPTRIXX - BIBLE EYES

Night Slugs

I have a concern about the exponential growth of effects processing in electronic music.It’s not overuse - that point passed years ago - but I fear that the combined computing power behind an album such as Egyptrixx’s Bible Eyes might cause the music itself to become self-aware. Did you know that the average floorfiller now piles on the equivalent computing power of 10 million Colossus machines just on compressing the kickdrum? One day Egyptrixx will be jockeying his laptop in some sweaty basement and will accidentally bring about a sidechained singularity - Rise Of The Maschines - on the streets of Dalston or Brooklyn. By which I mean, clearly, that Bible Eyes is a fun album tending to occasional excellence, let down by an over-reliance on woozy, glitchy, effects-laden meandering. 

But let’s start from the beginning, with opening track “Start From The Beginning” (see what he did there?), which is actually and uncharacteristically subdued. Indeed, on my first listen it followed a Dettmann track and I didn’t notice the segue, at least until the fluttering synths introduce a motif that goes on to define the album.

As if to prove my hastily-constructed point, next is the title track, which takes these cascading “Township Funk” synth lines and puts them through a dizzying FX mangle over an addictive tribal woodblock groove. It’s a winning combination, and probably a cast-iron banger for the right crowd, on the right research chemicals in the wrong part of town. “Liberation Front” (lifted from last year’s Night Slugs Allstars Volume 1), “Rooks Theme”, “Recital (A Version)” and “Barely” fit the same formula with minor variations: groove + widdly synth + plug-in box = profit. Ultimately this yields functional dancefloor movers with the depth and emotional content of a sherbert lemon, but it’s fun while it lasts, and also could be useful if you want to scare a dog.

Perhaps more interesting are the less immediate tunes. The vaguely Detroit-like “Naples” is deeper and more restrained and benefits from it; and closing track “Recital (B Version)” is a full-on Joy Orbison style rush to leave the album on a high note. My personal favourite “Fuji Cub” is a great example of a way to use vocals in electronic music, as a mind-expanding addition to a trippy stepper. On the flipside, the other vocal track on the album (“Chrysalis Records”) is the only real misstep, with a hollow-eyed performance adding nothing to a tune lacking in ideas to begin with.

 
Enjoyment of Bible Eyes is definitely contingent on the listener’s tolerance for ultra-modern production methods. Sometimes it feels like the flanging and filtering adds something, but there are almost as many points where the overwhelming synth madness just appears to be covering up for a paucity of ideas. Overall though, it’s worth reiterating that the standout home listening tracks don’t suffer so much from this, and it isn’t going to matter on the dancefloor … unless of course you are brutally slaughtered by the superior intelligence of a gated synth plug-in.

Sam Stagg

Comments

[Toby]

Funnily enough I loved the track you disliked (Chrysalis Records) - it has a weird charm.