Blastromen - Human Beyond - An Album Review

I've been meaning to do a solid review of the new Blastromen album, "Human Beyond" since it first dropped back in late August of this year. Now that I've gotten a chance to fully immerse myself in this 100% pure unkut dope from the Finnish production duo, I regret not doing it sooner. If I could sum up their vibe in one sentence, it would be a gigantic dense wall of sound done right - this is not an easy feat from a production standpoint, and you can really get lost in the mix if you do it wrong; whoever is doing the mixing and sound sculpting here definitely knows what's up. This is a big sound - like 80s big, but without being stuck in the 80s - consider it a fresh update on a classic vibe, and I dont mean electro funk - I mean these big giant keyboards that swell up and knock you down and then make you a cup of tea. From the very first opening track, this wall of funk straight up tells you you're in for a ride and you better hold on. What I also like are these eastern-sounding, almost psy-trance and goa influences in the melodies - densely layered and complex synths that tease each other, dance around each other... and eventually mesh into new styles. 'Follow the Command' is a good example of this - if that's not the combination of psychedelic funk and electro bass I dont know what is. The synth work and melodies on this album are stellar, and are reminiscent in an homage sort of way of what made some of those classic 80s new wave records so memorable. I'm going to guess that not many people who read City of Bass are up on who Man With No Name is, but I can definitely feel his influence in these sounds. This isn't a happy album by any means, but it's also not dark and morose. It doesn't get lost in chin-stroking moodiness and dark themes that can get so boring after the umpteenth time you've heard them. It's also clear the cat's behind Blastromen understand proper song structure and why it works. Brilliants bridges into ever deeper and deeper layers of synths and subtle chord progressions changes that keep you moving and engaged with the music. I've listened to the album going on ten times now, and I've yet to get bored with it - that really says something. The majority of this album's cuts aren't your standard fit-into-the-mix dance floor bangers - these are cuts you would close the night with, or fit into the end of a set where you're banging out only your big tracks, and mind you these are BIG tracks. Not always easy to do without falling into a trap of being blatantly obvious, Blastromen get it right. I was really pleased with the closing track of Sky City as an album closer - after this epic journey it was good to be taken into a slightly more positive tone and nature - you can almost see the sun rising on the eastern plains after an all night battle between mecha and the invid. If you like synthesizer music in the vein of Moroder, Jarre and other keyboard masters,  and you like hard-ass electro beats, the new Blastromen album is right up your sleeve. An overall cohesive sound that follows a theme throughout the album - this is one of those event LP's I'm prattling on about here at City of Bass; one of those music projects that you put on and listen through the entire thing all the way through in one go. I'm sure most fans and electro heads have already caught up on this album by now, but if you haven't heard it yet, or have been putting it off, this is so worth your hard-earned coin. You can cop digital, compact disc or color vinyl copies directly from Dominance Electricity (regular black vinyl is sold out) Recommended. City of Bass: blogging daily about the electro music scene. Follow along via twitter or the RSS feed