I.B.M. presents Monsieur Black: Hurt U / No Love
Mathematics Recordings

How refreshing to discover that Lester Black doesn't take himself too seriously on this Mathematics five-tracker, as the Quebec night crawler's myspace page describes his “industrial-ghetto-tech-trance” spawn as “smart-ass electro revisionism,” “a bondage session with Richard Simmons,” and—not inaccurately—“a leatherman's parade with afro break-dancers holding ghetto blasters.” Riding on a cool haze of chugging beats, “Hurt U” weaves synth bleeps, grinding electro patterns, and jittery piano melodies into a surging anthem over which a male voice, having taken it too far in a late-night S&M session, intones “I didn't want to hurt you... I didn't want to make you suffer.” The sleazier raver “Something So Wrong (Kill Exist Mix)” flails into action with a crude groove of guillotine hi-hats and stomping beats, then spills the bark of android voices and soiled synth squeals overtop.

July 2007