Obsidian: Space Cruise EP
Process Recordings

Space Cruise EP is certainly an appropriate choice of title for this three-tracker by Joey Jensen under the Obsidian name. With the tracks evidencing traces of electro, breakbeat, trance, house, and dubstep, the release succinctly showcases the skills of the Denmark-born Jensen, who works as a Sound Engineer when he's not producing his own material. The opener “Space Cruise” rolls out a five-minute storm of squiggly, overdriven electro that would leave would-be dancers spent and Jensen's gear pleading for mercy. Faint echoes of drum'n'bass haunt the pounding electro-dubstep of “Believe It” but not so much that the material sounds dated. “First Contact” presents the fullest plunge into dubstep, with Jensen digging sputtering bass wobble into a classic dubstep pulse. He only started creating electronic music four years ago (Space Cruise EP is his debut release) so one might regard the Obsidian project as a work-in-progress and expect that more of Jensen's own voice will emerge in his future output. Nevertheless, the material at hand is clean and highly polished—no surprise given his engineering training—and certainly qualifies as a legitimate enough expression of his abilities.

April 2010