V.L.A.D.: Emo-Droidz
Laboratory Instinct

V.L.A.D.'s a minimalist, not in style but duration. The three tracks on his first Laboratory Instinct single, Xiringuitos Perdido, flew by in a fleet eleven minutes, all of which presumably makes Emo-Droidz a magnum opus when its nine tracks total a still-svelte twenty-four minutes. While the arcade electro-mania of “Kanda A” harks back to Xiringuitos Perdido, the skittering beats and scrapes, whirrs, and glissandi in “Puz D Find,” “Mekasupply,” and “Podbulb” suggest an Autechrian presence, though more in line with ep7's funk mutations than Confield's wayward abstractions. V.L.A.D. mixes it up, though, by injecting a hip-hop feel into “Transpack 2027,” adding the warped garble of a French MC to electro-house rhythms in “K-Bool,” and conjuring cyborgian melancholy in “Elodie & Sophia.” Maximal by comparison, “Prison De Chairs To Eternity” adopts a tripartite structure, moving from a sombre opening to an exuberant middle of squiggly synth patterns before revisiting the slower intro in the coda. Emo-Droidz doesn't last long, but impresses nonetheless.

February 2005