- The latest release on Canada's electro based Turbo label, Traxxdata, explores the sound of 80's electro, to the point where the listener feels subjected to a futuristic timewarp back into the once-forgotten era - and which is now being explored by the likes of Felix Da Housecat.
Traxxdata has it's mellow moments such as the opening track Calabi Yau Space - an excursion in deep vocodered vocals, heavy basslines and features some sci-fi elements, Crockett's Theme is an atmospheric electro love song, an instrumental ballad in some respects.
FPU even goes so far to produce tunes which salute Kraftwerk, such as the bouncey electro on In The Future With Machines. Again with the deep vocodered robotic vocals and lush keyboard lines. Seven Of Nine doesn't immortalise the android from Star Trek character, it's more of a epic electro piece, probably good for theme music. Speaking of theme music the FPU Theme does a seriously good job with the digital drums and sounds like a tribute to the Miami Vice theme.
The tracks on this album that seemed to garner any attention from me are the uptempo dancey tracks - You Don't Pay My Bills is pure 80's electro disco, the shit to listen to while wearing Terminator sunglasses. Breaky enough to bust out the robot and other early breakdance power moves. Racer Car utilises those retro orchestra hit samples which sounds like FPU's been listening to too many Arthur Baker tracks. Oh yeah, let's not forget the vocodered vocals, this time a shout out to early German techno, with the sleazy male vocals taking the tune to underground 80's disco proportions. Time Safari gets all New Order on us, thanks to it's wobbly bassline and disco beats, and even more so for Eastside Protection but it goes so far as to pull out the heavy synth lines.
Finally all the madness is wrapped up and the whistle is blown on Endgame which, thanks to it's quirky video game samples, sounds more like the end theme to a Megaman game. You could just picture it now...
Dr Wily: So you have finally defeated me Megaman, but I will be back for revenge!
Megaman: Oh no he's getting away!
Dr. Light: Oh don't worry Megaman, if you caught him, Nintendo won't be able to make a sequel...
Overall, not a bad release, nothing really captivated me during the 50 or so minutes of listening to this. Traxxdata is a collection of music and styles based on the era we've all been dreading and bad-mouthing. ("Oh I can't believe we used to wear stone wash jeans" and "Oh I can't believe hair used to look like that") It turns out that 80's electronica is now a powerful force and one to watch out for.