The Starlight Eater
Her Sexy Circuits
Floating Near Zero-Zero-Zero
While Venting
In The Hands Of Space Pirates
Two Beeps Means Yes
A Little Lesson In Robotic Love, Part I
Anfer Reduction Control Center Unit
Nav Patrol
Brain At -273.14ºC
Nomad's Theme
Hired Hunter (Killbot)
A Little Lesson In Robotic Love, Part II

Given Photophob's quirky line in artwork and track names, you would be forgiven for seeing the influence of Add N To (X) here. The new CD's whole style exudes kitsch retro-futuristic robot fetishism, a not-entirely-sexualised celebration of the congress of man (or woman) and machine that next to 'Metal Fingers In My Body' demonstrates a repressed 1950s coyness. The woman on the front holding the giant dustbin-droid's hand is trying hard to look winsome in the face of absurdity; that the photograph appears to be some curious Gernsback-era relic sets it apart from Shenton et. al.'s cartoon porno-bots and anthropomorphic sex toys beautifully.

In terms of synthesis however, Photophob take an entirely contrary position to Add N To (X). While the latter favour clunky, unreliable analogue technology with its inherently charming overheating components and oscillator drift, the former opt for cutting-edge soundcrafting technologies that incorporate carefully-measured reproductions of digital glitch and scratch. This is not to say that the two bands inhabit entirely different docking modules musically-speaking though. The otherwordly electronic jollity of 'In The Hands Of The Space Pirates' for example provides some common frame of reference, even if the palette of sounds is a few generations removed; the chirping filter squeals on 'Nav Patrol' wouldn't sound out of place on "Avant Hard", even if there they would have been squeezed out of a Moog rather than a VST plugin. But Photophob never ROCK OUT; this vision of the future is a much more placid and utopian one. And Photophob's machines, one imagines, must communicate in pulses of noisy information, as there are no traces of a human voice here, even one that has been vocodered beyond all semblance of organic life.

But I'm waxing pretentious. Photophob sound like someone going back over the quirkier parts of Kraftwerk's musical territory, minus the technopop sensibilities, armed with Autechre's production values; this (currently-ubiquitous) influence becomes more apparent towards the end of the album, for example on 'Nomad's Theme'. To his credit, mainman Herwig Holzman avoids the danger of falling into science-fictional orthodoxy, remaining able to surprise the listener with sudden and unexpected plot twists such as the brief moments of orchestral grandeur on 'Hired Hunter (Killbot)' and 'A Little Lesson In Robotic Love, Part 2'. Understandably, given the subtle complexities of the sound and the textured finesse of the production, close attention pays off, and if you put this CD on quietly in the background it will adopt the role of non-threatening muzak without a fight. But so does much classical music; it is never fair to write something off as lacking in depth simply because it makes good wallpaper too.

ABC