drexciya - "harnessed the storm"

drexciya have been doing this electro thing for years longer than most of the bands that are getting all the attention now. long considered camp by nonfans, electro's wilful atavism has been repackaged on recent years for hyperactive geeks who tag like this <br> rather than with spraypaint, and sold as the new punk. it had to happen eventually, though i wish bands like babyland would get a little more coverage now and then. never quite fitting in with i-f's vocoder-step crowd and certainly coming from a different place than detroit contemporaries like adult, drexciya have taken special care to cultivate their own niche in the genre - indeed, they reside in their own ecosystem.
representing the underwater people of drexciya in fine, anonymous form, harnessed the storm's music is as idiosyncratic as its title. undersea disturbances opens cinematically with ominous, thunderous clangs and spare titles on a black background: "drexciya presents harnessed the storm", but in less than a minute, it's all widescreen and the sunken city is bustling. currents swing the camera every which way - leni riefenstahl's forthcoming film is apparently a documentary about coral reefs in the indian ocean. i expect serene underwater shots and waving.... things. the first two tracks on this album alone would be perfect for this film, so evocative are they of the curiously detached activity prevalent in ocean films, but at least she got giorgio moroder (???!!!) to do the soundtrack. then again, why would the famously reticent drexciya contribute music to a film by the director of triumph of the will? i digress.
after 1999's confused neptune's lair, harnessed is a welcome return to form. this drexciya is meaner and leaner than they've ever been, even since the quest, which has been copied to death by other acts, anyway. i'd like to hear them copy this - generic house and techno sounds (some you'll recognize from the unrealistic techno club scenes you've seen in films. you know what i mean, i know you do...) are paired with ultracompressed clackings and crunches, yielding an austere, minimalist vibe comparable to later plastikman or phoenecia's brown out, encoded as a 16kbit mp3. it's a vertiginous listen, but there's no one else making music just like it right now, and that alone makes it worth buying.

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