Rewind [Import]

Hexstatic's Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson are better known as visual artists than as musicians, having worked with Coldcut on the well-regarded CD-ROM portion of their Let Us Play release. Keeping to their strengths, the debut release also includes a second CD of cutting-edge visual material, but the musical half stands up on its own with no difficulty. These two are obviously enamored with the electro style that was spawned in New York City in the early 1980s when the original South Bronx hip-hop sound met the avant-Eurodisco sound of Kraftwerk. The sound was innovative at the time and has, a decade and a half later, become a remarkably durable template for further exploration. Rewind starts a little predictably with an elevator music background and an orotund announcer saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by." That sequence segues into an answering-machine message that gets a little more interesting when Hexstatic turn the telephone company's three-note "Please hang up and try again" melody into a loop. The record hits its stride on the third track, "Deadly Media," in which a head-spinning blenderful of chopped-up words--syllables from several different languages--creates a linguistic whirlwind underpinned by classic Roland 808 beats. "Ninja Tune" takes more of a breakbeat approach with layers of congas supporting martial-arts movie dialogue. "Kids Can Dance" delves deep into mid-'70s style of "steppin' in it" funk, reminscent of Herbie Hancock. And the opening vocoder grunts on "Vector" and "Robopop" let you know you're in for the full electro treatment. "The Horn" returns to the breakbeat style for a keyboard-fueled groove paired with porn-soundtrack cries of ecstasy that together evoke the classic drug-trip segment from Brainticket's Cottonwoodhill. Finally, the CD's closer, "Bass Invader," continues the post-krautrock feel with melodic sequencers and sustained string-synth sounds over beats that sound like the world's funkiest video game. --Bob Bannister