Search - Noise Unit :: Decoder

Amazing instrumental cd

D. M. MATALLIN | Valencia, Spain | 11/04/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At first I was reluctant towards this cd. I had listened to some of their previous material, which was quite in the vein of early FLA, and so when i knew that the later Noise Unit's works, that is 'Decoder' and 'Drill' were completely instrumental and more techno-oriented, I thought I'd never give them even a listening. When I first listened to Drill's 'Dominator' I thought, well, it's not that bad, but I didn't pay more attention to this side-project for some months.
Now that I own 'Decoder' I must recognise it is a masterpiece in its genre. It is a bunch of instrumental songs, varied enough not to bore me, similar enough to maintain a conceptual unity. Is this techno? well, it is. But Leeb style. If you know Leeb music (Front Line Assembly, Delerium...) you know that he explores in many diverse ways (metal, techno...) without losing his personal style. 'Decoder' is not an exception. Here you can listen to songs which are danceable, stmes minimalistic, stmes grandiose, stmes drum'n bass, stmes more EBM... but all with Leeb's unique style.
'Decoder' has no guitars, unlike 'Drill'. Which is best? I think both are great, stmes I prefer to listen to one, other times to the other.
Some of the best songs in 'Decoder'? At first 'Escape' was my favourite. It is a very good danceable piece, with a catchy melody that repeats throughout all the song. But my real fav here is 'Ascent', a very etherreal piece, somewhat reminiscent of Delerium, completely addictive and catchy. The rest are not much worse, all 9 songs here are pure joy for the senses.
It's a pity 'decoder' is out of stock. It's, in my opinion, a lesson of how techno can be interesting, not only fun, and how an instrumental cd can be listened to from the beginning to the end without a stop. Of course you can dance till you exhaust with this work, but the most interesting thing is that you can actually LISTEN TO it, and enjoy it as well."

Decoder ~ Noise Unit

Bjorn Viberg | European Union | 05/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Decoder being the 1996 release from Noise Unitis a very well produced instrumental album that can be said to have borrowed from a plethora of genres. Leeb borrows some from trance, a bit from techno, ebm, techno and electro music. The end result could end in becoming just utter chaos but it is not. This is an extremly well produced album and one can definetly hear that they hand picked the sounds. I love the sphere on the cover and the text is cool, but the book-let has nothing but a discography and that stinks. Even so this is a very nice album and I love to listen to it."

Great album all the way through.

M. Byer | Mountain View, CA USA | 07/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listen to this album constantly while in my 'workshop'. It's driving. Also has a good many layers and mood shifts throughout as well as some interesting thematic 'vocals'. Bill Leeb does it again and again, and if you are a Delerium fan but need something a little more peppy, you might want to check this one out."