Search - Signal 12 :: Signal

Brothers Leif and Lars Hansen--no relation to the teenybopper band, thank you very much--take a break from their main project, the dark industrial outfit Oneiroid Psychosis, to launch Signal 12, a vocal-less exercise in crunchy, industrial-flavored dance grooves. Intricate layers of keyboards, beats, and atmospheres compete for attention, which sometimes causes a confused musical mess and at other times comes together perfectly. The trip-hoppy "Circle Machine No. 1" (complete with a Portishead sample) establishes a head-nodding rhythm that melds well with the fluid keyboard effects, "256A" wields a robotic staccato funk pattern in service of stringlike keys and a Middle Eastern refrain, and "Neuro Viewbox" takes the ambient route, trading swirling synth sounds with blips and bleeps, all supported by a loping funk rhythm. Leif and Lars clearly had fun making this album, and it translates into a fun and engaging listen. --Steve Landau