Search - Thd :: Watz Your Program

To their credit, THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) continue to move away from the derivative industrial dance music of their debut, Mechanical Advantage. Harder-edged than 1995's techno-fied Outside In, Watz Your Program? sees THD get down and dirty, wrestling in the mud with squelchy keyboards, dense effects, and brute-force funky beats. But old habits die hard, and some tracks hark back to the old days: "Floating Corpse" is one of those sledgehammer industrial ballads we've heard so many times before--slow, pounding beats, atmospheric keyboards, distorted vocals. And "Anubis" is strictly old-school, a plodding dance track with some movie samples thrown in. Still, there's enough here to hold your interest, particularly "Days Ahead," a laidback, hip-hoppy affair--think Beck meets the Beastie Boys over at Trent Reznor's crib--and the title track, a nasty admixture of tribal grooves and distortion that evolves into a dark funk. Not a bad disc, but THD are still two turntables and a microphone shy of their potential. --Steve Landau