KING MENTAL (Puff Boys)

King Mental is a UK band that has been around since the late 1990’s, releasing acid-tinged techno on various record labels. But just this year in 2017, they finally got around to releasing a self-titled album. The album, coming on a pretty clear-green cassette, is a four-track EP and its songs are purely instrumental. The first track, “8th Floor Madness”, starts off with a catchy electronic danceable beat and thudding bass that will make your speakers vibrate. “Blair Bitch Project” continues on with a faster energy to it.

Side B’s “When Ya Move Out Of Control & Run” features real drums as the beat (as in non-electronic) and is a slower tempo track, and is accompanied by muffled lyrics for the first time in the album, differentiating it from the previous tracks. The final track, “I’m George Ryan”, starts with a quick beat once again and features voice samples from the titular George Ryan. Out of curiosity I tried to find the source of these samples, but the only “George Ryan” of note I could find was a former governor of Illinois who was arrested on corruption charges, so unless that’s him I am in the dark as to who the subject of the song is.

In all I found the album quite enjoyable, being a fan of electronic music myself. If you’re looking for some good instrumental electronic music to dance to, this is not an album to overlook.
https://soundcloud.com/king-mental

https://kingmental.bandcamp.com/album/king-mental-baby

-- Suren Oganessian

FIIT “Horse Stance” (Puff Boys)

I couldn’t find much info on this band, but I’m pretty sure it’s just one guy. This whole album was recorded live. It’s some loud repetitive techno. This album has some good and some bad. While listening through for the first time, I was thinking a lot that this guy would be great at composing the scores for action movies. Most of these songs just kind of give off that vibe that they should be playing in the background while Tom Cruise is fighting three evil henchmen in the middle of a strobe light filled club.

My biggest problem with this album is that some of the songs such as “Temporary Truce” are over seven minutes long. I have no problem with a song being seven minutes, but when it’s basically the same 30 seconds looped over and over again with the tiniest difference, it really gets old. When I review this kind of music, I always say the same thing and it’s that restraint is incredibly important. You can make a great song that’s a minute and a half long and keep the listeners wanting more, or you can make a seven minute song that ends with them being frustrated that it never went anywhere else. I think that FIIT could be capable of some very cool things, but less is more.

FIIT

- Garrett Douglas