Customer Reviews

Cipher Method

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This entire album blew me away from start to finish. I loved their last album, but this one is just incredible. Some of the best beats and production arrangements I've heard in years of listening to music of this genre. Though that's hard to classify, because Negative Format may just create a genre of their own with this type of thing. Parts of it even sound like what might happen if a 'Beaucoup Fish'-era Underworld started experimenting with trance or darker electronic music, and parts of some songs even sound a little Aphex Twin influenced.

It's definitely a departure from "Distant Pulses". Granted, their sound is still very trancy and dark, but Alex Matheu takes EBM in a completely new direction with this one, adding spacy and trancy dance rhythms, and even throws in some breakbeat every once in awhile. It serves so many purposes. It's great driving music, great to sit back and relax to, and yes, you can dance to it too. I would call this album a journey into "all-purpose electronic music", because you can really listen to it anywhere and it'll have different effects on you depending on where you listen to it.

A must-have for any fan of EBM, electro, trance, or darkwave.

Negative Format is pure electro-industrial, and also blends a series of other electronic music styles into the formula. While the bulk of Cipher Method is high bpm beat-driven melodies, there are some features that seperate Negative Format from other bands in the genre. The vocals are slightly distorted, and tend to drone on robotically. This leads to lots of repetition in the songs, but it's also a very useful tool for conveying the technological theme of the lyrics. The music itself is also repetitve in regards, with synth-loops and sequences abound (definitely demonstrating some instrumental trance influences). So if you're looking for something that deviates from the militant electro sound of Funkervogt and :wumpscut:, or just want something a little lighter in the way of aggro-industrial music in general, Cipher Method is worth a listen.

Whoever the fan from Seattle giving this masterful EBM album a low rating, needs to have his/her head checked, for there is nothing standard about this album even when compared to the other 3 Negative Format albums. That's right, this one is the fourth, not the 3rd full album put forth by Negative Format. More elements of trance abound in this album, with great synth looping, and a chameleon like way of blending into whatever environment you happen to be in at the time. A perfect fusion album. Definitely worth the money spent for it.

Just like Negative Format's first 2 albums, this new one is just the same song over & over & over again. The only difference this time is that the song titles are far more computer-geek related. Someone's been watching "The Matrix" & "Bladerunner" a little too often by the looks of it. The vocals are little more than cliche themed spoken word processed through lots of computer sounding distortion and no song has any obvious verse/chorus hook to it. This EBM band continues trying to convince people that it's Trance now, but that's not the case at all. Even the most generic instrumental Trance has more musical punch & catchiness to it than this does. If you enjoy unimaginative background music whipped up on a laptop computer, then you may like this. If you're looking for any sense of creation, structure or substance, skip it.