Customer Reviews

Pattern Recognition

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A long time coming, Headscan's second album Pattern Recognition has finally arrived, courtesy of ArtOfFact Records. When the EP featuring the single "Dead Silver Sky" was released late last year, I was disappointed, but encouraged by a couple of the mixes. I am very pleased to say that the full album itself fulfills the single's potential, and the Canadian duo of Claude Charnier (music) and Christian Pomerlau (vocals) have outdone themselves.

Too often, lengthy delays spell doom for a record, but that's definitely not the case with Pattern Recognition. Headscan has used the last year to work on the flow and identity of the tracks, resulting in a singular identity that's quite magnificent. The lyrics - from what can be deciphered due to processing and layering - deal with familiar, Blade Runner-esque themes, embracing the dark beauty of technology while being aware of its pitfalls. The music is a thick, lovely miasma of grand synth sweeps, pulsing beats, and animated sequences (especially "Lolife" - possibly the album's most club-friendly track), and is dense without being overly heavy. "Carnal Knowledge" features wonderfully layered deep melodies, and "Permafrost" moves along a lightspeed path through a 25th century cityscape. Unfortunately, as effective as the music is, its effect fades as the tracks progress.

Too much of anything (even a good thing) tends to lose its luster over time, and this is really the only bad thing I can say about Pattern Recognition. In small doses, it's mesmerizing, but listening to the 15-odd tracks in one setting can cause your mind to wander, searching for new patterns to recognize.

As well-conceived and well-executed as the album is, it lacks the diversity of Headscan's previous album, Shaper and Machinist, although Pattern Recognition is without doubt a more powerful record. It also features two ambient-type tracks ("Zero Sun" and "Sunken World") that are basically filler (luckily they're the first and final ones, so they're easily skipped), and the album mixes of "Dead Silver Sky" and "Slipstream Monocraft" have been much better represented elsewhere (namely, the Biometric mix on 2004's Dead Silver Sky EP and the instrumental "Slipstream" on AoF's UTurn 2).

Headscan has taken a major step in cementing themselves as the leader in the cybertech movement, and Pattern Recognition is another showcase of their undeniable potential - it's frustratingly excellent. Hopefully, future releases will have a bit more diversity and experimentation. All told, a fine electro album well-suited for the dancefloor and headphones.

I found out about Headscan completely by random. My music collection spans nearly every genre under the sun, but my first love was always EBM/Industrial in all of its guises.

Every once in awhile, you'll come across an album that can give you pictures by sound. Pattern Recognition is an album that is probably one of the most organic sounding pieces of synthwork I've heard since Future Sound of London, though Headscan is much darker. I get a vision of a city at night, being absorbed by the roots of an ancient tree; clearly your own mileage will vary.

The overriding point of this review is this: If you or someone you know thinks that electronic music is sterile, clinical, lacking "soul" or humanity... this album is suggested.

If you were to mix Haujobb, Future Sound of London, and a touch of Front Line Assembly, that's what you'll get from this album.