Pavlov Scope

This CD was my first exposure to this extraordinary duo. These two are clearly like “penut butter and chocolote” – very good together through a combination of styles.

This release starts off with a banging low-freq beat underneath light electro synth melodies. This color of music embodies the IDM ethic with its syncopated, half-measure beats and breaks.

There exists good variety of tracks in this release as well: Some tracks have crunchy, hard edged beats, others have smoother 4/4 structures with markedly techhouse overtones, while still others execute glitchy and more purely electronic sounds all while maintaining an emotional, warm feel.

Like Plaid’s Not for Threes release, this album maintains a wonderful balance between aggressive-leaning percussive elements and soft, hooking melodies that fill out each song. Asymetric rythms against human narratives help create a new, but familiar brand of intelligent listening music. An excellent release that is in my top 5 favorites for 2005.

Boy Robot has a previous release named “Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle” which I just picked up – I’ll write a review of it later. Sadly, AFAIK these are the only two works done by this duo. Their real names are Hans Möller and Michael Zorn (better known as Boulderdash and Zorn of Lux Nigra, respectfully) and have distinct sounds that I feel aren’t quite as good as the two of them together, although strong in their own right.