Empty- Aeon Xpand

ARTIST: Empty
ALBUM: Aeon Xpand
LABEL: Aphotic Audio
REVIEWER: Matthew J.
DATE: 7-29-08

Empty's second EP opens with a brand new track, "Castrated," and it's a bit of a departure for the Australian group's previous work. Less geared toward dark atmosphere and much more focused on rhythm, "Castrated" is Empty's most unabashedly club-oriented offering to date, with pounding bass lines and hard trance-inspired synthesizers backing coldly aggressive vocals. In direct contrast, second track "Alone (Disharmony Remix)" is almost pure ambient, and gives the original a more psychedelic, almost uplifting mood, with spaced out synths muffling raspy vocals. The rest of the remixes run the gamut from gritty industrial, as on the Zintek remix of "Castrated," which features distorted guitars and crunchier vocal processing, to cleaner dance material, as on the bouncing electro breaks of "Scarred (JVL 7" Construction Remix)." Most familiar to fans of Empty's first EP are the Process Void Ripped Remix of "Torn" with its moody pianos, analog chords, and Skinny Puppy-inspired rhythmic stomping, and the Pask Remix of "Alone," with its hints of glitch music revealing themselves through chopped up beats that pan across the stereo channels behind robotic vocal effects. Also worth a mention is the In-Tranzit Remix of "Castrated," which finishes things off with a four-on-the-floor club killer that manages to be extremely dark and evil despite its prominent use of cowbell. Sonically diverse but well-crafted, this is an enjoyable if brief collection that promises more great things to come.

"Xpand" your horizons at www.emptyoffline.com.