Seven Mile Radius- Your So Perfect

ARTIST: Seven Mile Radius

ALBUM: Your So Perfect

LABEL: Self-released

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 12-24-09

There's a lot that feels amateurish about the debut from Seven Mile Radius, from the misspelled album title (though judging from the cover art, that may in fact be intentional) to the simplistic beats to the vocal production. That said, there's also a lot to like. In many ways, this is an album that hearkens back to the EBM of the early '90s, when there was more to the DIY aesthetic than plunking down a few hundred bucks for a software program and then turning on a couple of presets. The electronic beats on songs like "Split" and "The Memoir" kind of plod, at times, but they sound like they were actually sequenced by hand. And while the recording feels somewhat old school, as does the classic jackhammer groove of "Ghosts," the drum 'n' bass flourishes on "KKV" are decidedly modern. The real problem here isn't in fact execution so much as mismatched tone, the fact that the brooding synth effects and dreary marching drumbeats don't really match the aggression of the lyrics, with the Skinny Puppy-influenced "Scream to Breathe" being the major exception. Still, it's a decent debut, embodying a lot of the spirit and angst of classic North American EBM but contemporary enough not to sound like a throwback.

Check out Seven Mile Radius on MySpace at www.myspace.com/sevenmileradius for more information.