Radial- Nexus

Artist: Radial
CD Title: Nexus
Label: Triumvirate
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 9/18/05

The debut album from Radial is pretty heavy-handed with the drum machines, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a dance record. The electronic beats here are, for the most part, so hard-hitting and tightly crammed together that they resemble not so much a rhythm in the traditional sense as the pummeling action of a jackhammer or pneumatic drill. “Falling Stars” exemplifies the style, with beats pounding at an inhuman tempo interrupted by occasional bursts of distorted ambient tones, while “Ne.er” and “Shattering Teardrops” are heavy but plodding, with a martial brutality that evokes inmates being worked to death in a prison factory. A few tracks integrate some elements that are at least vaguely musical, with minor-key chimes in the distance on “Splinters” and some almost jazz-tinged arpeggios emerging from the fuzz on “Scales,” while “Scent” and “Liberation” aim more towards pure noise with their painfully squealing glitches and high-pitched metal-on-metal screeches. “Affliction” represents the best of both Radial’s rhythmic and noise elements, with abrasive glitch music warring for attention with merciless bursts of electronic percussion, while album closer “Vent” is at least comparatively quiet with its hollow, reverberating drumbeats and moaning, industrial atmosphere. While this album is a little too abstract for dancing, fans of the more extreme side of such power noise artists as Converter and Synth-Etik – with whom Radial has collaborated on several occasions – ought to enjoy this a great deal.

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