The output of
Cabaret Voltaire's
Richard H. Kirk may be brutally expansive, but what distinguished his
Electronic Eye project from much of the rest of his discography was its long, unbothered gaze toward the inner workings of suggestive ambient techno, which was both flawed and absorbing. Although
Closed Circuit got near the two-hour mark and had the overriding sense of filler, its most successful tracks were its longest ones, like opener "Bush Channel Stepper," with its slow electronic throbs, subtle skeleton frameworks, and a well-trained but somewhat paranoid minimal high-end, and "Aquamarine Sheen," a 12-minute meditative stare that sounded precisely like its name. This was best ingested in pieces, but nevertheless an effective debut. ~ Dean Carlson