It only makes sense that, beyond the eight-bit music revolution of using sounds derived from archaic video game consoles, someone would begin producing 128-bit music derived entirely from Playstation 2. Norway's
Tøyen are just such innovators, although they only innovate inasmuch as they might someday accidentally advance into a real world studio. So technicalities aside, what's left is fairly rote yet not unamusing instrumental cuts that fuse Bollywood rhythms with simplistic laser-beam melodies. Singer Rita Augestad Knudsen adds a little depth on "In Space" and "Café" with a less affected
Björk tone. But with lines like "Where everything is lovely, in space/Where everything moves slowly, in space," this is hardly a message for the ages. More engaging is Tollef Berger, who gives the hollowed-out sound of "(The) Face" a
Soft Cell sheen. But there's no escaping the fact that this is pretty yet slight music that leaves the listener wishing for more than a gaming system simulation of ethnic music from "Pakistan." ~ Joshua Glazer