It's familiar terrain. As soon as the lights are dimmed, the microscopes pulled out, electronic music is instantly shushed by the bystanders, who are waiting, hoping, and eager to better figure out just what makes it twitch and click the way it does. It's how
Richard Devine sees the world and unfortunately it's not much. Defiantly paddling about in
Autechre's and
Aphex Twin's wake,
Lip Switch tones everything down to let you hear the metallic gears and mechanics of dance music, regardless of the fact that it still sounds like studies done ten years too late (imagine
Future Sound of London without the clarity or
Kid 606 without the terrorism and you'd get pretty close to what's going on here).
Devine just lacks the heart of an insider to take you anywhere, leaving you with a disappointment akin to seeing the terrible Wizard of Oz controlled by time-controlled pneumatics instead of a dottering old man. ~ Dean Carlson