Boy Robot: Rotten Cocktails
City Centre Offices

Hans Möller and Lux Nigra vet Michael Zorn return with the oddly-titled Rotten Cocktails, the sequel to their fine 2003 debut Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle. Though the album's nine songs show Möller and Zorn to be accomplished songwriters and arrangers, the emphasis this time around is on beats, specifically dance-floor beats that rarely let up. The duo's simple yet effective approach finds them pairing clusters of elegant electronic elements in the high end with pounding techno in the lower. Though the opening song “Magic Toys for Girls and Boys” begins with a stately overture, it's soon dominated by insistent clicking patterns and a pounding bass drum; in similar manner, squelchy beats slam and scrape over a stately Kraftwerk-styled theme in “Invaders of Vanity Clubland.” Offering momentary respite from the intensity, the lovely Asian-flavoured sparkler “Live in Vanilla” highlights the group's composing talents, though even here the song's focus eventually shifts to an intense percussion dimension. Crank up the Victoriola and bask in the elegant mechano-electro of “Bonjour Frisur,” the slightly acidic “Bass & Booze,” and the euphoric glow of the grandly escalating stomper “We Accept All Our Parents' Credit Cards.”

July 2005