Cursor Minor: Danceflaw
Lo Recordings

Of course the helmeted figure on the cover of Cursor Minor's third album references Daft Punk but that's about the only connection between them: the latter crafts electro-pop songs while Cursor Minor opts for epic electro dance tracks. Rubbery synths grind and sputter, vocoders roar, and chugging beats slam throughout the disc's almost eighty minutes (one might also treat the release as an hour-long collection that includes a steaming 20-minute “Miniminermegamix”). Opener “This Is Electro” reads like a manifesto and sounds like it too, a chugging, eight-minute epic of swelling synths and distorted vocoder belches. Cursor Minor flirts with acid (“Open the Box”), schaffel (“Spassfaktor”), and sometimes pushes the machinery so hard (“Skunk Works”), it sounds like it's squealing for mercy. The album enters a poppier mode in its closing tracks: the synth-streaming “Ain't Talkin About Love” is the closest the album comes to a ‘single' (even if its hammerhead bass lines would scare off most radio programmers), and the comparatively sweet “Errors In My Mind” brings the album (not including the bonus mix) to a sunny close. A well-nigh definitive exemplar of electro, Danceflaw is the perfect place to start for anyone seeking an introduction to the genre.

December 2006