Richard Devine

As he’s done on his previous albums, Richard Devine pushes the limits of machines. The music here is mechanical and soulless, even surgical in its precision. For some this will be a turn-off. Not for me though. Cautella is a carefully controlled explosion of noise and beats. I can’t even imagine how much time was spent in front of a computer creating its subtle gradations of sound. There’s "Sigstop,” a fast melange of beats that Aphex Twin and Squarepusher would be proud to call their own, and "Arc-acid,” which puts most other break beat tracks’ complexity to shame. Towards the end, the pretty ambience of "VC-Demension” and the gentle break beats of "Timach” bring a little humanity back, just to keep you from complete exhaustion. A predictably zany collaboration with Otto von Schirach and a heavily-processed remix from Funkstörung end the album. If you’re making a movie about the future, this should be the soundtrack.