Death In Vegas

Under the guise of Death in Vegas, Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes are an ever-changing tour de force who seemed to get better on each of their first three psychotropic albums. Though they began as frontrunners of the big beat era along with the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy, they quickly morphed into something darker, psychedelic and more complex than their peers. Last heard on 2002’s Scorpio Rising, a more accessible and rock-heavy electronic sampler, DIV have chosen to reinvent themselves again for their fourth full-length. Now releasing records on their own label, Fearless and Holmes have chosen electro and Krautrock as their new direction, a decision that proves within minutes to fail miserably. While it was a string of guest vocalists (Iggy Pop, Bobby Gillespie, Liam Gallagher, Hope Sandoval) that filled the slight void of the bleak instrumentals on their second and third outings, the duo have rejected any vocal assistance whatsoever and suffer because of it. Satan’s Circus is a blatant and uninspired imitation of Kraftwerk and Neu!, and there really is no way to sugar coat it. The lack of passion and soul combined with the dull repetitive droning on this record prove the pair suffer from a hearty lack of creativity and motivation. The only redeeming quality lies in the additional disc: a twelve-track live set of their best hits from London’s Brixton Academy. Unfortunately these two discs aren’t sold separately.