Lowfish

For all its low frequency force, Lowfish's midnight techno rides a surprisingly buoyant and toe-tapping groove in Frozen and Broken. The Toronto native's defining analogue buzz finds a roomy home in the CD's brooding ambiance, leaving clear room for lots of melodic synth lines and rich, sometimes digitized textures. The electro fuzz and four-on-the-floor foundation throb at a relentless but fluid pace, grabbing and keeping the listener's attention by both the depth of frequency and its sustained melodic drive. The grain and noise from Lowfish's semi-operational analogue arsenal adds to the album's cinematic tone, and the result is a well executed IDM techno fusion. Almost seemingly beyond what should be Lowfish's limited analogue palette, Frozen and Broken's full-fleshed soundscapes reaffirm his unique path and continues to attune ears to the reverberating depths of real-world circuitry and knobs.