Ming Star

An album that might not remain in the listener's long-term memory, since the music and sound is not groundbreaking, but it is definitely fun. Ming Star is strongly reminiscent of music by the Chemical Brothers, and more contemporary Orbital, because of the breaks and energetic synth lines, yet is tempered with atmospheric melodies and textures not unlike the Boards of Canada. "Kentish Town" is a good marriage of melodic atmospherics with fetter shattering breaks that occur minutes after a subtle build up. One can also sense some dark humour after listening to pieces like "Stalker Song," which uses Cops-style interview footage of a woman describing being beaten and strangled to the police - the humour is in the cops asking the dumbest questions, not the description - to serious head-bobbing beats. "Bakerloo," the closing track, is great, evoking an almost '60s lounge nostalgia tempered with an eerie contemporary twist, once again like Boards of Canada or Brothomstates.