Testube

With a couple of fits and starts, Testube mixes late ’80s industrial disco, electro, and the glitches of modern digital signal processing. There are a few gems on the disc, especially "Exiled,” a speedy track that mixes all of these elements properly into something that sounds new and fresh. "Promise of God” is just as good, with an old Depeche Mode-ish bass line, filtered children’s voices and some modernised industrial beats and synth stabs. In general, the slower tracks are fairly disappointing, with vocodered vocals, plodding beats and melodies that don’t quite manage to fill their tracks. A couple of experimental tracks, like the jungle-influenced "Cubicle VFP,” the punchy beats of "Brownfields” and the truly weird "Last of the Loops” show promise and will certainly intrigue some listeners. If a modern studio mangling of old Human League and Nitzer Ebb records sounds appealing to you, it’s worth checking out.