Rewind

Like the rest of the Ninja Tune posse, Hexstatic have always been a few steps ahead of the pack. After all, it was the Hex/Hexstatic/Ninja operation that originally explored the synergy between electronic music and digitally generated images, taken to the fullest extreme on tracks like ‘Timber’, included here on the accompanying CD-Rom. However, all this techno wizardry would mean nada if the music was sub-standard. This being Ninja, the emphasis on musical quality is as strong as the visuals and Hexstatic have put together a feast of cut up, sample filled treats. There’s the yelping, melodic electro fuelled beatz of ‘Machine Toy’, hardcore nuances on nu skool breaks killer ‘Auto’, the deep, Orbital inspired ‘Communication Breakdown’ and ‘Vector’, ‘Kids Can Dance’ and ‘The Horn’ bristle with sleazy funk elements with the latter including some dirty talk in German. The entire album is an intelligent (in the entertaining sense) collage of sounds, sources and influences. Cut and paste culture taken to its most inspired extreme.