bitcrushin'

What is it that makes Araabmuzik's Electronic Dream so immediately and uniquely brilliant? Coz in many ways its absolutely generic! With its nondescript divas singing about love-in-the-club, liberal use of easy-hitting trance euphoria, and some might say overuse of rapid-fire kick-drums. But in a sense, its convention is its invention - it sounds like a Cubase demo; it sounds like racing game music; but it really doesn't. Cop its absolutely cliched title too - there's nothing new here, but that's of little importance when all these familiar elements are used as sonic assault weapons.

Its unrelenting, this album, and the compressed length of the tracks only works to intensify this sweetly oppressive feeling that some of the best club tracks achieve. Part of the genius here is the alchemy Araabmuzik has discovered in mixing the melodic overtones of trance with the repetition and rawness of crunk beats - hip hop and dance never looked so good together. The other intensely brilliant technique is the shortness of the tracks - nothing is left around too long to gather a residue of monotony or boredom, everything hits hard and sharp and then bails, with the next same-but-different beat right behind it, abruptly beginning.

In this way, Electronic Dream feels not just like a club mix but almost like an album sampler - the constant replay of some chick half-singing "you're now listening to Araabmuzik" just like you get on a rap blend downloaded off the net or an advance album copy only increases this feeling. Maybe Araabmuzik has the 70 minute boring-as-fuck version of this album on his laptop somewhere. Probably not. He realises electronic music is like a hand grenade - the splintering harshness of his beats, shards blasting out my speakers, last only as long as an explosion - which is both miniscule and infinite.