Front Line Assembly - Echoes

It's always great to experience Front Line Assembly material via the sonic prism of other electro maestros. Here we have a dream team of cutting-edge musicians who have collectively augmented FLA's highly successful 2013 effort Echogenetic to produce Echoes. Haujobb, tweaker (Chris Vrenna), and Rhys Fulber to name a few had brought to the table a wide spectrum of sounds and textures, enlivened with a scary amount of versatility and strengthened by a brilliant execution on all fronts.

Echoes contains two original tracks that The Leebinator had collaboratively penned with Ian Pickering of the Sneaker Pimps fame. The first is Contagion, which is also the despondent yet strangely upbeat opening track featuring hard-edged rhythms that cut through its brooding refrain. The listener is then treated with the more uplifting, FLAvour-esque floor killer Next War towards the middle of the record. Video game music production team Sonic Mayhem imbue Leveled with big atmospheres, scathing synths and glitch-heavy vocal lines, harking back to the cinematic soundscapes of Airmech, while Liebknecht shaves four minutes off Deadened and fashions it into a punchy dance-oriented track.

Of the three remixes of Ghosts on the deluxe version of Echoes (which contains four bonus tracks), tweaker's version is the most minimalist but also the most engaging. Powerhouse track Killing Grounds gets star treatment from Rhys Fulber and Greg Reely as they face off with their respective versions; Fulber's take is devoid of dubstep elements and rich with meandering strings, whereas Reely's mix sticks closer to the original and is far more layered.

As far as remix albums go, Echoes is definitely in a league of its own. Despite the presence of an incredibly rich blend of perspectives and divergent schools of sound, this record has turned out to be a completely logical extension of Echogenetic. This is a well-rounded effort that is a sharp, impeccably produced and intelligent assault on the senses. Jul 29 2014