[x]-Rx - Activate The Machinez

I even have their demo somewhere. At first they were a fun act. Not to hard on the brains, dancy and stuff. But quite fast they became formulaic and the two albums after their debute were pretty boring and bad apart from the occassional clubhit. I heard some people mention this new album was better. Well it starts better, thats for sure. "Escalate" is a pretty good party-EBM track not unlike the stuff Uberbyte is well known for. But after that track its pretty much over with the fun.

Almost every track after that has the trademark cliche build up. Straight four to the floor beat, bassline on the afterbeat and all leads coming from the Vanguard synth. You guys want in on a secret? The preset all these bands use is called "The beast" and its in the softsynth ReFX Vanguard. Now you can start your own [x]-Rx clone! Make sure to send Brutal Resonance your demo's for review!

Apart from "Sadistortion" which is a nice track, everything goes like the formula, and after a few tracks the constant use of "The beast" gets irritating. The production is good, and most off the stuff will work on the dancefloor, but this stuff is so retarded that i wouldn't expect your audience being cool and funky. You probably only get green or pink glowing monsters to dance to this.

Another problem: This stuff highly resembles hardstyle. But everyone who listens to hardstyle will tell you that the avarage level of that stuff is miles above [x]-Rx and similar acts. And has much better bouncy beats. Go on YouTube and search for the track "So high" by Noisecontrollers for instance. Hear what i mean? There is no need for music like [x]-Rx. If you like this stuff you will find a world of pure golden awesome on Beatport in the "hard dance" and "hardcore/hard techno" section. Jun 16 2012