C2 - cubed

Once again, I find myself reviewing an older release that, upon having listened to it a few times, I wonder how I missed it in the first place. Back in 2004, C2.control.org (a side project of control.org) released 'Cubed' on CD. I missed it then, but it came back as a digital release in 2011 on control.org's own record label, Control Freak Records.

I had to listen to this one a couple of times to get a good feel for it, because sometimes it's too early in the morning for me to listen to anything other than the pounding inside my own skull. The second time was the charm, though. On "cubed", C2 delivers an entire album full of driving, distorted beats and grooves. There's very little here in the way of samples, too; they're used pretty sparingly throughout the album, which I find to be a nice touch. It's raw, sparse distorted dance music that brings to mind acts like Winterkalte. Many of the tracks, like 'cubed' and 'c2', start off slow and take a bit to ramp up to full power, but once they do, they're good dancefloor stompers. 'Rockstar', is an out of control, noisy, pounder of a track that's one of the strongest on the album, and a new favorite of mine overall.

Not all the tracks are as compelling. A handful of tracks, like 'access' and 'poly', seem like they never quite go anywhere. In these moments, everything feels like it's bogged down a bit. I found myself wondering now and again when these tracks would end, so I could get back to the catchy tracks C2 have shown themselves capable of creating here and on their other releases. But despite the occasional miss, C2 bring several tracks that will end up in heavy rotation around here. Apr 01 2012