Flammpunkt - Amphetamine Psychosis

Say hello to Frank Sparti, known around the Atlanta Industrial music scene for being so active for the last 20 years. His credentials include having been in bands such as Prognosic, Thirteen13, Atomic Messiah, The Endless, and Ebola Surreal. Now, Flammpunkt is his solo outing, and he's signed to Beyond Therapy Records. With that being said, he released Amphetamine Psychosis through the label recently, and now I'm here to do what I do best; listen and talk.

As alarms ring out loud with a chain jingling amongst other electronic sounds, Cause for Alarm makes it sound as if someone just broke out of a prison, and everyone wants him back; dead or alive. But, experimentation is the name of the game for this artist; he doesn't like his sound to sit stagnant for one too many moments. Anything from chase-scene, movie style music to 8 bit sounds flow through the song, making this instrumental kick nicely.

Maintaining a relatively steady beat in comparison to the previous, Civilization Collapsing sticks with more electronic sounds that overlay a sort of bouncy rhythm. A lot of sounds persist at one time, and the way they mix and mingle comes out to my liking.

A bit slower paced, Sewer Pipe has more of an underground feeling, meaning that the song sort of thematically shifts towards a space below the earth....Like that of a sewer pipe. I'm pretty sure that, by this point, I'm hearing some influences from IDM, and I think that if I were to go back to the previous songs, somewhere in the raucous, I would be saying the same exact thing. An ambient ping is also present, adding a little more depth to the song. I liked it.

Cybergenic Freaks got testy with some bizarre, higher pitched synth noises that reminded me of sci-fi movies from a couple decades ago. The samples that come in saying "Cybergenic" in a robotic voice and then "Freaks" in a pretty deep pitch voice only added to that feel. This song also transitioned straight into neKrONAMIcode, slamming out some metallic sounds that sounding like someone beating up a tin can. Some vocals come into play, as well, though heavily effected with digital trips to make them sound like someone who smoked too much, and then eventually got a talk box.

Moving on with the retro feel, and even adding in some guitar samples, The Creeps brought forth another song that was worthy of attention. A few wobbles here and there, different work on synths kept it refreshing. Imachinery Friends brought back a bit of a metallic feel, with the sounds of lasers and error sounds breaking through, as well.

Perhaps coming off a bit more dance friendly, the title track had a nice jump to it. Plucks here and there from random instruments hit nicely, and the overall sound wasn't as chaotic as some others. The next song, Falling Down, brought along some trance elements, with synths shooting at a rapid pace in certain areas. Delightful.

Gunslinger's intro sounded as if it belonged in a Western set in the future; however, that whole play didn't work all the way through. It kind of dived back into similar territory as a lot of the other songs. The intro set it up to be different, but it kind of just fell back into where a lot of the other songs fell. And, finally, Digital Razor hit with some more vocals, still digitalized, but sounded more human this time around. It was nice to hear some vocals within this fest.

But, that's where the album ended. What this man definitely has going form him is his ADD ridden way of making music; there was a sort of evolution in the album as it went on, from light, electronic tunes to heavier bass riddled tracks. And, while this worked, I could say that a few of the songs played the same tricks as the others, and eventually fell a little flat. Still, this isn't something that should be struck down all too much; I had a blast getting through it, and I can assure you that you will probably do the same.

Aug 15 2014