Just Deux - Dance Machine

Dance Machine is Tuscany based Just Deux's (of Deuxvolt) offering into the industrial club scene, and offers up 12 tracks of European, dance friendly tunes for free.

His influences include "video games, sci-fi and cyberpunk", so you would maybe be forgiven for expecting an Eisenfunk clone and there are some similarities, but in fact I would place Just Deux's work to be closer to V2A, Mind.In.A.Box or Rotersand.

That is not to say that Just Deux can necessarily match Mind.In.A.Box for atmosphere, or Rotersand for anthemic choruses, but there is a similarity in sound and spirit.

There are plenty of 8bit style synth leads, simple but driving basslines and hooky choruses that provide an enjoyable listening experience, if not necessarily a hair raising one, such as on instrumental journey "Beat My Score" which is like a retro tour of the commodore 64 world, complete with Tetris theme choruses (which is a little cheesy and very Eisenfunk, but I can't deny it made me smile).

Just Deux, do also possess the ability to go up a gear though, and move up into the harsher EBM genres on certain tracks without losing their melodic qualities such as on "NakeDistortions".

There is perhaps an over-reliance on the usual trance lead sounds and 'Dance Machine' is not pushing any boundaries here, but in terms of the song-writing, production and just plain dance-ability, it does exactly what it says on the tin, putting easy to listen to alternative dance music out in a palatable and enjoyable fashion.

The biggest danger with Just Deux is that I am not convinced that this project has its own unique selling point yet, and could be lost amongst the many artists producing EBM unless able to build his own identity musically and visually.

That being said, this record is better than a lot of those I have heard so far in 2013, and I think there is the potential to do some very good stuff in the future, assuming Just Deux is able to focus in on developing their sound, and relying less on the industrial staples of four to the floor and those detuned trance leads, all of the elements are there, it just needs a spark and some character for them to really take off.

Overall, I enjoyed this album, without ever becoming overly enamoured with it, the tracks are largely good, without being great.

However, this album is FREE, and well worth giving a listen if you enjoy your EBM melodic with a european style, you may well find something here that you will enjoy. Feb 12 2013