Testube - Off Purpose

Hailing itself as "a mix of post-industrial, IDM, experimental, and dark glitchy pop sounds", Testube is completely alien to me, and almost daunting in its concept.

This is one of those releases I've had sat in my 30-strong "to-do" list for a while now, and real-life may have gotten in the way, but It's about time I sat down and gave this the attention it deserves.

Now the following sentence is about the most honest and surprising thing you will ever see me type. I.Like.Glitch. Wait... what?

Opener and title track "Off Purpose" is indeed a Glitchy number, and despite the mainstream appeal of Glitch being as likely as Ejaculating Vinegar (Mainly due to it's minimalism), theres something quite appealing about the old style 8-bit esque sounds. I don't think the vocals should have come in to play so far into the song, but it's certainly nice to hear more to it than just the aforementioned Glitch. Introductions shouldn't be this slow, but it does, fortunately, work.

"Trickledown" is infinitely faster, and is at high risk of blowing the Intro apart and leaving it sitting in the corner, whimpering, like a Dog that's just pissed on your Cornflakes. One of the things I do like about Glitch is that it is usually batshit insane, and spawns an entire diatribe of Insane Japanese DJ's. If you could feed your Gameboy LSD and threw it down the stairs, it would probably sound like this.

Indeed, what can one say to a song entitled "Laptopmilk"? I think it needs to be repaired. I have a constant headache currently, due to recently becoming a Father, and not sleeping.

That may seem irrelevant, but the recipe of varied sounds and cock-slap crazy time signatures here make this a BITCH to review.

Ultimately, Jeff Danos has created something that IS varied enough to appeal to the majority of music lovers, in at least one aspect. Just be sure that you don't expect Structured Bubble-Gum pop. I swear I just heard a Didgeridoo. Feb 12 2011