EXORCISE THE DEMONS

The full-length format has proven problematic for drum n' bass producers.
It's particularly rough for the so-called "tech steppers" accustomed to
purveying their breakbeat nightmares on wax and dubplates. Photek
protegees Phil Aslett and Jim Baker had been prowling the darker-than-dark
fringes of drum n' bass for years before letting loose 1998's ferocious
EXORCISE THE DEMONS. Like their meticulous mentor, Source Direct's
break-charmers acquit themselves admirably. Their first album is a definitive
slab of darkcore intensity.
Variety is the spice that makes or breaks drum n' bass albums. Get too
eclectic and you have a mess; enter too rigid a mind-state and you produce a
turgid bore--perfect for the floor but ill-suited to the stereo. Source
Direct is fairly single-minded in the pursuit of thick, sinister atmosphere,
snake-style bass, and melodic dark-matter. The relentlessly slicing and
stabbing stainless-steel breakbeats would be mentally debilitating if not
for the varied--and somewhat amusing--textures deftly woven into such
tension-breakers as "Love & Hate" and "Dubstar". Source Direct's production
is sterling throughout. Through sheer force of talent and vision, DEMONS
craftily outsmarts the album-jinx that continues to bedevil even the duo's
most club-savvy peers.|