Dreamweb Trilogy＜Blue Vinyl＞

The second album by Austrian electro duo Mind in a Box is a dreamy blend of dancefloor beats, industrial buzz, and the kind of delicate, whispery electro-pop that was stock-in-trade at labels like 4AD and Factory in the late '80s; indeed, the first single, "Certainty," feels like a mythical collaboration by Clan of Xymox and early Dead Can Dance. Though the album is billed as a continuation of a storyline that began on the duo's debut, Lost Alone, the story -- something about some sort of investigator having walking hallucinations while on the trail of a mysterious and beautiful woman -- is fragmentary at best, told mostly through snippets of dialogue in the intros and codas of the songs proper, and can safely be ignored. That leaves the music itself, which is invitingly chilly in that special Eurogoth way that only moody Austrian duos can pull off. Specifically, the enchanting "Out of Time" is both the album highlight and its most overtly retro song, with an insistent vocal melody, high-pitched vocodered vocals, and a galloping beat that adds up to a sublime recollection of the great late-era work by Section 25. So Dreamweb isn't the most innovative dance record of the year, but it's one of the more charming ones. ~ Stewart Mason