Andrew Duke — Sprung

Another release from Bip-Hop, but don't run away right away. We all get tired of a certain music style after an overdose, but Andrew Duke's Sprung is actually quite refreshing and not sleep-inducing.

Andrew Duke has been performing and recording his own music since 1987, and this Canadian artists is a well-known name in the techno / electronic music scene. Besides his own label Cognition is also runs his international online radio show, which is one of the leading hosts for cutting edge electronic music. Sprung is the first album outside his full lengths released on Cognition Audioworks.

The album is obviously influenced with the microsound, glitch and click & cuts genres, but also has some recognition points with the techno sound from the 1980's. A release that immediately comes to mind is Autreche's Confield, certainly not the worst thing to be compared with. It is perhaps more straightforward and less experimental, which gives Andrew Duke a somewhat distinct sound. The opening track Hell Yeah! starts off in a poppy style, while Pharmakoi is very minimal structure wise. Repetitions and loops are the keywords here. Chromosome 20 is another key track, with noisy synth loops in the background supported by a lovely modern techno beat.

Although I won't play this very often – after all there are better releases to find in this genre (i.e. Autreche) – this disc is worth attention for the electronic music addicts.