CD Review of Dirty Sound Vol. 1 - The Injection by Starkillers
Recommended if you like
DJ Dan, Austin Leeds, Iio
Label
Made Records
Starkillers: Dirty Sound Vol. 1
The Injection

Reviewed by Jason Thompson

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I make the beat go boom, papi…I make the beat go boom, papi…I make the beat go boom, papi.” These were the historic words that ignited the great Robot Revolt of 2007. Who was to blame for bringing about this mess? Point the finger clearly at Starkillers, one of those “bands” which is nothing more than a DJ or two hiding behind a group name. Their album Dirty Sound Vol. 1 – The Injection was the diode that broke the robots’ collective back, sending them into a full-blown revolution against each other.

Indeed, the song “Discoteka,” featuring the aforementioned line, which will annoy the hell out of anyone that hears it, kicks off this collection of original Starkiller tracks and remixes. “Discoteka” starts off sounding like it’s going to go somewhere, but after it hits the two-minute mark, you realize it isn’t, and then that faceless chica starts her bland intonation of what passes for lyrics. The sludge continues on through “Scream,” another original track with no way out of its mix of stale old house synth squiggles and monotonous beat. Gina Lapiana does the recitation once more. Another robot bites the dust in futility.

DJ Dan’s “Rok the Rhythm” fares a little better, but sounds like it was created with Acid on some kid’s computer. No variation in sight, but at least a little more solid than the previous Starkillers tracks. Luckily, “Promises” by Ron Reeser & Dan Saenz works better, a hard house-trance fusion of rocking beats and one of those main lines that would make any kid on ecstasy want to hug everyone in the room after sweating profusely, dynamically, and wholeheartedly. Robots do not sweat, though, but even they knew a decent groove and called a time-out for this song.

It was back to the trenches, however, as soon as “Can U Feel It,” a joint by Angel Manuel vs. Mr. Fingers, blared over the speakers. One of those piss-poor excuses for any form of dance music, it sounds like one of those really lazy tracks that the Antler-Subway label was known for cramming onto any of their lousy techno discs back in the day. The Robot Revolt was quickly turning into a rock ‘em, sock ‘em spectacle, with oil pouring out into the streets. Somewhere, a young transistor cried out…

“My World” by Dario Nunez and David Vio tried to calm matters down a bit with a slice of trance. It was decent, but you could still feel the restless gears grinding from north to south, east to west, ready for another round of mechanical destruction. Soon, even the small appliances filling happy households were beginning to worry. For a moment, it looked like things were going to settle down peacefully as Terranova and Austin Leeds’ “Dirty Sound” started off great, with a nice hook courtesy of a jagged synth bass line, a strong backbeat and some tasty notes dropped on top. But even that had to be pushed into crapville as the whole thing just piled onto itself, becoming louder, more distorted, and nothing like the way it started out. The robots clashed again, this time causing the whole assembly line at General Motors to join in the battle.

And so it progressed through “Only You” by the same two culprits. As the Revolt raged on, everyone else tuned in wondered why the hell anyone would want to dance to these songs. This was about as elementary and lazy as electronic dance tunes could get. But another recess arrived in the form of iiO’s “Is It Love.” The people grooved, but the robots knew better. They continued to clash in the background, knowing full well that the next song was going to be another letdown. Sure enough, Terranova and Austin Leeds showed up again to annoy everyone with “For the Pills,” while Vinny Troia followed suit with his same-sounding “Flow.”

As the final sprocket was about to be thrown and the very last gear about to grind to a deathly halt, iiO showed up one more time with “Rapture,” another fine track that brought peace to the land once again. The sun came out, the birds sang, and a whole bunch of other clichéd happy ending stuff occurred as the CD finally ended. Yet it wasn’t all wine and roses, as secret government agencies around the world took notice and stockpiled the disc for their own shenanigans. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN!

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