After charring many a set of headphones throughout 2007, High Wycombe’s Specimen A look for similar violations of health and safety with Algorithm swamping bottom and high ends and all in between. A joypad-programmed rumpus, tentacled, civilian-grabbing synths are sent spewing and bursting, swerving and chopping (and at certain points, tail-spinning as if dropping out of the air) in all directions. Other than a chavvily facile vocal sample that’s a bit of a under-achieving stopgap, it’s another Spec A case study of letting the beast out of its cage, seeing it refuel greedily on the drop-out of the beat, and watching pandemonium ensue.
Nightmare is another one of those guitar-breaks bruisers dropping the clutch on a Mad Max dirt bike racer. Turbo synths do a 2525 version of the Wall of Death, on a digital-only vocal version lining up Incyte, Ken Mac & Miss Trouble for some knuckle-dusted rap thrills and spills playing cat and mouse, prisoner and gatekeeper. The voltage-abusing Club mix, amassing in-and-out grunting and ever re-charging synth rasps (the treble-trained ones following the A-side suit of heightening the armed and dangerous fun), stays within breaks’ angst parameters. I.e., it goes hell for leather on, without really being that angry. Both will gee you up, if on familiar fire-breathing terms.