Pleasure Machine

Splitloop are two mates from Dublin who met on the bus to a Prodigy gig, and this is their second full-length record, the follow-up to 2005’s well-received Here On Business.
The opening minute or so of the first track ‘Crazy Sexy’ builds the tension nicely, before the album plunges into a heady concotion of breaks, beeps and beats that never lets up. ‘Party People’ shifts the mood somewhat, laying a thick bassline under guest rapper Jax’s aggressive vocal contribution. The heavy bass continues to feature on ‘Back That, Smack That’, before the pounding beats and expansive breakdowns of the title tune (and best track so far) ‘Pleasure Machine’ roll in.
The repetitive vocal mantras of ‘Frequency Rebel’ grate a bit, but the dip in quality control is fortunately not permanent, thanks in part to the relentlessly powerful ‘Electricity’ and later, Evil Harrison’s stylish guest turn on the impressive ‘100 Places’. The only major problem is that the album’s real highlights, the ice-cool Daft Punk-esque collaboration with Arveene that is ‘Release Remove’ and the six-minute stormer ‘Rush’, only appear at the end of the album.
Overall, Splitloop should have the dance faithful eating out their hands with this. But although the duo move across the same sonic landscapes as masters of the genre like the Chemical Brothers, crossover appeal may have to wait for a record that exhibits more of a human feel and pop sensibility into otherwise uncompromising dance music.

KEY TRACK: ‘Rush’