Album Review by EDF
The Hypercubes come from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and comprise of brothers Kevin and Neo Pawaray who started up the group in 2000. This album starts off like a chill out album, which is a good way to start any electronic dance instrumental album but the majority of tracks here are anything but chill out. Put simply, this one just breathes out to you, you can hear it and feel it. Just listening through this, images of sunny days, lying on a sandy beach followed by hot nights in a club come to mind.
The opening two tracks POEM TO THE WORLD and HELL DARK sets a relaxing mood for the listener. The dance beat led WHAT A …(UP TO YOU) surprisingly does not break the mood too much thanks to its sparse and undemanding production. The house style MY FUNK is enough to keep people on the dancefloor while INIA NEON is repetitive but surprisingly not dull, thanks to a number of things happening on the tracks at the same time. WHOOP starts off with a pulsating baseline accompanied by a deep house beat followed by the percussion led ROLLERCOASTER.
The pace slows down on SIMPLY, leading to the aptly named IN A MOMENT OF SLEEPLESSNESS, a track that drifts away, taking the listener along. The final track, LOVE ARROW, is another sparse track that at first does not sound right, due to each sound doing it’s own thing but somehow comes together. There are some decent ideas that come out from these tracks and you get a feeling that the Pawaray brothers have a lot more to offer. With a second CD release due soon and the promise of live instrumentation and guest vocalists, this is one group to keep an eye on.
