It’s pitched as some wild trance extravaganza, a document of Ben Watkins’s unstinting commitment to exploration and experimentation. The truth is, it really isn’t. It mines that EBM seam to the point of exhaustion, of total fatigue.
‘The Return of the Pistolero’ is a wild blend of flamenco frenzy and eastern esotericism, all melded to a pulsating electro bear and hypnotic sequenced bass. And that’s about the pinnacle of the album’s innovation.
At times coming on like a cross between Donna Summer and Josh Wink, it’s hi-NRG but lo-xitement, as it rapidly becomes predictable and the relentless pounding at jittery-pace BM soon becomes draining, tiresome, and predictable. There’s nothing threatening or intimidating about the grating guitars that grace ‘Alien’ before being swallowed by a blitzkrieg of techno.
Long before the end of the album, it’s fallen to monotony, and you’re left feeling worn out and weary, and not from all the dancing.