Initially, the prospect of KOMPUTER'S second album, "Market Led" seems exciting. After all, this is the trio that almost out KRATWERK'd our Dusseldorf heroes with the cool "Valentina Tereshkova": a cool, synth-led POP salute to the first woman in space. The new album's press release also catches the eye by revealing that KOMPUTER mainstays Simon Leonard and David Baker assembled their new album with help from abandoned vinyl from Spitalfields market.
So far, so intriguing, then. But sadly that's pretty much the point where the fascination stops dead and the honeymoon ends, because the ironically-titled "Market Led" is very much a case of the Emperor's new birthday suit.
Beamed in on a cloud of spongy, analogue sounds and (very) repetitive b(l)eats, the squelchy "Gaps" leads off, going nowhere very slowly and thus setting the tone for the next - oh God - 51 minutes.
A few other elements do gradually materialise from the murk and when a primitive synth riff appears from the hiss-y, early Roland drumatix sounds of "Stringer" and they briefly sound like an unfocussed Suicide, your reviewer's considering cutting them some slack.
The goodwill quickly dissipates, though, when "Mum" heralds the re-emergance of our old friend squelchy analogue beats. By this time, patience is being severely tried and when a semblance of tune fails to materialise and the ensuing "Kompaktor" comes on like a dustcart repeatedly backfiring, well the engagement's definitely off.
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Indeed, of the remaining four tracks, only the closing "Chirpy" is of any real merit: its' initial wibbly doodling giving way to a strident beat that's almost Krautrockin', augmented by a bare-bones, monophonic synth riff and then a huge, phased keyboard crescendo.
The problem is, you have to wade through the repetitive, 3-note collage of "Diary"; the cut-up tomfoolery of "Keep Rockin'" and the abysmal "Joanna" - which sounds like the noises the piano makes falling down the steps in Laurel & Hardy's "The Music Box" on an eternal loop - before you get to this saving grace, and by then your patience and expectations are both shot to shit anyway.
At W&H, we're invariably only too happy to endorse both electronica and minmalism from Suicide to Low and all points orbiting, but with "Market Led", KOMPUTER's found sounds shouldn't so much be recycled as returned post-haste to the Oxfam shop.
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