TERENCE FIXMER Vinyl & CDs

Review: Most of the time you expect Terence Fixmer to deliver a steely strain of techno which reliably moves monolithic crowds in any temple you care to mention, but on this album for Novamute he's purposefully opened his palette to the EBM and industrial sounds which sparked his imagination as a teenager. It's instantly apparent on the abrasive jackhammer sonics of opening track 'Test of the Times', while 'In Synthesis' comes on with the sort of tough but sexy arpeggios you'd readily associate with Nitzer Ebb or Front 242. There's still a dancefloor functionality in these tracks, but pure techno is not the order of the day, and the results are thrilling from start to finish.