No, you're not mistaken -- Pitchshifter have named their new album after their web site. In fact, outside and in, the packaging is covered with HTML tags, floating about the inlay in exactly the way that WWW description languages... don't. The question that springs to mind is, of course, why? There doesn't appear to be any connection between the Web and the actual album at all!
I'm cynical already, asking myself if they're simply trying to cash in on the present popularity of the Internet. The CD itself depicts a floppy disk, with "self-replicating virus" scribbled over it. (It reminds me a little of when Rosetta Stone labeled their gENDER cONFUSION CD with "snuff interactive CD-ROM"... though it seemed funnier then.) Enough babbling -- I'd best get on with the review.
Pitchshifter have been gaining popularity now since the early 1990s, as one of the emerging guitar industrial acts. This album adds an additional dimension to their music, in the form of drum 'n' bass rhythms. This results in some excellent pieces of industrial pop, like 'Genius' and 'Microwaved'. Both build up into an anthem-like chorus which will have you bouncing away in no time.
Unfortunately, for all its energy, other parts of www.pitchshifter.com seem to fall short. Behind the drum 'n' bass, there are some pretty formulaic verse-chorus-verse styles of rock that let it down somewhat. This is certainly not a terrible album -- in fact it must be Pitchshifter's best album to date -- but I can't help feel it could have turned out better.
... And I'm still wondering where this Internet connection is supposed to come from, you know. And what's with calling track 13 'ZX81'? What sort of geek would name a song after an ancient home computer?! (DH)
[1998]
