Saidux Ice Moon label: LOUiPiMPS released: 05.07.02 our score: 3.5 out of 5.0 buy it: here

Seventy-two minutes of dark-flavored hard-house from Chicago's Saidas Blistribas, also known as Saidux. It's just him in his recording studio, with what I'm sure are a LOT of expensive computers or robots or something (actually, Sonia Roselli does get to whisper some sweet nothings on two tracks). Sometimes, this is a recipe for disaster; one-man-band electronerds have a tendency to disappear up their own egos. But Saidux breaks the curse by crafting a solid album.

On first listen, I wasn't sure that Icemoon was much of anything special: no one screamed at me about how great roofies are, there were no harsh slamming sounds, and I never once suspected that my player was skipping. I immediately dismissed it as safe -- but the record started to grow on me a LOT by listen #2. Its four-on-the-floor thump renders it eminently danceable, and the textures are interesting enough that you don't really worry that there's not a lot of melody here. I'm partial to the gorgeous "Forest Without Trees (Heart Beats Weird)" and the Kraftwerkian morse-code of "Butterfly (We Will Fly)," but the songs without parentheses are great too.

Saidux is nowhere near the cutting edge, but that's fine in this case; every other band who tries to meld hard-house with "experimental" influences ends up just sounding crap, so far. And it's just his first record, so maybe that will show us what he's capable of. In the meantime: stop thinking and DANCE!
26-Sep-2002 8:56 PM

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