Any CD that starts out with a soundbite taken from a golden era science fiction film, of some extraterrestrial loser threatening the Earth with instant annihilation, you just know you're onto a winner.

This time the sampled dire warning is followed by a deceptively simple collection of instrumentals, either built around a central re-occuring theme or, in the case of at least four cuts, a collection of sound effects loosely connected to busy rhythm tracks of varying degrees of complexity.

A definite highlight, and also one that had me wondering whether this CD was actually some bizarre novelty album, is a track titled Mare Underarum (yes, underarum).

It has to be one of the strangest tracks I've heard this year. Sure, it sounds for all intents and purposes like a relatively straightforward poppy synth track, complete with lilting female vocals, but after repeated listens something very strange and unearthly begins to happen.

Rating - 788,174 (out of a possible 1,000,000)

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