George Thompson, aka Black Merlin, continues to push his retro-aggressive style forward with his new Control. The first two cuts, Control and Secondo, capture the neurotic, mechanical energy of a fantasy after-hours in a weapons factory with production evoking the most dancefloor forward moments of Front 242. The last two tracks discard the club's restraints for excursions into sound and narrative. Blindfold is a nightmarish soundtrack to automated torture, complete with shouts and screams. Sequencer closes with slow, moody, analog arpeggios, rising, falling, filtering, twisting around, through, over, and under each other. Control, Secondo, Blindfold, Sequencer
