Motor

Not even a year from the release of their debut metallic monster Klunk the MOTOR duo of Mr. No and Bryan Black are back with a more refined and slick, yet still with a beast under the hood, ride. Their second album Unhuman rolls out of the garage this spring with gleaming chromed wings, plush leather upholstery and a bit of nitro injection in the under-carriage.

If MOTOR have gone some way to setting themselves apart from other electronic live acts, then Unhuman has developed their sound away from the continued metallic pummel of 2006's debut Klunk. Whilst obvious club pleasing tracks such as the new tense acid workout 'Flashback' have already become live show favourites, the album displays a warmer and more developed sound.

Unhuman (it's not a word) delves further into the structure of melody and vocals than its brut force predecessor. Tracks such as '20 Volts of Steel' morph vocodered vocals into jacking Chicago house whilst 'Night Drive' tags hypnotic synth lines onto the chromed body work of a sleek, midnight destined electro-chariot. Title track 'Unhuman' and 'Drug Punk' ghost the melody onto the dancefloor, coaxing warmth and soul from the production duo?s instruments whilst opening track and first single 'Bleep #1' bridges the gap between the dancefloor ready-to-go first album and more developed song structure of the second. 'Tete en Plastique" adds synth drama to its strobe strutting beats, 'Re-format' splices taut synth lines onto dynamic, grinding basslines and 'AC 775' rolls into the depths of the night with volcanic intensity. Finally, 'Sikk' reverberates into the twilight hours like Plastikman going ten rounds with an exploding Bontempi organ factory.

As production duo Bryan and Mr. No develop their own DJ tag team show using CDJs, laptops and microphones turning it into a "MOTOR DJ performance" their other live band, the four piece X-Lover, remains firmly on the back-burner. A constant round of remixing for the likes of Terence Fixmer, US synth pop band Julien-K, Nitzer Ebb and a cover of Cypress Hill's 'Insane In the Brain' with T.Raumschmiere on vocals has further maintained MOTOR's production sharpness. Now, not even a full year from their debut album, the engine has been tweaked and polished for a smoother, more sophisticated ride.