It’s funny to see Front 242 mentioned in press for Skyscraper because they’ve been on my mind as well. They never really broke huge but they also never went away, through all these years, and it’s fascinating to me that young people today GET it. It’s a bit like the resurgence of Steve Hillage (ex-Gong), who discovered that he was back IN when he happened to walk by a rave venue and hear one of his songs (something from Rainbow Dome Musick, I believe) being looped over a beat. Hayden Payne, at the helm of Phase Fatale, displays a lot of the talents you look for in a cold, distant, desolate techno artist with fond memories of electronic music of old (despite a lack of actual experience with said decade by dint of his young age). He conjures unique sound tunnels by fusing (relatively) rhythmically complex future-beatz to simplistic key swipes and other such effects, interlocking several moving parts with skill and the drive you need to get attention in a world full of sweaty DJs. I must admit that at first blush, this record wasn’t happening for me. Therein lies the flub, on my part, however: I hadn’t experienced it in the right mindset. If you’re ready to give Skyscraper a close listen by all means let it marinate and soak into you, and don’t go ‘previewing’ the first few seconds of every track looking for familiar cues. Phase Fatale need time to find a home in your head, and once in, they need space to build up to a frenzy that I guarantee you is coming.
More about: Phase Fatale
