Kevin Lux is an electronic music musician from Chicago in America and has been making music for 40 years and has released numerous albums, including one of our favourite albums "Autonomatik", released in 2017.
To celebrate making music for 40 years Kevin has released a brand new album called "It Is", which features 12 tracks.
The album opens with the track "The Fusion", which begins with dark sounding synths, breathing and vocoded vocals, as it develops we have a magnificent sequencer cutting through the dark elements of the song, I like the erie synth that kicks in around the 1 minute 50 seconds mark, overall it has a science fiction feel to it, excellent opening track.
"Skyfall" is more upbeat with trademark Kraftwerk zaps, which form part of a great rhythm section in the song, brilliant sequenced bass-line, think "Numbers" by Kraftwerk, only a little more gentle, the pad sounds are fantastic, again vocoded vocals are used to good effect. A very strong track.
Next we have "Get Right Into It", again upbeat and full on four to the floor beat, with a really nice melody and excellent pad sounds, the synth sounds are really impressive on this number and the prominent bass-line drives the song with great effect a nice glitchy middle eight too. A very powerful track and a major highlight on the album.
Warm pads welcome you to track 4 on the album "We Are Electric" and they are beautiful, lovely chord changes, it develops into more of a dance track, the 2 mins 20 mark is very effective, some truly excellent sounds come into the mix, which elevate the song, a really excellent song, another favourite.
"It Isn't It Is It" also starts with really full pad sounds, which are superb and build nicely, I like the drums that are kept to a minimum allowing the pad structures to shine, I like the break before the 4 minute mark, which leads into a synthetic section comprising more rhythm and sequenced sounds and more low end parts, a vocoder kicks in here and there which basically says the track name, the pads return after the 6 minute mark working alongside the fuller elements of the song. A fabulous track and my favourite song on the album so far.
"A Way Out" is another uplifting track and some of the synth sounds reminded me of early Gary Numan, I love how the snare drum cuts through the wall of sound and again I like those atmospheric pad sounds, the rhythm section is impressive too.
Next we have the fantastically titled "Overchore Indresdisciple", a track with darker sound tones over a thumping beat and vocoded vocals, quite minimal this one and takes a few listens to get into it.
The intro to "!Pulss is fabulous, lovely melodic parts, it veers close to rave in parts and also has dance elements, I was drawn to the music of 808 State listening to this track, some neat atmospheric sounds used, lots of interesting elements catch your attention.
"Recliner" is quite minimal too, beats, sequencer parts and vocoded vocals, I do like how Kevin introduces melody parts low in the mix, which add to the eirieness of the song, it grows on you this track especially the 2nd half of the song.
"Airway" is superb, brilliant sequencer parts, especially the intro, would fit nicely on Kraftwerk's "Computer World" album. The track then sets out on a beat and sequenced bass-line path with vocoded vocals, it does however, maintain your interest.
Following "Airway" we have the excellent "Disco Technique", which has a Giorgio Moroder style bass-line, which is fantastic and holds the track together really well. Synth parts and atmospherics are introduced over the rhythm section, but for me that bass-line is something else, and those pads near the end don't half have some impact, a well constructed track, which is one of my favourite tracks on the album, brilliant!
The album closes with, appropiately, "40 Years", which includes the beat from the Casio VL-Tone 1 mini keybioard, remember them??? I still have one myself! This song has warm pads over well construced beat and bass-line, I would say this is another atmospheric sounding track, the synth work is excellent and is a gem of a track to close with.
After a few listens I have to say this is a very enjoyable listen and I think is close to being Kevin's best album to date. After 40 years of making music Kevin is still making cutting edge electronic music, no mean achievement
Check out "Skyfall", "It Isn't It Is It", "Disco Technique", "40 Years"
8.5/10
The album ""It Is" is available from Bandcamp:
https://kevinlux.bandcamp.com/album/it-is
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