Space Designer

Fatali’s

first full-length outing since 2006’s Dawn is something of a pleasant surprise.

Eitan’s production – smoother and glassier than ever – has excelled further,

while for the most part he’s taken more of a ‘back seat’ approach to writing,

letting the music move in an organic and unforced way. Soul Control is a great

example of this – laid back, fluid, and reminiscent of the high moments of

Protoculture’s seminal Refractions album.

The

title track moves nicely, and gives way to his remix of Astral Projection’s

History Of War, which is what one might call ‘a bit of a belter’. Sounding more

like Fatali’s earlier stuff, it works its way up to a marathon Astral-style

breakdown before jaunting its merry, laid-back way off into the sunset.

It

doesn’t always work: Dreaming sounds too awkward and quantized, Mother doesn’t

seem to deliver an awful lot, and the remix of Sun Project’s Computer Breath is

neither here nor there, save for a whirly cutup vocal segment.

As

I’ve maintained before, Fatali is the acceptable face of melodic fullon. It’s

not everyone’s cup of chai, but stacked up against the plethora of crud that

comes our way it’s unmistakeably quality stuff.