Close Encounters

The Antidote

Close Encounters

Solstice International (France)

Must admit, always had a soft spot for anything with Serge’s name on it… and another Antidote album, long overdue if you ask me, is just what the doctor ordered. The album has a sheeny production to it that reeks of future-fear scifright robotics, which contrasts nicely to the fluid and weaving music underneath. Black Jack is an utter killer and one of the best tunes I’ve heard in a while: the sort of stuff that has you running to the dancefloor, it takes an understated synth line and escalates in an incredibly deft way. The proggy touches are nice, and a perfect break sees the introduction of a smoothly offset bassline that takes things higher and higher. Camouflage and Saiko Lake showcase a deep intellectual groove that’s hard to shake, and Explorer’s disto-303 mayhem is perfect teethgrinding music. Dr Magneto and 3rd Wave take that deep groove and pixel-perfect escalation to intensely enjoyable peaks, and finally the positive-groove of Analog Activity is a perfect morning-set, come-on-get-up-and-dance-you-lazy-lying-down-monkeys offering. Massively individual, very well polished, and a generally impressive and stonking album.

4/5