October 13, 1998

All Targets Down

As their anaemic Electronica revolution continues apace, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Germans, still, are a dry, humourless lot....

5 / 10 AS THEIR ANAEMIC electronica revolution continues apace, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Germans, still, are a dry, humourless lot. Not so techno veterans Hardfloor, whose idea of fun evidently knows no bounds. Ramon Zenker and Oliver Bondzio have based their fourth album on pinball.

A crap concept, obviously, and one clearly not thought through. The closest we get to arcade game-derived thrills here are witless titles like 'Insert Coin' and 'Multiball Challenge', themselves faceless, acid-scorched 'stormers' the likes of which Hardfloor surpassed way back when with their acid house anthem 'Acperience'.

The problem is that Hardfloor today are pretty much an irrelevance. It's impressive that they've consistently made the same album four times now, but you can only tweak and twiddle a 303 'acid' machine over standard-issue techno beats so many times before it starts to grate. But they do still have their moments: in a radical new direction, 'Skill Shot' and - Christ - 'Tilt' introduce mangled hip-hop and swerving bass into proceedings.

It's not game over quite yet for Hardfloor, but 'All Targets Down' never hits the jackpot.

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