Mentallo & the Fixer
Algorhythum
Metropolis
Well? Is it Mentallo or is it the Fixer? I don’t know. What I do know is that the two brothers from Texas, Duane and Gary Dassing, who became legendary in the industrial scene, have split up. Rumor has it that Duane left to pursue a more “techno oriented” project. So, it’s just Gary now. Perhaps, like Hootie, there was no designated Mentallo or Fixer, as the name remains the same.
But what about the songs? The name was based on a pair of comic book characters, but their music was always deadly serious, and still is. Many of their previous releases changed in sound, from the highly sampled, hardcore industry of Revelations 23 to the lush instrumentality of Continuum , and their last release together, Burnt Beyond Recognition , was beautifully chaotic. So it has always been difficult to predict the sound from disc to disc. But I can’t help but wonder if Algorythums would have headed in this same direction, had the brothers stayed together. It is a great album, and maybe it’s my imagination, but the disc doesn’t sound “Fixed” or “Mentalloed” or something. Songs like “Systematik Ruin” and “Carbon Based” sound like the old stuff, but tracks like “Gamma Ray Antenna” and “Choice Flaw” leave you wondering which one wanted to go techno. It truly is a very good album. I just feel a loss of some of the magic and chemistry that made giants out of the former bandmates and brothers. One can always hope that they come to their senses and get back together.
Metropolis Records, P.O. Box 54307, Philadelphia, PA 19105; http://www.metropolis-records.com
