Rapidax may sound like some sort of cleansing product but it is the name adopted by Rob Tunstall, one man live band and now a man with an album behind him. If you are looking for some conventional metal you are not in the right place but if you are looking for something unquestionably heavy, stick around as this shit will blow your head off. Apparently Rapidax is one of the people behind the Earblender club which puts on all sorts of acts in the harder edged dance music scene. Earblender is a good term when it comes to listening to his music too as it really does stick yer jugs in a blender and presses spin fast and hard, chopping up beats and blasts and mish-mashing a hundred ideas a minute in your general direction. You could easily call his style schizophrenic as things really do not stand still for a minute but along with his own programmed multi-changing barrages if you do keep those ears peeled you will hear some more familiar sounds.
Chilled out keys and then bouncy beats pave the way for first track proper ‘Panting Warlord’ which is certainly an original name. Things get manic very quickly and for the 40 minute duration you can wreck like mad to the album. Electro beats and vocal snarls plough out the speakers (turn dem up) and a sped up space invading keyboard weave floods out. Then its massive gabba pounds and the frenzy really starts going for it. If you dance along to this at a club god help your legs. What sounds like a melody from a John Carpenter B movie hits next with some sort of film samples over the top, and then a melody bobs you along and infectiously has you well and truly getting into it all. Phew I’m breathless and that’s only the beginning.
It would be impossible to go through this and describe it all track by track, there is so much going on and it is so intense. Love of punk and grind come across on ‘The Past Lost’ though and that familiarity and probably the past combine with some sped up classical toons (not sure but think Mozart or Bach). It’s like that bit in Clockwork Orange being force-fed to The Bezerker. There are all sorts of sounds to explore; an Oriental melody, some renaissance sounding harpsichord and plenty of retro sounding themes from possible movies or long forgotten TV shows warped beyond their original imagination. It all combines into a unique headfuck / headclash of ideas that comes at you like a full on acid trip; if you managed to get this together with some imagery as well it would really be twisted beyond all belief.
I keep wondering things whilst listening to this’ for example what the hell is the hard boiled 70’s cop theme I hear through the rather at odds entitled ‘Fairy Love’? Of course it might be completely original and if so someone needs to make a new retro hard boiled cop show just to use it. Ah right OK lets throw in a bit of some famous classics go pop all sped up, see if you can guess this one? ‘Bi Genius’ sees breakcore, gabba, dnb, IDM, Skinny Puppyish industrialised trance; yep everything is in a blender and then the words “you’re really enjoying this aren’t you, you sick bastard” come out the speakers. Yep you got me there! Most annoying part of the whole thing (and I mean that in a good way) is found on ‘Kennit’ when a synthesized tune I know so well is delivered. However tearing what little hair I have left out and short of sitting through hundreds of films I cannot place it. It’s Italian horror, zombie, cannibal or Giallo by a well known director (aaghh hopefully the artist will read this and put me out my bastard misery).
So all in all a complete brain stewing experience but a bloody excellent and totally original one. This hits all the right places for me and has kept me both bewildered and completely entertained on each and every spin. In fact I am going to have a lot of difficulty stopping playing it. Apparently the album is out on the 19th Sept in mainly digital form (only 25 special limited edition discs available boo). You can also download half of it free on the release date at the link below too. Hang on to your hat though; it’s a wild ride mama!
Oh bonus track ‘The Past Lost (Remix by Yudlugar)’ has possibly the fastest BPM, drill and bass attack I have heard ever!
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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