Enter The Binary Universe

Yet another post that I've had stored in my mind for a while!

This post is regarding the new BT album, This Binary Universe. If you've never heard of BT he's an electronic musician whose resume has had some interesting turns. His first two albums, IMA and ESCM, were works of perfection in the genre of ambient-techno. His third album, Movement In Still Life, was a huge change into the more dancable electro pop techno. This album was amazing and still makes me move! His fourth album, Emotional Technology...well...it's absolute shit! Just look at the album cover if you want an idea of how bad it was!

However, much to our pleasure, BT, Brian Transeau, has returned with This Binary Universe. His fifth album sees him return to the ambient techno sound, which established him, but not only is this his best album to date, the album comes as a package. The album has two discs. Disc one is the CD with all 7 songs. Disc 2 is a DVD with the most unbelievably surreal visuals to accompany each and every song on the album. Not only are the visuals amazing, but the DVD is in Dobly 5.1. Listening to this ablum in 5.1 and watching the visuals along with it opens a whole new dimension to this album which puts an already great album, in to the realm of classic.

I won't try to describe the music as any description of ambient is always lacking something. Let me just say if you want relaxing and interesting music with deep bass hooks and complex programming this is the what you are looking for.

As I mention earlier the real gem in this package is the visuals. All of the visuals are different and some are more captivating that other, but all are great. The two which standout the most for me are song 6 The Antikythera Mechanism and song 7 Good Morning Kaia.
The Antikythera Mechanism takes you through the journey of a twenty something girl running through a unique landscape very reminiscent of the bad lands in Alberta, except with snow. She reaches a point in her journey where she finds a glass cube which warps her, and us, into a C.G. created world of spirals and structures. The journey of this girl is captivating, but the second dimension of the music and it's perfectly timed bass beats and programming puts your heart out of sync.

The last visual for, Good Morning Kaia, is a compilation of home-video clips, BT has compiled of his daughter, Kaia. Maybe it's the sap in me, but I found this last visual very moving. I think it was a combination of well selected videos clips, touching text and perfectly matched music.

I cannot rave about this album enough. The music and visuals make this album a steal at the $17.99 Amazon is asking. I strongly feel that this album is a breakthrough in techno music and will open a whole new set of doors for future artist when creating their albums.

Way to go BT! You really have outdone yourself!