Firstly, this is a truly massive album with a runtime well over 2 hours in length spread over 2 albums. There is a lot of material in here, spanning many genres from pop-rock anthems to triphop and electro. What is common is that most of the material feature prominent guitar lines or riffs hence the “guitar album” label. The album has more going for it than just guitars though as the beats are decidedly crunchy and the synths lovable.

The first CD is a more electronic-rock/post-rock/trip-hop affair. The CD starts off with a 46 second intro track featuring grungy guitar and vocals that serves as a prelude to the material found in the second track Today I Go for the Gusto. Surprisingly, we are greeted by a very laid back electronica track featuring synths and filter sweeps on the third track Warning Sign. The harmonious delayed guitar lead playing at the end could hardly prepare you for what’s to come. Extra Card is a post-rock track that is listenable but not great. More mayhem ensues as we get to the fifth track, Car Chase, with its distorted and heavily delayed guitar riffs and drum beats that march forward tirelessly. Subtle polishes like samples of crowd cheering really make it an interesting and memorable track.

The mood of the rest of the first CD swings up and down, sometimes encouraging, sometimes dark and moody, but never too much of each before we are whisked away to a different sort of vibe. Other notable tracks on the first CD are:

07. One Day, They Come Back to Town
Somewhat muffled but the guitars here are really nice. The beats are heavy and really get you into the music.

08. Monster
This is how 3x!13 does dark triphop. A nice sound of his own and guitar leads of course.

09. 03
Slow sort of anthem electronic rock song. Very different from everything else on the album.

12. Imaginary Units
Sounds like some sort of jamming session. With a lot of guitar playing.

14. Dots in a Sandstorm
Heavily processed fuzzy drones that almost sound like a person singing floating over metallic sounding synths and a guitar riff that one just doesn’t really get tired of. Nice to sit back and just let it all wash over you.

The second CD features dancier tracks composed of synthpop, psytrance and electro with some similar material from the first CD thrown in for good measure. Track one is appropriately titled 01 and features a well made but otherwise ordinary electronic pop/rock song. Sky turns into landscape is the second track and is basically a beats + synthesizer sort of track. The third track is interestingly enough called escape and features a short guitar musical idea from 3x!13. Ironically though, it sorts of escape to yet another totally different sort of music. The final hit single is laid-back electronica that just screams sentiment with its acoustic guitar riffs, slow resonant bassline, vocal pads and drumming that feels so natural and free from inhibitions. It’s one of those happy tracks, I guess. Another similar track is Stonehenge Sunrise a few tracks down albeit with a different sort of mood. Somewhere along the line from the first few tracks, the lines blur and we descend into electro and psytrance land with an instrumental hip hop track thrown in for good measure. To keep it short, other notable tracks from the second CD are:

14. Doubleyou (Version Two)
This track is as psytrancey as any track on this album can get. The gated lead is standard fair but what made the track different were the guitars of course! Anyway, it doesn’t dull your mind so give it a listen.

16. Fat Chants
Suddenly something very cute comes in only to evolve to an ending that isn’t expected at all while passing through various tempos.

17. Perfection is You Falling
More psytrance with vocals from 3x!13 and featuring guest vocalist Hanna. An interesting end to the album. Maybe one day 3x!13 may start his own psytrance duo ala Infected Mushroom.

What we have here is really a look into the music making life of one individual and the sheer talent he brings to the table. And the ride is a wild one with diverse styles. The album synopsis on the Archive declares “This is the real deal, underground music like it should be” and this shows through in the rawness but enjoyable nature of most of the tracks. Most importantly, it shows us that 3x!13 is yet another musician to look out for in the future electronic based music scene.

Thanks to the curator of PostUnder, Faxi Nadu, for introducing me to 3x!13 and my apologies for taking so long to review this recommendation.

Netlabel: Postunder

*Note: If you intend to download the vbr zip from the archive, 2 tracks are missing. Echo Sutures and Imaginary Units. You can download the single tracks separately off the download page.*