Aaron and Matthew Gatekeeper move way beyond the John Carpenter pastiche of their previous work with this courageous, ridiculous and often brilliant work of EBM-psychedelia on Hippos In Tanks. As soon as the serene opening credits as 'IMAX' it's studded leather and pumped fists all the way: 'Exolift' is high-rez dungeon acid, all pounding kicks, stinging acid lines and horror FX. It's hard to imagine there's a club in the world decadent enough for this soundtrack to it, but if there is, we wanna be there. Tracks like 'Visitor' and 'Pre-Gen' are expansive exercises of the cinematic synth-scaping talent that Gatekeeper are best known for, but these moments of relative calm are few and far between: 'Tree Drum' sounds like SPK in Hollywood should have sounded, rather than how they actually did, and 'Dromos' goes even deeper into macho industrial territory, pummelling beakbeats struggling to be heard through the din of metal-on-metal. 'Aero' and 'Hydrus' explore relatively airy computer-funk, but ultimately high camp and high velocity win out: closer 'Encarta' sounds like nothing less than a collision between Jeff Mills, the Omen soundtrack and Christian Vander's Magma, as a choir - a bloody CHOIR - go up against molten 303 squiggles and a 4/4 thump so thunderous it'd make Thor soil his pants.A1 Imax 1:20 A2 Exolift 3:18 A3 Visitor 0:32 A4 Bog 3:40 A5 Vengier 3:28 A6 Hydrus 4:43 B1 Pre-Gen 0:52 B2 Tree Drum 2:57 B3 Dromos 4:14 B4 Aero 4:24 B5 Re-Gen 2:00 B6 Encarta 3:55
