Following in the footsteps of great techno acts like Kraftwerk and Orbital, UK’s Go Yoko creates music that is catchy and accessible, but at the same time abstruse enough so as to not be some sort of a mass market musical project. This duo’s debut record White Noise Riot is relentlessly danceable from start to finish, but it’s not your typical club record either. This album, containing no real vocals (with the exception of one song), with its angular rhythms and complex synth compositions, provides a soundtrack for both the pondering listener and the rave partygoer.
Although this is not an album of big beats, it is beefy, with heavy, clanging, pulsating rhythms, which give it a big electro-industrial sound. This is especially the case with “Edison,” “Animus Maximus” and “Nightfall.” With the random bleeps that are a part of every track, there is a nostalgic Nintendo quality to the music on White Noise Riot, which gives it a playful demeanor within its heavy synth exterior. As a dance record with no vocals, this album sometimes has a surreal feeling, especially on tracks like “DotDotDash,” “The Game,” and “Nocturnal,” where they resemble the cold and spacey sounds of Kraftwerk.
An album sure to be most appreciated by the thoughtful dance music enthusiast, White Noise Riot nonetheless doesn’t necessarily share the experimental proclivities of a lot of records of this type, such as incorporating elements of different genres. This is an album of 100 percent synthesizer and beats onslaught. This is an intense record, no doubt, with most compositions nearing or going over five minutes. Still, even though the songs on this album all rigidly fit one format and one format only, the amazing thing is that it doesn’t sound at all monotonous. Each song is unique and different from the other. White Noise Riot is not just a great album, it is an absolutely brilliant one.
