THE HIDDEN STEP

I have two complaints leveled at this CD: it sounds bit too digital compared to their previous albums, and the wonderful psychedelic Blim cover artwork isn't to be found, in place of crappy computer artwork. But despite that, the band entered the new millenium with another fantastic CD. I thought this was an improvement over "Waterfall Cities", not so much the wankfest that plagued that previous CD, and having the band get back to business. It's also more guitar-oriented as well. The album opens up with "Holohedron", which finds the band doing some intense jamming. The title track finds the band starting off in techno-land, before they go out of control with guitars and keyboards, before the Arborescence-like ambient experiment at the end that just blows me away! Then there's a couple exercises in Middle Eastern styles with "Ashlandi Bol" and "Aramanu", often reminescent of "Erpland". "Pixel Dream" harkens back to their earlier cassette-era material, but with much better production. "Tight Spin" is by far their most techno-oriented piece, almost going a bit too far in techno for my liking. "Ta Khut" is basically an ambient experiment, with Egyptian styles.

Great to see the band making great music, it's too bad that drummer Rad was starting to have emotional problems that caused him to leave the band early in 2001, but still "The Hidden Step" was an excellent way for Rad to finish his time in the band.