When I was fifteen and all I listened to was Front 242, Skinny Puppy and Frontline Assembly, I used to fantasize about music that was even more repetitive. Along came techno (yep, I'm that old), and a few of my dreams came true. Still, I wanted something a little harder, where the sounds had sharper edges and a more polished surface. Enter Motor, with a sound so repetitive it would give the most hardened assembly line worker a panic attack.

Unhuman is Motor's second album, comprised of ten tracks that can all be considered very good, even if some shine brighter than the others. "Bleep #1" opens the album and provides a telling peek of what's to come. It bleeps and it bloops, and in some places it even blips a little, all to a steady beat that instantly harkens back to what techno used to sound like when it was just called techno - I'm talking early 90's here. The second tune to rise above the rest is "Unhuman." As if based on a traditional techno blueprint, the title track slowly builds to a climax and release some three minutes and fifty seconds into the song. At its peak the track delivers on the accumulated anticipation, and on a dance floor would signal for people to start blowing their whistles (if it was the early 90's, that is). The third track to stand out is the closing tune "Sikk," which is a nice and fairly slow little piece tying the album together with its repetitiveness, odd sounds and characteristic beats.

Motor has done a great job with Unhuman. Not only have they managed to capture the atmosphere of the electronic music that became so central for the hordes of kids that frequented raves before trance and the club scene, but they have also managed to give that sound a much needed make over. The sounds and beats are all updated and polished to fit the present day, and there are even some vocals thrown in, vocodered of course. Motor are a very innovative duo, and it would be unfair to write them off as a techno act, as there's just so much more to Motor than merely techno. I doubt there will ever be a techno revival, since the nature of the genre is of an ever-evolving kind, Motor's Unhuman is however a nice little nod to the past in the most futuristic of genres.