Steam Circuit

There's something funny and apt about a 2008 state of the art electronic album with a cover featuring its creators as if they were working on a 1930s era assembly line. At the least, Format B have style. And the appropriately titled Steam Circuit, the duo's first full album, has it as well — it's a sharp example of energetic music for clubs that works just as well as solitary listening. While there aren't any similar vocal chop-ups, there's something of the feeling of Akufen's finest work here, perhaps less frenetic but equally as bubbly and energetic while welded to a sterner, crisp pulse. As each track flows into the next it's that sometimes rare thing, a dance-centered album best heard as an overall piece rather than a collection of singles and other tracks (if anything Steam Circuit feels most like a really good mix CD). The abilities of Format B to deploy familiar sounds well shines throughout, whether it's the brief dropout to siren keyboards and deep echo on "Boing 030" or the instant, straightforward statement of purpose "Like a Techmachine," the album's first full song. One guest appears — Jake the Rapper, with a series of ghostly (and despite his name, sung) parts on "Si Pero No" and a further appearance on the album's concluding song, "Something Suitable."