Fast Life

Magnetic is David Harrow, who, according to the liner notes of his albums, creates all of his music using an Apple laptop computer and Cubase software. It's not completely clear why he wants listeners to know that, unless he's trying to prove to the world that it's possible to create music that is both complex and attractive, not to mention fairly organic sounding, without recourse to analog technologies. If so, he's pretty convincing on Fastlife, which falls more or less into the dark drum'n'bass category without the creepiness and whiplash breakbeats you normally get with that genre. Sarafian features the standard-issue offbeat descending bassline, and the beats on "Gunlove are frantic in the time-honored style, but for the most part there's an overall mood of restraint here that, while not exactly calm or contemplative, does lend a certain decorum to the whole album. Attrition comes closest to the sort of edgy, distorted air of musical panic normally associated with dark drum'n'bass, but even it manages to be strangely pretty. Highly recommended to anyone whose taste for hard-edged beats is tempered by an appreciation for the more refined things in life.