Jet Chamber V

Pete Namlook and Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart) hold each other up in the studio with an acceptable trio of sci-fidelity tracks. Like so many albums on the FAX record label, Jet Chamber V falls back on familiar strengths, filtered through the latest technology. Consequently it's a showcase for both the artists as well as the gear they plug into. "I Miss Green" spins out stuttering little robot beats with a gridwork of synth — a very energizing and sterile track with stray beams of light shooting out from time to time, but the piece evolves primarily by way of adding and subtracting a dozen elements over the course of 21 minutes. It's reminiscent of early Spacetime Continuum material, but lengthier. "Tightness" is a darker groove, clicking and beeping with the same compositional state of suspended animation, under an ambient drone. Here, it's like the synchronized backdrop to a Kraftwerk song, rather than the song itself. It's the very picture of German engineering. "Voted Steady" squawks, gurgles, clunks, and chirps along, like a curious assembly of alien metronomes keeping time with harmonic keyboards floating overhead. It's the circuit boards of the equipment having a miniature drunken argument with themselves, and therefore a bit disposable. Jet Chamber V is essentially another notch in the very, very long belts of Namlook and Schmidt, an album that neither breaks new ground nor crashes into it. For collectors of the FAX outpouring, it's a finger on the label's pulse. For the casual listener, it's simply "pulse."