A

Turzi starts out "A," the first song on his album of the same name, with a refined synthesized staccato in the vain of Tangerine Dream and builds over the course of the release into chugging minimalist grooves. In an attempt to make this a conceptual album, each song starts out with the first letter of the alphabet. There's "Afghanistan," a Middle Eastern synth and guitar rocker, "Acid Taste," a driving, mechanical ditty, and the winding, proggish melancholy of "Axis of Good." These songs are all hard-driving, slightly jagged, up-tempo jams that take cues from Kraftwerk side-project Neu!, and French psychedelic artists like Kill for Total Peace and Aqua Nebula Oscillator. As a bonus, this release comes with a code that can be redeemed for a free downloadable compilation of similar-minded artists titled "Voyage: Facing the History of French Modern Psychedelic Music." Despite the fact that psychedelic music is typically loose and free-flowing, modern French psych is extremely clinical and, more often than not, the song foundations are largely instrumental over straight 4/4 beats. When there are lyrics, they are softly uttered through rivers of reverb over the eerie hammering rhythms. Either album would make a perfect soundtrack for a night drive in a Trans Am T-top winding through the cool breezes of a Transylvanian hillside. A distant familiarity and timelessness are abundant throughout A especially when "Attila Blues," a sped up, tom-heavy, Love & Rockets number, explores "another world/in another time/in another place/with another face." At times, parts of the record become monotonous, and sometimes particular sections stretch and drag, but overall this is a strong endeavor that effectively re-creates music from the past with slightly warmer electro updates to make it all seem relevant, and it should be interesting to see what the letter B will bring — brainy blips and beats that belong in the background of Blade Runner, presumably.