Artist: Liquid Divine Album: Autophobia Genre: synthpop Label: Metropolis Reviewer: JimZombie Date: 05/01/10 Liquid Divine - Autophobia Autophobia is my first experience of Liquid Divine and I must say it is a wonderful combination of many dance and electronic genres from synthpop to ambient, drum & bass, EBM, IDM and more. All these genres are drawn together, combined and processed to give us some of the best electro synthpop of recent time. Autophobia opens with the rhythmic cosmic-tech Fallen Men. Right now I’m type-dancing away to the song. For those of you unfamiliar with the art of type-dancing, it involves grooving around in your chair while tapping away at your computer. Following this up is the instantly catchy drum loop and arpeggiated synth intro to Planet Zoo. Featuring intriguing lyrics and vocals coupled with a good grove factor make Planet Zoo one of the winner tracks of the album. There is a sort of cosmic, electro-organic spirituality running through many of the tracks, sort of a neopaganism for a post human age. Throughout the album the astute attentive listener will notice a strange (but not unwelcome) pragmatic neutrality to Liquid Divine’s lyrics. At time there is a sense, conveyed both through music and lyrics, of being outside of everything like an observer looking in. Perhaps the greatest track of the album is iHuman. It is a perfect summary of everything the album is. The song should not only be a type-dance hit, if there is justice it will create a stir in the clubs along with the heavily D&B inspired Frontend. It is with the close of Frontend that the album really ends for me. The rest of it could have been left off. Sure, some would have complained about the length but poo to that, length didn’t stop the sales of millions of Radiohead records. Still the rest of the album is there, so what of it? We see a bit of a more popelectro inspired work with Comagirl which features female vocals and a more traditional arrangement. Not a bad track, just lacking the interest of the earlier tracks. While the tracks following Comagirl return to a sound more typical to the earlier album they don’t have the same catch. At the very least these tracks are a little more for those that want it. Autophobia is a must for fans of music with brains and creative wonder. I eagerly anticipate Liquid Divines next release. Check out the band: http://www.liquiddivine.de/ | 
