Concord Dawn: Uprising

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

It's the jet-setting Auckland drum'n'bass duo's third album and while they haven't calmed down any since their punishing predecessors, Uprising is well named.

It's an album that sounds like they've got out of the long, dark tunnel and let some light and breathing space into the sound that in the past prided itself on industrial throb and brute force.

And that's not just because they've upped the vocal quota - with notable guest appearances by Scribe and Salmonella Dub's Tiki Taane on two tracks.

There's a real buoyancy to the set, even with menacing track titles such as Ninja, Scimitar and Horror (complete with spooky theremin sounds) and urges toward the d'n'b/heavy metal crossover on the guitar-scorched Raining Blood.

They seem less desperate to fill in every space with another micro-beat, and the result of all of the above effect is that Uprising becomes album-as-journey rather than album-as-barrage.

Though when the beat breaks big on after the slow-groaning intro of opener Morning Light, it's the first thrilling power surge on an album with a fusebox-blowing number of them.

Among the others are Get Ready with Scribe's vocal shadow-boxing; Don't Tell Me with Taane's rebel yell, Let it Go with jazzer Caitlin Smith getting quite caught up in the machinery, and the closing Zulu which heads off into orbit with the help of Optiv.

Though if Concord Dawn are adapting to the idea of vocalists they haven't quite adapted to having them say anything too interesting.

Oh well. It's still got runaway energy and unnerving sounds throughout, but with the sense that there's a human touch behind every hard-punching moment. Just like good rock'n'roll really.

Label: Uprising/Universal