It really is that utterly barmy. We have here a mixture of electronica, Commodore 64 music, djent and the dustbeps which is wrapped within a story so insane that only this man could have coined it, an alternate universe where the Commodore 64 has taken over the world and everyone is Will Smith. This definitely rates about a 9.0 on my weird shit-o-meter.
It starts relatively calmly on 'autoRun' before we get the chirpy, theme music that is 'discovery'. You realise here that there are actual hooks in the tracks, as opposed to the wanton chaos that made up 'Polymorphic Code', Algorithm's last effort. There is still chaos; it's just applied chaos now, directed and guided. The SID chip samples are hugely effective at drawing you in, and the technology still sounds incredibly good even today. The djent influence is still there, albeit reduced in importance.
'will_smith' brought with it a surprise. Blink and you'll miss it: at one point in the track, for a split second, you can hear the introductory sample from the last disc's single, 'Tr0jans', as well. Clever, Mr Algorithm, clever indeed. The album's primary strength is introducing myriad ideas from everywhere at once, but then capitalising on these ideas instead of allowing them to vanish as quickly as they came. Mid-album track 'Void' is near three and a half minutes of ambience, which is a welcome respite amidst the chaos.
That's not to say that I dug everything on the disc, mind you. I don't dig rap at the best of times, so the long passage of it (in French, to boot) on 'un dernier combat' didn't really work for me. I'm sure others will disagree, which is fine, but it was the one moment on the album that I didn't get. The closing track, the title track, now that is a beast indeed. I can almost see the look of disbelief on Malyan's face as he asks Algorithm 'you expect me to play WHAT?', and Algorithm's trollish laugh in response. Very tasty indeed.
This is definitely not music for the fainthearted. But if you're up for a challenge and prepared to take a bit of a risk for a change, check this out. It's worth the effort.
8/10
