After seeing three videos on the TV I knew I had to buy this album. The Mad Capsule Markets are a truly great band and only by owning one of their albums can you really understand this and appreciate there talent. This CD is a truly excellent mixture of different types of music and different languages.

The way that this CD plays is so hard to describe. If you want a comparison then I guess the best way to describe them would be a cross between some of Green Days simple riffs and Alec Empire's techno sounds. Of course this would all be on heroin, add a dash of Pitchshifter and then travel the speed of light. This still is no where near describing how these guys sound, it is just too unique to describe. They are so unique they basically have their own music style. They are metal/punk/hip-hop. Even after typing this what I have just typed still does not get across the real meaning and sound of The Mad Capsule Markets.

So after saying how hard it is to describe these guys what now must be taken into account is the actual CD. Some songs are very fast and include a fair bit of shouting and sort of rapping, these are the ones which seem to show the metal side of The Mad Capsule Markets. Tracks like 'Tribe' and 'Out/Definition' show the cross between metal and hip-hop. The more punk side comes across in 'n (Pulse)' and 'All the time in Sunny beach'. But of course these guys just take the music to another level mixing all three major elements together. This produces songs which are hard to get to grips with due to their strange sound, but after a bit of perservering tracks like 'Midi-Surf' and 'Multiples' show that this cross over has worked so brilliantly.

The Mad Capsule Markets don't mess around. You must remember that when listening to this CD. This is a very new fresh sound which is exellent for the music world. But along with being very fresh and very new, this is serious. How these guys have managed to put in a Japanese girl singing backing on a few songs and not make it sound like the most ridiculous thing youve ever heard is a task that is let alone worth your money, not even taking into account how good it actually sounds. Yes it's true,the backing singing works with a haunting affect, as Kyono shouts through distortion on his vocals the use of girls like Mayuki singing in the backround on the chorus works so perfectly, you will find it hard not to like it.

There are critisisms, as always with any album. I feel that they should have maybe changed two or three of the tracks which occur towards the end of the album. 'Restart' and 'Step into yourself' feel quite poor due to them feeling samey as some of the other tracks, except a lot worse. These two really don't have much going for them and their is no Mad Capsule Markets feeling. What is meant by this is that if you heard the intro to 'n (Pulse)' crackling and then a robotic scream then you would know that this song has something deep down in it, like feelings or something. Then because you know what is about to hit you (due to such a good intro you know that the rest will be good), a song with it's own definition and it's own mind veers it's head and stays with you forever.

'Restart'and 'Step into yourself' don't have that killer intro, or for that matter anything that good or memorable in them. Also to make matters worse they never have the feel of the song having it's own actual personality. It could have been that this was due to the guys in the band thinking, 'yeah let's just stick it in to fill up a track or two.' which isn't the right way to think about the song or the band, but these songs are really under par compaired to the rest, on the cracking album, and I can't really think of a reason why these guys wouldn't give it 110%.

To sum up this peice of class is very hard to do. The cross languages used (Japanese and English) brings the originality levels up as well as the long lasting appeal. Also the mystical words used, be it in the translation or just straight into English give the whole thing another dimension. Also not forgetting the Japanese girls for the backround singing and the whistling used on a couple of tracks. So you can see that this really is no ordinary album and deserves a look if you are trying to broaden your music taste, but remember this is a very crazy but cool sounding album.

Oh actually this deserves a look no matter what. This is excellent a must buy.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends