I bought this album the week it was released. Anything Richie had put out previously under the Plastikman moniker has been nothing short of brilliant and I had been eagerly awaiting more.

When I popped it in, I first had to check to make sure my volume knob was even turned on. "Consumed" is just that -- an album consumed inside itself -- minimalism at it's bleakest. There are little to no beats on this album, which in and itself isn't a horrible concept, but the drones (songs) don't do much changing up. It bares little to no semblance to any of the other Plastikman albums released prior to it, and Richie must have noted this flawed release as the next Plastikman installment (Artifakts B.C. -- "before consumed") was actually a series of older outtakes from the Sheet One and Musik sessions. Somehow he knew that his audience was more in tune with the traditional Plastikman sound.

I applaud experimentalism in music, but when a project as brilliant as Plastikman comes down the pike, it's sort of wrong to take such a theme and completely distort it to the point that it is a whole new project. Radiohead managed to release an entirely successful yet rock single-unfriendly departure from their standard fare (last year's genius "Kid A") but at least it stuck with their theme of beautiful uneasiness. The Plastikman series have the common theme of tweaked acidic lines and intricately programmed drum rhythms, yet Richie flipped the script 180 degrees with his release of Consumed.

The only way I think I could enjoy Consumed is if i consume a large quantity of horse tranquilizer. And that's just not my bag, so this album hardly gets a listen. I imagine it would sound good while driving through fog, however.

Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep