After listening to Golden Traxe I am left rather perplexed. Time and time again I come back to the same question: what, exactly, was going on inside the Farrier brothers’ heads when they were making this album? I mean this not in a negative sense, but purely one of curiosity. The UK duo seems to have defied all standards of electro-tech with Golden Traxe. While they are signed to Boys Noize Records, nothing I have heard since Boys Noize’s Oi Oi Oi has rivaled the raw grunginess and energy of Shadow Dancer’s debut album. The distortion is of ear-drum rupturing quality. The flange is sopping wet. The filters come in massive, sweeping rogue waves. When layered and combined with punchy four-to-the floor bass thumps, the result is a heart-attack-inducing panic attack of sound.

For me, the climax arrives in the final track, “This Is This.” Perhaps the house-iest of the thirteen tracks, “This Is This” is the grand finale to a chaotic mish-mash of sound that comprises the first 12 tracks. In the build-up to this finale, the first track “Poke” sets a frenetic tone for the album. The chopped vocal sample in the middle of “Landlines” creates a heavy breakdown, segueing smoothly into the chiller groove of the plucked synths on “Drivetime.” From start to finish, Golden Traxe is unique. If one takes time to appreciate the musical complexity of Shadow Dancer, meaning more than just a superficial first-listen, one will find an intricate blend of party-igniting sound.

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