- "In Alpha" and "Y.O.U.R.O.C.K." both turn up just a little before the halfway mark on I:Cube's "M" Megamix, where they serve as sunny peaks before the mix corkscrews darkly down a succession of hairpin turns. Or partly sunny, anyway: "Y.O.U.R.O.C.K." starts out with chipper, almost kitschy vocal harmonies over a crisp disco stomp, but storm clouds soon arrive in the form of sullen square-wave bass and errant squeal, with a haywire feel that's vaguely reminiscent of C++'s "Angie's Fucked." "In Alpha," on the other hand, is all ice cream and smiles, conjuring new wave at its dreamiest via strummed guitars, chiming DX7s, gated snares and the kind of fizzy neon haze familiar from acts like Washed Out and CFCF.
As for the LP's darker back half, it's represented here by "Popular Electronics," a dubby techno-disco maelstrom in the vein of Maurice Fulton. It's here that I:Cube's skills as a sound designer really shine, as he yokes together acoustic, electric, electronic and digital timbres into a gelatinous mass flecked with crystal facets.
Tracklist A In Alpha
B1 Y.O.U.R.O.C.K
B2 Popular Electronics