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Alpha Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The second full-length for Matthew Dear's techno club project was created over a few weeks.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Jun 20, 2016
    80
    Trippy instrumental ‘Traanc’ is probably the most quintessential Audion track, while ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Sucker’ scream Circoloco 2016 until their production lungs run out of steam.
  2. Jun 17, 2016
    70
    Alpha divides its time between striking out, tempering aggression and giving time to think and go deeper, walking the line between something to respect and invest in. For a producer with as marked an evolution as Dear, that’s pretty clear cut.
  3. Jun 17, 2016
    70
    The album retains Dear's personality while dutifully serving its function.
  4. Uncut
    Jun 21, 2016
    70
    A more refined classic techno sound, paying homage to his adopted hometown of Detroit. [Aug 2016, p.71]
  5. Jun 17, 2016
    68
    As far as home-listening goes, Alpha is too inflexible to give a dynamic front-to-back experience. But that's not surprising: Alpha was made with DJs in mind. And on that level, the music has plenty to offer.
  6. Jun 17, 2016
    61
    Tracks such as “There Was a Button” and “Traanc” are acceptable as minimal-house DJ tools, but as greater parts of a long-playing whole, they seem lost for a broader context--a context Dear previously had no trouble offering. Only at Alpha’s tail end does Audion’s (and Dear’s) personality assert itself.