Review: Byakku: Tai Braindance is a welcome collaboration between two retro-futurist imprints, '90s IDM revivalists Childhood Intelligence (an organization run from Berlin and Tokyo) and London-based bleep, acid, rave and hardcore specialists Tone Dropout. Featuring tracks from artists associated with both labels, it's a giddy and largely celebratory fusion of both labels' styles with an added dollop of interplanetary sci-fi futurism. There's much to enjoy throughout, from the shimmering deep space electro of E-Control's 'The Mind of Robots' and the deep, immersive, bittersweet electronica of Soft Pioneer's 'Dystopia', to the locked-in late-night hypnotism of Alphonse and Sween's hazy 'Downfall (Dub Version)', the bubbly bleep-and-breaks-goes-IDM pop of 'Existence' by Skyware Transmission vs XOTR, and the rave-igniting electro-bleep business that is Dawl's 'Time Phase'.
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