Genre: Hip Hop / Break Beat / Post Industrial / Electronic Lounge

Rarely do electronic music artists in the post industrial music world ever venture into the sunlight let alone create uplifting or inspirational music. If you miss the glow of life, optimism and warmth in the post industrial music scene despair no longer. Out of the darkness comes a shining star in the form of Canadian based artist Tekniq. Tekniq's recent full length CD release Shazbut is breathing new life into the electronic fusion arena that has become post industrial electronic music. Heralding in a new light and a little lounge and funk Tekniq has arrived to reinvigorate post industrial music fans!

Shazbut is Tekniq's second full length album in a musical career that began with novice experimentation in 1996. Shazbut follows in the wake of the debut full length Tekniq album Compuglobalhypermeganet on Fliesskoma Records. Tekniq has now paired up with the up and coming renegades of post industrial music at Texas based Hive Records. The team at Hive Records has launched their label with one successful release after another and the signing of Tekniq – Shazbut is a crowning success towards their efforts. No longer known as a starter label, Hive has now earned credentials as one of the most important post industrial label producing music in the USA .

Shazbut is a difficult album to review as it is 19 songs long and filled with innovation, experimentalism, and musical hybridization. Tekniq self admittedly has no allegiance to any particular musical genre but chooses rather to acquire inspiration from any number of musical sources. Noticeable influences include hip hop, funk, and lounge; break beat, jungle, ambient and even some neoclassical influence. Emotions and feelings run the gamut from light inspirational tracks to darker more reflective compositions.

The Shazbut album begins with the introductory track Saint. Saint begins with bass guitar, sporadic beats, and various electronic ambience that is quickly taken over by more sophisticated percussion and breaks. The beats are tight and controlled while the softer elements cascade in and out. Saint is that rare track that artists strive to create. Saint captures a sense of infectious sensuality and pairs it with intricate rhythms and bubbly electronics. The music oozes good feeling. The kind of feeling that can only be authentically created by a true artist. Saint makes me ponder what a terrible job mainstream music has done trying to capture the freshness of life. Saint starts the album out will an energetic track filled with positivism and relaxation.

After five tracks of bubbling break beat driven tracks of glorious music Tekniq really pulls the rabbit from his hat with song six titled Dream. Dream opens with a church choir singing an angelic song filled with delicacy and grace. Warm sounding synthesizers accompany the voices and gently raise them towards the heavens. The moment is perfect in its tranquility when Tekniq drops in his familiar beats and upbeat concoctions. After a moderate musical build up harder drum and bass passages enter the track taking it out of the stars and back to the dance floor. But before you can say Shazbut the beats dissipate and fade to swelling synths and heavenly voices again. The ascension is now complete; you have reached drum and bass paradise. Track nine titled Superfect is another detour in style that emphasizes Tekniq's desire to defy categorization and creative stagnation. Superfect begins with minimalist electronics and a looped sample of a male voice saying Superfect. The beginning of Superfect recalls the sterile electronics and minimalist approach that has become many break beat artist's signature. The track is amazingly ambient and cold compared to the first half of the album. But despair not, just when you are resigned the beats descend and the song warms up with an instinctive Caribbean driven feeling! Superfect testifies to the artist's willingness to experiment within and outside any given genre.

Track thirteen titled Orange offers another land mark amidst the warm and exuberant ocean of sound. Tekniq pulls back on Orange from the warmth and good feelings of previous tracks and dives head first into tension and speed. Beats descend with kamikaze precision and dissect the silence like a gene splicer. Orange is by far one of the most industrial songs on the album. Orange is also another great example of how Tekniq is capable of developing an underlying sound then departing from it for further reaches. This ability to create a signature sound then use it as reference for further explorations is what makes the Shazbut album one of the freshest sounds to come out of the scene in a long while. The last song on the album excluding a final remix is Red. Red concludes an amazing listening experience with clever harmonies juxtaposed against precise beats that twist and turn on a dime. The effect is the quintessential mixture of tension and ease, rapid beats and liquid atmospherics.

Tekniq has delivered a second album that is sure to defy expectations and hopefully open a crack in the darkness that defines post industrial music. Tekniq has proven with Shazbut that break beat and drum and bass music can be interpreted softer and doesn't always have to be driven by angst or clinical futuristic obsessions. Shazbut also defies the obvious conclusions that softened break beats are no more than pumped up house music. Tekniq has shown with Shazbut how inexhaustible and yet unexplored this genre truly is if only more artists where willing to expand and explore what the genre is capable of expressing and creating.

I recommend Tekniq Shazbut for all Heathen Harvest readers regardless of your current musical fixation. Tekniq has created a very sensual and accessible sound that virtually everyone should be able to enjoy. Unless you are obsessed with not letting light or fun into your life Shazbut will most likely be an uplifting and welcomed addition to every ones music collection. Faeries that are familiar with modern electronic music will love Tekniq's flexibility and experimentalism. Dark music and industrial music fans will enjoy the opportunity to enjoy an album that is refreshingly un impregnated with angst and darkness. Tekniq – Shazbut has earned Heathen Harvest's recommendation as a must have album