Pan Sonic Kesto CD

Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, better known as Finnish electronic duo Pan Sonic, are not ones to compromise. Since they began making music (or sounds, as the case may be) in 1993, they've continued turning out unconventional recordings that challenge accepted modes of thought about electronic musical idioms. As ideologically and sonically unrelenting as ever, Pan Sonic presents KESTO, four full discs of new material that retreats not a step from the pair's previous advances.

The first disc is the harshest and most literally industrial-sounding, as white-noise frequencies, modified to varying degrees, crackle and clatter through the listener's eardrums, with only brief moments of respite. Disc Two is less overtly assaultive, more beat-oriented, making use of the kind of dub-inflected glitch beats they (along with the likes of Pole) helped invent. The third disc could almost be called ambient, were it not for the inescapable sense of dread that underlies the somehow sinister minimalism. Most impressive is the final disc, a single, hour-long piece that's closer to early-'70s Tangerine Dream than anything else. Pan Sonic thanks artists as diverse as electro-post-punks Throbbing Gristle and New Music composer Alvin Lucier in the notes, and influences from both sides of the fence are discernible.Q (p.116) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Once you've bequeathed them your synapses, the rewards are great - analog tone generators and digital samplers creating a thrillingly visceral hiss and thud that quickly fills all available space."
CMJ (p.10) - "KESTO is a searing collection of glitchy industrial sounds smoothed out and refried over skeletal beats. It's noisy, ambient and danceable all at the same time..."