Albums: Holon 1998 Click image for larger view 1) Contact - 7:38 2) Nova Man - 7:49 3) Janus Effect - 6:55 4) Phenomena - 5:45 5) Binary Star - 7:12 6) Funky Ass - 6:12 7) Electronic Dreams - 8:58 8) Remember Today - 7:11 9) Horizon - 8:38 - - R E V I E W - - Yet another side project. This one was produced shortly after FLAvour of the Weak, and it shows. Not that that's a bad thing, oh no. This album should really be under the Noise Unit name, I feel. It sounds like a logical step after Noise Unit's Drill album. Bill and Chris have put their breakbeat sound of FLAvour of the Weak and placed it into an dancey, angry sounding album. No lyrics at all, just beats, synth lines and sounds aplenty. The track Contact starts out the album. This is one of the best tracks in my opinion, although they are all good. This track goes through many different stages, without seeming like a different track altogether. Not much else to say, just awesome. Nova Man makes up the second track. You can hear parts of this track that sound like they're from Pro-Tech, that's for sure, especially after getting a couple of minutes into the track. The breakbeat style drum beat sounds remarkably similar to Prodigy's Firestarter, but that's not necessarily a problem. Bill and Chris place their synth lines around the beat so that the beat isn't as up-front as in Prodigy's song. Janus Effect follows. It starts with a slow beat with some background noise, then picks up after that with some faster beats and some nice basslines. The tracks stops, then you hear "What's up man, what's up homes". Somehow I don't feel that this sample goes with this style of this song, but it's still tolerable. Three minutes into the song a beautiful yet evil sounding synth string fills the rhythm. The track stops very abruptly. Phenomena is more of the same, but still good. This one starts out slow as well. The beat that eventually picks up though is the same as the upbeat drum in the remix of FLA's Oblivion on Re-Wind. Also, you can hear parts of this that sound straight from Pro-Tech. A good track, for sure, but not my favorite. Binary Star is a cool track. A spacey panning sound starts the song and continues for more than a minute. A slow drum begins, and more sounds are added layer by layer. The synth line, which starts two and a half minutes into the song, definitely adds some personality to the track. The song continues on the same old rhythms that started the song until the end when it changes more. It gets very powerful. A good one, this track. The next one is Funky Ass. The beakbeat style continues throughout this track as the synth line starts, sounding like it was out of Dominator on Noise Unit's Drill album. A good track, but the "Gimme a funky ass bassline" sample becomes annoying. It's out of place, in my opinion. Like some of the other tracks on this album, this one gets quite large and full near the end. Electronic Dreams is next. Definitely one of my favorite tracks on this album. About a minute into the track it changes quite a bit, adding a new drum and synth. Very good! The "Relax, tell me you dreams" sample from Drill is here too. Next is Remember Today. The track is good, but the "Yeah, what's happenin" becomes annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just here and there, but it's not. It repeats over and over through parts of the song. Other than that, Remember Today is a good song, along the lines of the other tracks on the rest of the album. Horizon finishes off the album. This one takes a while to build up, and the synth lines are quite good indeed. At 1:31 into track I noticed a panning drum sound straight out of FLA's Predator (which I believe came from Future Sounds of London's "We Have Explosive" first). Near the end of this one, the ghostly synths get powerful as well. A nice way to end the album I suppose. Overall, a good album from Bill and Chris, but should have been published under the Noise Unit name I feel. I don't see how there will ever be another Equinox album. It's just an album with it's own style, as with all albums in any of Leeb's projects. After all, each Noise Unit album's style is unique from one another. How come Equinox couldn't have just been another Noise Unit album? Oh well, it's no big deal. Equinox is recommended for fans of FLA, Noise Unit and Pro-Tech. Need I say more? -- Jonathan Ratcliffe flaspacepod@hotmail.com E-mail