Search - Neutronic :: Last Years Product

You're in the butter zone now baby

Jason Robey | Silver Spring, MD USA | 08/17/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Good for a party or two, but will you reach for it again?" asks the Amazon reviewer. The implied answer is "no," but c'mon. How can raving electro-fiends like myself resist giving "Last Year's Product" another spin?Although I bought the album over 4 years ago, I still find LYP in my CD player from time to time. Most electronic music gets phased out of rotation after a few months, but not LYP. I'm not sure how to explain the continued appeal, only that there's a technical itch in my brain that only Neutronic's metallic hip-shaking digifunk can satisfy.Disposable? Possibly, but I've never found another group that makes music quite like this. Robotic funk is right. It's dance music for apocalyptic cyborgs. Listen to "Megaton" or "Ones and Zeros" and tell me you can live without them. It can't be done.Despite how cool they are Neutronic remain relatively obscure. No one I know has ever heard of them, but when I've lent the album to friends they almost always burn a copy for themselves. Don't be cheap. Buy one and get the cool sci-fi comic book cover-art: a space ranger in a purple jumpsuit beating the scrap out of a bunch of androids. How fun is that!?One final note. This and Neutronic's second album, 1999's "Neutronic vs. Planet Earth," were released on Pendragon. Yes Pendragon, the label best known for industrial acts like haujobb and Velvet Acid Christ. Although Neutronic has more in common with the electro/techno underground than rivet-head culture, their dark edge and driving pulse makes label mates like industrial terrorist Xorcist seem like a semi-logical association. In other words, industrial-fiends may like this as well."