by John Bush
Even on their debut album back in 1993, Oval was heavy into CD-skip experimentation, though the big surprise on this skeleton-in-the-closet is the surprising number of vocal tracks. The resulting collision between experimental techno and pop actually works quite well, and several songs here (notably &Allesin Gedanken& and &Hallodraußen&) work better with vocals than they would've as simple tracks. The production is years ahead of its time as well, pointing the way toward futurist techno at the same time many electronic groups were attempting to sound like the Orb.