Metope Black Beauty [Areal Records, 2012]

Black Beauty is the second album released by Metope off of his own label. Similar in sound in comparison to Kobol, Black Beauty is a mix of house, minimal, and techno that jump around into a series of various dance floor moods. Plenty of leftfield fodder to be found. Arrangements are surprisingly complex melodically for the house genre. Contributing to this catchy monster are Sid LeRock, Undo, Stiggsen, and K_Chico. “No Self-Control”, “Deep Sheep”, and “Alive” are the darker tracks on the album while tracks such as “So Cutoff” and “Rough Romance” pay homage to soul and blues. While tracks are technically interesting, it pains me to say that I don’t feel that this album is experimenting with any new sounds, instead rather embellishing on well paved musical ground. Perhaps that’s not a terrible sin for a dance album, but it does mean that Metope’s work can be largely overlooked without missing too much. A shame really for such a well-produced album. I enjoyed it nonetheless however.
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