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Cover Art Lunar Drive
Here at Black Mesa, Arizona
[Beggars Banquet]
Rating: 7.6

Lunar Drive are like crossing the Chemical Brothers with Enigma. Their songs consist of quick, dancy beats and randomly placed traditional Native American vocals. Here at Black Mesa, Arizona is closer to the electronic scene than the world beat scene, though. The music throbs and bounces between speakers like a mutated experiment in sound. Rave kids are going to love this.

The record opens with a flanged hum and Native American John B. Benally (in his only appearance on the album) saying, "We believe in beauty ourselves, but here we're suffering." A distant flute in the background, the hum drifts from right to left, a quiet techno beat rises to the surface, a sped up sample runs through and the song is given life.

A few of the tracks could have been altered or left off the record entirely, but for the most part, Arizona is an entirely pleasant experience. It's a nice, new twist on the standard drum'n'bass that's quickly becoming a bore.

-Ryan Schreiber

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RATING KEY
10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
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