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Cover Art Man... or Astro-Man?
Made from Technetium
[Touch and Go]
Rating: 7.2

If you're into these guys, you'll practically know this brand new set of songs by heart, I assure you. Made From Technetium sounds a lot like their first album and every other release since then. The nice thing about these guys is that they don't bore. Their borderline surf/ rockabilly always seems refreshing.

Getting spazzy with retro science film samples and riled up by the table of elements, these guys go crashing through your skull at an estimated nine billion miles per hour. You'll be sent through Dick Dale- inspired whammies, searing, hopped-up instrumental magic and out-of-control speaker shifts as dangerous as warp speed in an asteroid belt. As an added bonus, there's almost 25 minutes of complete silence waiting to wind you down at the very end of the journey.

I don't know if these songs were actually made from technetium (or what technetium is, for that matter), but it works for me. Even the packaging looks radioactive.

-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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