Contrary to popular belief, there's a difference between minimalism and laziness. Sure, minimalist pioneers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass used simple patterns and constant repetition, but every subtle change in the music was carefully thought out. Each theme was left unchanged long enough to create an enthralling rhythm, and rarely hung around long enough to become stagnant. Each tiny shift in the music seemed greatly magnified, and took on huge significance.

I'm a big fan of early minimalist works, most notably Steve Reich's 1970-71 masterwork, Drumming. Over the course of its 55 minutes, Drumming takes a simple rhythmic figure, and expands upon and mutates it. On Clicks and Cuts, each track averages about four minutes-- hardly enough time for the type of development that makes minimalism interesting. And while the variety of artists mixes up the sound, the real beauty of minimalist music, the subtle shifts and transitions, is almost completely lost.

Of course, this album is not without its interesting moments. Ester Brinkmann's "Maschine" could have been a fascinating piece, with its rhythmically complex static patterns and distant synthesizer noises. About halfway through the track, though, an intolerably simple drum machine beat instantly robs the piece of its intricacy, and some guy who sounds like Doctor Strangelove enters the mix with an annoying refrain in that passionate, romantic language of love, German.

Interesting though they may be, these pieces are hard to take. Rhythmically manipulated analog noise can be interesting, but it rarely makes for a truly compelling listen. The only track on Clicks and Cuts that seems truly awe-inspiring is All's "Überall," a beautifully layered piece of music that commands every iota of your attention with its contrasting rhythms, and hypnotizes with its ever-repeating bassline. But again, at only four minutes, it leaves you craving more.

What hurts is that there's so much potential in this music. A few of these pieces could present a truly intriguing future for electronic minimalism. Unfortunately, too many of these tracks follow the same dreadfully uninteresting formula: cheesy drum machine beats, grating hisses, and nondescript beeps repeating into infinity. Sure, sometimes less is more. On Clicks and Cuts, less is just less.

-Matt LeMay