Album Review: The Algorithm - Polymorphic Code

Genre-defying French outfit The Algorithm sounds like it was created in a lab in the late '90s, using the discarded parts of metal and electronica, with the result violently breaking free and tearing through the polite, sheltered environs of the new millennium's indie scene with bloodthirsty glee.

Their new LP Polymorphic Code is a total animal. It clearly doesn't give a fuck what you've enjoyed listening to previously or why you've decided to give it a spin now. It's undeniably gaudy yet strangely sophisticated… and it's a bit terrifying. But it's also pretty good.

It grinds together chopped-up speedcore riffs, epic trance chords, dub, some saxophone, drum and bass, vocal samples and found sounds, and all the spatters of glittering chiptune debris on the walls makes it seem like a horribly violent digital crime scene. It's completely unrelenting and it will make even dude-bros high on frat-step shake their heads in disbelief.

It's a machine gun wielded by a conductor. It's a dance party being held in a nuclear submarine. It's Blade Runner watched on a loop on methamphetamines. It's Atari Teenage Riot remixed by DJ Shadow being reinterpreted by Dave Lombardo using drum pads fed into Ableton Live.

Most of Polymorphic Code is a fast-moving sound collage, but it does let up a little during Warp Gate Exploit. Kind of in the same way a shark takes time to swallow between bites.

This album may give you a coronary. You have been warned.