The first time that I heard a Plastikman CD, I thought it was complete crap. I had seen his stuff before tons of times and knew his little bendy logo guy as well as any other electronic artists call sign, but I didn't know what to expect. While that first listen was happening, I kept thinking to myself, "When is something going to happen?" With its droning sounds, it made me think of the classic reason that people complain about electronic music; it's repetitive-ness. Well over a year passed, and then I found myself in a shop where they had a copy of one of his discs for really cheap. I decided to give it another chance, just for the heck of it.

What I discovered is that I really hadn't been listening to the CD hard enough the first time around. It was during my early fascination with the genre and about the time that I needed frenetic dance tracks that were completely looped out and always changing (like Doops "Doop"). I realized that there really was quite a bit going on within the music of Plastikman, and I just needed to listen for it.

Consumed is what you'd expect for a typical Plastikman CD release, except perhaps a bit darker than either Sheet One or Musik. There are the same repetitive beats and minimal sounds, but the sound seems "thicker" than normal and it makes for a very claustrophobic listen (especially on headphones). The basslines pulse along with their atomic-clock step while other sounds filter in and out of the mix, sometimes to an almost jarring level. With the awesome minimal dark cover and sleeve design, it's like Mr. Hawtin decided to go completely evil for the release. It's kind of haunting, but Mmm mmm good.