Listeners will be quickly forgiven for failing to anticipate a serious album out of Rjyan Kidwell (aka Cex). After all, Kidwell nods to teen pop juggernaut Britney Spears in the title and via a liner-note pictorial inside, charts the apparently bloody death and disposal of same. Truth is, though, as difficult as it is to cast a critical eye over tracks titled “Eleven Million Dollars Worth of Bearer Bonds” or “Destination: Sexy,” Cex isn’t a cartoonish techno act, whether your standards are Gorillaz or Kid 606. Instead of going the Kid 606 route — by way of continual (and continually bracing) stylistic change-ups — Oops, I Did It Again! offers a series of unaffected breakbeats and glorious, lazy-night melodies reminiscent of early-’90s IDM touchstones from Aphex Twin (Selected Ambient Works 85-92) and B12 (Electro-Soma). – John Bush
more »