Review: NTTX – 'Of Beauty And Chaos'

NTTX
'Of Beauty And Chaos'
WTII RECORDS

Toronto-based musician Gord Clement, formerly of Atomzero, returns with his latest outing under his NTTX moniker in the form of the 'Of Beauty And Chaos' EP. The EP picks up where the last EP 'Objective' left off and further refines Clement's dance-friendly blending of synthpop, ebm, and industrial.

There is a noticeable jump in quality and the songs are relentlessly infectious with their old school ebm bass lines and subtle leads combine with steady dance beats and Clement's melodic vocal range. Tracks such as 'MoveDark', 'Prey', and 'True' are the best examples of this formula, while 'Earth' throws a curve-ball with it's use of electric guitar, delicate airy synths and completely shifted focus towards intimate listening that shows the true scope of NTTX and is easily one of the strongest songs so far.

The EP is rounded off with an able remix of 'Falls Beautiful' from Rotersand that ups the club appeal of an already infectious track even more, before finally closing with a fun but ultimately unnecessary ebm/synthpop cover of 'Eye Of The Tiger' that doesn't quite work.

The production feels a little more polished than the last EP. It still has that classic old school sound running through it, but the focus is always on dance appeal and it knows when to kick it up a notch for good measure. Overall the sound of the EP feels a lot more cohesive and balanced which lets the songs do what they need to do.

This is another great EP from NTTX. There are some great dance tracks here, and 'Earth' in particular shows a lot of depth to the formula. One major criticism of the last EP was the safe vocal performance and here Clement is definitely pushing himself further in terms of varying his delivery. It will be interesting to see what direction a full-length NTTX release could possibly go in the future.  

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