Danceflaw's cover photo shows someone (Cursor Miner's Rob Tubb?) in a light blue vinyl jacket with the familiar Daft Punk robot helmet pasted over his head. It's a bold move, putting Daft Punk in listeners' minds before they've heard a note of your album, especially when you're making surging dancefloor electro with anthemic pretensions. Can anyone's music really cash that check?
The third Cursor Miner full-length is indeed his most dance-oriented release yet, foregoing the new wave pop prominently featured on earlier records. While we no longer hear his voice, which reminded me of Beck imitating Gary Numan, there's a pop holdover in Cursor Miner's heavy slant toward riffs. In fact, a few of these tracks are nothing but riffs-- pretty good ones, too-- that are presented, tweaked, amplified, twisted, and then laid to rest after five or six or eight danceable minutes. But there's not much Daft Punk happening here-- no glittering surface or soft edges or unexpected emotions. Cursor Miner serves his electro cold, and the 10 new tracks here find him working that particular mojo in myriad ways.
When his hooks are on, as with "Hair of the Dog", you want him to keep kneading the acid centerpiece like taffy, as he finds another funky shape around every corner. Almost as good is the title track's ripping and heavily soiled synth lead. "Exult" is less blocky than the bulk of the album, as it opts for a smooth, shimmery take on a New Order build; some vocals would be just right here, but it's still enjoyable. "Open the Box" makes creative use of an extended sample from "Six Feet Under", wrapping a Nathanial Senior monolog in an Orbish bath of disquieting reverb.
The hook-centric focus is reinforced by a cover of Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love", another gutsy turn considering that Jason Forrest introduced it to the fist-pumping sampledelica canon at the tail end of "Ten Amazing Years". Cursor Miner's version is oddly restrained, like you're listening to it while immersed in a swimming pool as the band plays up on deck. An opportunity to go way over the top, sadly, is missed.
"Cursor Miner Feels Good" uses the same formula as "Hair of the Dog" with less inspiring original parts, and grows tedious. And that's the issue with the record as a whole: Too many of these tracks sound like something to be dropped into a DJ set for a minute or so to give a specific transition effect, and they wear out their welcome at pop song length (or longer).
Danceflaw closes with a 20-minute megamix that puts some of Cursor Miner's better ideas from this and earlier records into a suitably ADD context. It's a solid overview that shows how many fun little bits he's managed. And it also reinforces the notion that Curor Miner is more adept at idea generation than follow-through.
