CD review MASTER BOOT RECORD ‘Floppy Disk Overdrive’

Unusual, unconventional and unique – that’s Master Boot Record. And MBR is a quite productive unit too. Starting four years ago, the band/project released already six longplayer while number seven is on its way.

‘Floppy Disk Overdrive’ is the title of the newest deliver and is a bit easier to grasp than some of the earlier releases, like ‘C:\CHKDSK/F’. These titles manifest though the roots of MBR. Everyone of you who had a Commodore 64 knows these ‘simple’ commands and it’s the sound of these early computer days that heavily influences the music of MBR.

Commodore 64 games had a specific soundtrack. MBR takes these sounds and merge them with Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal and sometimes even a bit of Black Metal. The result is a next interesting album with song titles being as unusual as the music itself.

‘Floppy Disk Overdrive’ contains 12 songs, all instrumental. Big soundscapes, created by keyboard passages and Electro-sections are in a permanent interaction with harsh metallic outbursts, with ‘DEFRAG’ being the perfect example. The album has a certain cinematic mood, resonating with the 9 minutes closer ‘HIMEM’. ‘Floopy Disk Overdrive’ could be a soundtrack for one of the older ‘Captain Future’ cartoon series, at least I had to think about this series more than once while enjoying this mind-challenging release.

‘Floppy Disk Overdrive’ is, in a positive way, a really distracting album with music that is unique to date. Although it’s different from everything else, the album is easy approachable and the first notes open the gates to a new sound experience. MBR isn’t denim and leather Metal but certainly allows headbanging and having fun