by Ned RaggettEpsylon merely continues the general vibes of earlier records in ways, but here Eat Static start to stretch a little bit more, mixing their fine if polite way around progressive house and techno with more intriguing hints of paranoia, edginess, and truly creepy atmospheres. If the alien fascination of earlier records remains unchanged, this is about where the duo updates from '70s "in search of..." style investigation to '90s X-Files fear and loathing. "The Brain," the concluding song, starts off with a voice saying "They've stepped out of their body into the computer world," then taking flight in a manner both pretty and a little unsettling -- not quite Coil, but not dippily happy either. At other points Eat Static concentrate on the desires of the beat rather than an attendant mythology more specifically -- its central track, the clean, energetic punch of "Undulattice (Uforic Mix)," plays with spooky noises around the corners, but otherwise cranks up the Rolands and lets it fly. Meanwhile, "Gulf Breeze (Zetan Mix)" comes across as thier best full-on dance track ever, with a hypnotic, wordless vocal sample, a striking mid-song break down to bells and soft synth whooshes, otherwise hitting the dancefloor hard. Consisting of seven tunes, Epsylon dips more readily into other dance styles as well. Though nearly everybody had done a jungle track by this time, the group's own effort, "Dionysiac," doesn't sound half-hearted at least, with spacey keyboards and Arabic melodies adding to the clatter, downshifting into a slightly calmer midsection before amping up again towards the end in an attractive fusion of styles. "Lost in Time," meanwhile, settles into a low rumble of a groove, fully propulsive and unsettling in total effect, while slipping in enough places to breathe and build to a new climax as the duo goes.