★★★★☆

Set to visuals of fast moving, crimson-colored skies, and “Ray of Light”-style time lapsing where everything flies past in a blur, Carl Taylor wants to unlock emotion and passion, preferably in a heaving crowd of like-minded revelers. Don’t worry about the thudding beats: Taylor has your back. If the body takes a beating, then the mind and soul are grateful for the spiritual synth washes delivering sonic eclipses and Balearic dawns. With tough love side, “Onyx” allows you to access the physical over the mental with a bulldozing deep techno knuckling into your muscles while “Guiding Light” breaks the 4×4 beats into warring factions for a starker vision.

It becomes the ultimate in false security scams, however, as True Faith progresses into a suspicious, tetchy stomper. The mind elevation is turned into mind control clamping around brains, like a cult leader playing on your insecurities. Taylor starts redesigning everything into an aggressive warhead, scooping up the airborne and manhandling them underground. Applying shock/convulsion therapy, you’re told to relax when “EC3″ and “Violet” return you to your former position of seeking enlightenment with uncomplicated and true engineering. Hard center, soft shell = tasty nougat of an LP.
File under: Orlando Voorn, Auterform, The Black Dog