t the risk of repeating my previous Antipop Consortium review, I’ll simply say this: I’m all for experimentation and innovation in music, but not when it comes at the expense of the quality of the music. While Antipop’s latest, Arrhythmia, hits far more marks than last year’s The Ends Against the Middle EP, it still falls short in the music department. The blame falls squarely on producer E. Blaize’s shoulders: none of Antipop’s other members assist in beat-making on this outing.

Not that the beats are bad. Arrhythmia starts strongly, with a pulsing intro evolving into a shrill electro march. Antipop obviously aspires to pick up electro-hip-hop where Afrika Bambataa left off – analog synthesizers are practically fetishized on this album, and the beats are all curt drum machines. The first song, “Bubbles,” glistens with this sort of homage, with a simple boom-snap beat, assisted by live conga drumming. The rapping is dense, and fast-paced, creating an upbeat, catchy (even danceable) song. “Ping Pong” keeps the streak going, with bouncing piano lines and bubbly percussion over the pitter-pat of a table tennis match. Blaize obviously has vision and ability for making creative music.

“Dead in Motion” is also strong. A blunted, minimal bass line and some electronic squiggles provide the basis for rapping almost as propulsive as the beat. It’s followed by “Mega,” which definitely disrupts Arrhythmia’s electro-party. The clunky beat suddenly gives way to a choir and symphony. It doesn’t work at all – it sounds like Blaize was indulging his Queen fascinations a little too much.

“Silver Heat” sets the tone for much of the remainder of the album: minimalist electro workouts that have trouble propping up the increasingly abstract rapping. Antipop desperately needs catchy or evolving soundscapes to give their MCs free reign to do as they please. Instead, “Silver Heat” threatens to collapse as the same trite analog bass line repeats for the whole song. The drum machine backing does little to help – apparently Blaize has not mastered anything outside kicks and snares, let alone drum fills. “Ghost Lawns” is the final highlight of Arrhythmia, a snappy chunk of robotic disco, with a Phonem sample that transcends a mere name-drop, and ends up working quite well with the song. That’s promptly followed by the album’s weakest track, the self-consciously left-field “We Kill Soap Scum.” The percussion is barely there: only a slight throb kept in time with snapping. Other than some electronic rattling, the rapping is the only other element to the song. And unfortunately, it kind of stinks. The subject matter appears to be some sort of obsessed bathroom cleaner, vocalized through cringeworthy Cookie-Monster-esque vocal affectations. No thanks.

The rest of the album ranges from forgettable (the bassed-out “Traum”) to misguided (“Tron Man Speaks,” a slightly amusing, but overlong skit) to grating (the spacey “Focused,” which shows Antipop in a bit of a hypocritical quandary: as Beans disses wack crews with “Why don’t you make your tracks bubble,” I felt compelled to ask him the same thing).

Experimental posturing aside, Antipop Consortium needs to work more on getting the most out of their equipment. Blaize seems unable or unwilling to do anything more with his synthesizer than crank out a trite bass riff and loop it endlessly. Many of the electronic effects are just glittering accoutrements that don’t add anything musically to the beat. And Blaize’s drum programming could use variety. Many bill Antipop Consortium as a bridge between IDM and hip hop (and their placement on Warp attests to this as well). If that’s the case, I would like to see more real IDM effects on their music – some glitchy percussion or some innovation with the vocal tracks. Instead, Antipop seem more like electro revivalists (where more than one Warp act began). My suggestion: put out a companion remix album, featuring Antipop tracks diced up by Warp’s old guard. Antipop can make good, genre-bending music; they just need a little push.