Decoy

"Heartwerk" (EP, 2003)

Self Release

Decoy features one D. Barnes from America who made an impression a couple of years ago with his sample-driven db2 demo. This heads in a different direction, combining future pop with a trace like influence. With most songs wavering around the 135 bpm level, there's nothing distinctive about any of them. This feels very much like lightweight dabbling, as if Barnes said to himself, "Oh, let's have a go at future pop".

Silent Space emphasises the trance angle, whilst Your Heart sounds vaguely like it wants to be Covenant. Darkest Eve is the best of the six tracks here and is, perhaps tellingly, also the slowest number. Ironically, in spite of the title of this EP, this simply doesn't sound as if Decoy's heart was really in it, and maybe that project name just confirms that belief? 5/10

Rob Dyer