AMG Review of Pulse

John Bush
All Music Guide

Front 242 never allowed the commercial world to embrace them, pulling back from the brink in 1993 with a pair of radical, difficult albums just as the rest of middle America appeared ready to embrace the industrial darlings of #120 Minutes. Since they undoubtedly had little to fear from the mainstream circa 2003 -- ten years after their last discernible studio album -- the trio returned to their vision of detached but hooky industrial angst with Pulse. The record begins with "SEQ666," a five-track suite of gritty, hi-res EBM instrumentals -- slightly updated, with the help of Cubase, but clearly recognizable and pure joy to fans of mid-'80s classics like Official Version. Following are a few tracks of thematic pop ("Together," "Triple X Girlfriend") and an able evocation of the era when Front 242 were the kings of grim, catchy Teutonic angst ("Headhunter," "Tragedy [For You]"). The rest of the record is muddled, taken up by extended, multi-track suites that prove the trio's continued programming prowess but are also as inscrutable as much of the material on their most difficult record (1993's 05:22:09:12 Off). Similar to the return of industrial kingpins Ministry a few months earlier, though, Pulse sounds like the record Front 242 wanted to make, the type they could make only once the pressure was off.