Evol Intent

Era Of Diversion

[3.5/5]

The electronic-music shopkeeper in Cleveland couldn’t give drum & bass platters away if they had strippers’ phone numbers written on the labels. Perhaps Atlanta-based hardstep crew Evol Intent will rejuvenate the tired genre with their inspired sonic shit-stirring. The first track, “The Foreword,” samples actor Peter Finch’s timeless rant from the 1976 film Network before ricocheting between hip-hop forms, digital hardcore and cutting electro-glitchery. Floorpunchers, take note: Bane’s leather-lunged frontman Aaron Bedard stops by to put the fear into “Smoke And Mirrors,” while post-hardcore supergroup the Sound Of Animals Fighting get some sample time (“The Curtain Falls”). If Trent Reznor can get the pasty electro-goth kids to listen to Saul Williams’ communiqués from the frontlines, Evol Intent seem poised to open the industrial rivetheads’ minds a little further. (EI/SYSTEM/ST) Jason Pettigrew