I never thought I’d describe any release from Scott Hardkiss as boring and routine and yet with the release of Technicolor Dreamer, here we are. Scott Hardkiss is the man who has given us Godwithin “Raincry” innumerable acid house, tribal house and techno tracks. A man who to me helped define a decade’s worth of music of what I recognized as The San Francisco Sound. The best of his music was driving but with a slightly soft edge to the music and accentuated with warm enveloping pads and complex rhythms. New forms to dance music. Progressive before that became a pejorative. Looking forward while other producers were content to look over shoulders.

The issue with Technicolor Dreamer is that it plays essentially like a checklist of pop dance genres that Scott wanted to make songs about and some of it just sounds a decade too late.

I think that The Underwater Ball is representative of many of the issues with the album. Standard issue Horn line, high pitch synth lines, false tenors repeating a small phrase with a female chorus process through layers of out of the box Funk 101 effects. It’s a good attempt to recreate the whole P-Funk sound, but that’s been mined to absolute death by house DJs for the past 15 years and West Coast hip hop producers for the past 20 plus and I think this is indicative of overall issues with the album. Good emulation, but no innovation.

It’s essentially the Adult Contemporary of the Rave Set. Commercial music for back yard BBQs. Music as wallpaper.

There is also an amazing lack of self-awareness in an album. The song Star Power though one could state that the processed voice permits Scott to claim a detachment stating this character believes this, but that’s not what the song is about though the song itself says “I’m Scott Hardkiss and I’ve got Star Power.” The a handful of songs later in the song The Revolution Has Begun one of the opening lines is “They try to hypnotize us with celebrities and more.”

Then, in an attempt to feed into the egotism of the audience, there’s a vocoded slice of pop dance generica called “You’re the Star” which is one of the most puerile vapid wastes of time things I’ve heard this month, and I still listen third wave ska. Filters, descending scale baselines “Tonight’s the night / You’re the star” repeated over and over and over and then the song ends, I shit you not, with soft angel chimes.

The truly tragic thing is that there are actually good songs on here with great moments. The opening song “Come On, Come On” is a great call to adventure and living and loving life and living it to the fullest “keep on going until we’re gone” with a beautiful sentiment and beautiful warm pads which recall the best of his earlier efforts. “You and I” is another slice of wonderful which recalls the power and majesty of earlier works with minimal lyrics but maximal musical elements. They are wonderful bookends but unfortunately what is contained between these two songs, without exception, are an absolute waste of your time and Scott’s talent.