Blaqk Audio - Cexcells (CD)

All Music Guide

Blaqk Audio may be a pleasant distraction for AFI's Davey Havok and Jade Puget most side projects are but given the depth of Cexcells' tracks it sounds like a little more. And if the duo is swayed by sales the record is keeping pace with regular AFI albums it could head that way. Working from the dark electronic tones set free on AFI's most recent records, Decemberunderground included, Havok and Puget fully indulge their inner eyelinerwearing '80s club kids here: "Stiff Kittens" and "Where Would You Like Them Left?" recall Depeche Mode at their most disturbing, while "Wake Up" and "The Fear of Being Found" tread more quietly but with no less determination. A couple of gothtinged dance tracks, "On a Friday" and "Snuff on Digital," also deliver an authentically synthy experience, which may sound impossible but isn't. Havok and Puget borrow from their forebears but inflate these tracks with their own odd brilliance (and flourishes, and beats). Fans of AFI, and anybody who never heard a blackish blast of modern electronic music they didn't like, ought to investigate Cexcells.

- Tammy La Gorce, All Music Guide