Love Songs for Machines

Mandell's third full-length, and first for Carpark, is as good as its word -- complete with a crush note from Jake himself in the liner notes. And the music is a bit more emotive than his previous productions. For producers of Mandell's generation, nothing says a love song quite like '80s synth-pop, so he reaches back with vintage sounds on "The Prince and the Palm" and a few breathy vocal samples on "Tender Growth From a Random Seed." For the most part though, Mandell doesn't completely lose his head; there's plenty more of the same tight mid-tempo techno, with plenty of oblique programming add-ons and a subtle melodic sense to keep listeners grooving. In the end, he strikes a good balance between the scientific techno of his Force Inc material with some genuine emotion.