When this disc came across my desk, the first image (or sound) that came to mind was many a bass-thumping car that was rattling from the volume. As a bystander to such pounding displays of sound, it was hard to gauge the quality of other sounds available in such productions. Once I got the CD going in my office, I found the non-bass elements to be an interesting addition to what most people do get to hear.

Ryder Style is unashamed at being an electronic wall of tones and looped sounds. There's no radio-friendly music single here and the whole album is composed of looped beats, patterned tones and a lot of electronically sampled versions of piano and string arrangements. There are some vocal samples here, but there serve as an additional layer of sound.

The album opens with the demure Our God In A Way is Bass, which slowly builds to its casual beat and looped voice samples. The thumping bass is intermitted, as if to slowly draw the listener in. The album then shifts to the more cocky and upbeat Caught in a Basstrap, which plays as a nice balance to the first song. Take a Low Ride is a pretty fun track as it features a catchy beat that flows over the dragged-out tone of the deep bass. The sampled and looped piano and horn pieces pop up enough to give the track a nice body to it. Smoky Bass follows with a laid-back feel to hint, dropping Santana-like guitar moments to add a certain flavor to the track.

Da Vibe's first few notes feel like an early Britney Spears track, but fortunately shift to a more standard bass and swagger heavy tune. Speakerblower is as its name states - brutally heavy on bass tones and intermixed with sharp treble tones and a crisp and swift beat. Fonky Ride has a catchy little opening that feels highly influenced by Stevie Wonder. It shifts into a more bass-heavy take on the same theme, looping in the original tones into the mix. Planet Bass opens with deep dark tones and moves slowly towards a more casual and laid-back tune.

Wanna Get Down starts with some racing sounds mixed in and then builds into a high tempo beat that's pretty infectious. Chase the Bass features a more playful and clean bassline that dances about, accented with a more high-pitched electronica experience. All Your Bass Are Belong To Us, named for the infamously mistranslated line in the videogame Zero Wing, features a nice pulsing bassline that makes up for the pun that is the track's name. The album ends on Mellow Submarine, a laid back, low tempo song with deep bass.

To really appreciate an album like this, one has to have a pretty good car stereo. The bass tones create a surround-sound-like wall of tone that pulses and throbs. Within this resides the more higher pitched tones, creating an interesting aural experience.

Is this album for everyone? Not really. If you have a really good car stereo or have a fine appreciation for electronica or techno, there are some catchy tracks here well worth the time to listen to. For the everyday radio listener, the experience is sure to be lost and without a decent car stereo, one might not really capture the complete feel intended. As an example of the genre, I would say that Ryder Style is a good place to start.

For more information, check out the record label's website.

- - Vane