Review:
The preceding volumes captured the artist as a young man, and this third instalment documents Karl O'Connor's development from harsh industrial techno into other forms of electronic music-making. That's not to say that 1999-2001 is devoid of O'Connor's punishing approach: "Execution Ground" is a frenetic, thundering groove and "Rites" sees a jack-knifing riff skids its way across a lunging tribal rhythm. The key difference between these tracks and past peak-time tracks is the use of a vocal sample on the former and the icy, atmospheric synths that offset the latter's grainy intensity. O'Connor's desire to bring something new to hard techno is also audible on "Baptism" and "Purification", where lunging, slamming rhythms underscore incessant vocal snippets - like a precursor to Sims-style loops. "Get On Your Knees" is further removed from Regis' original dense sound and has a more electronic groove, but even it cannot prepare for the eerie ambience of both versions of "Solution" - is that Charles Manson on the "Voice" version? - and the doomy, dead-paced beats of "Slave To The Inevitable".