PSYKICK GIRL
The Needle Has Landed (self-released)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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McKenna Rowe's vision of Psykick Girl, a techno music project with an eye-popping live show and an outlet for her poetic side, comes to fruition on The Needle Has Landed. With live battery consisting of drummer Jerry Vidal and bassist Jake Bergman, Rowe handles all the synths, programming some powerful, thickly layered sounds that are almost always just what the track needs. Once in a while, though, Rowe's extraordinarily powerful voice seems to compete with those powerful sounds, and for just a moment here and there they cancel one another out. Perhaps it's just an unintentional competition for the listeners attention, or maybe it's actually saturation, but whatever the case, it's there. Rowe is able to hold back enough to simply sing like a spectacular mortal in some places, often moments after having the brights on and dazzling us with the "oh my God!" voice, and the juxtapositioning is effective. The tempo is up, it's quite danceable so I'm sure the clubs have been onto it for awhile (it was released in late 2002), and it can definitely do the job on anyone who likes a high voltage tech trance. What's not to love?

© 2003 - DJ Johnson