Operation Re-Information: Universal Standard 84000

Operation Re-Information's first album, ctrl, was a 22-song manifesto of re-information policy and Information Control Dynamics, whatever those are. As a follow-up full-length, Universal Standard 84000 may at first seem like a rip-off. After all, there are only nine songs, and the liner notes consist of even more confusing doublespeak about the incorporation of ORIMath in the band's self-penned music-production software BackToBasics. Don't worry, though: If there's one thing ORI is good at, it's providing bang for the buck, and at 68 minutes, there's a lot to go around. Consisting of four suit-wearing programmers playing Apple computers like guitars, ORI throws in appropriate samples, periodically spouting off about a corporate takeover of the world. The result is a frantic instrumental hybrid of Kraftwerk and The Residents, but for computer-generated music, Universal Standard sounds surprisingly warm and textured. Thanks to the multi-layered sound of four computers simultaneously generating sound—and the band's particular choice of fuzzy bleeps or humming bloops—"Bubble Sort" and the 17-minute leviathan "Vibrations" are enjoyable, almost poppy. In the face of an album that's intended to perpetuate the band's internal logic and mythology, ORI's rendition of the Knight Rider theme, retitled "Autonomous Auto," is an inspired choice, but certainly leaning toward the goofy end of the inspired spectrum. Unlike many other high-concept bands, Operation Re-Information doesn't seem interested in creating a cadre of slavishly devoted fans who know and love its every nuance, from fashion to vocabulary; instead, it seems satisfied leaving potential fans in an ever-thickening dust of confusion and alienation. Corporate rock has become more than a hollow phrase, but ORI has made it a chillingly entertaining reality. (Vinyl Communications, P.O. Box 8623, Chula Vista, CA 91912)