Terminal Sound System is the alter ego for Skye Klein from Australia who on his fourth album ?Compressor? builds a bridge between mid 90s ?Illbient? and today?s Dubstep styles. In the mid to late 1990s, several artists like Kevin Martin (as Techno Animal), DJ Spooky or Bomb 20 spat out slow, but heavy beats, used minimal samples and created a fierce and repelling atmosphere of urban alienation. Also Skye Klein is close to that sound, but his tunes are more bass-heavy.

He uses really low frequency basslines to accompany his broken beats which are full of dancing cymbals, especially on ?Ghost Summer?. Compared to the dubstep of Loefah, Digital Mystikz or DJ Distance, Terminal Sound System sounds more oldschool though. Actually, many tracks are not too far away from what Photek did around a decade back. Also you can hear the musical background Klein comes from. He plays in the industrial noise rock band Halo and this shines through when listening to the way Klein programs his beats. Anyhow, what Klein produces is a nice variation of current dubstep releases and well worth trying out. 7/10 -- Stephan Bauer (7 August, 2007)