Davros - "The Key To Time" from igloomag.com

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in September 2003.



DAVROS – The Key To Time


Concept albums have almost always had a bad rap. Accused of pretentiousness, overwrought instrumentals, over-ponderous lyrics, and topographic oceans, the genre has almost died a nearly silent death. I say almost because DAVROS has brought the concept album back, and made it relevant.

The Key To Time is a unique construction, in that it melds DAVROS’ trademark hardcore breakbeats and monster bass with the electronic sounds and incidental music that accompanied the Doctor Who series of the same name. What happened seems to be something like this: there were six BBC mini-series that made up the uber-series “The Key To Time.” DAVROS has taken the incidental music from each mini-series and used samples from each episode to provide the melodic element of the music, while providing his own beats and bass. He was limited in the music he could use by what is in each episode. There is no melodic element that was not sampled from the show.

It may sound a little academic, but it is true alchemy, pure and simple. The opening track, “White Guardian Excerpt,” sets the stage. It is primarily dialogue sampled from the show, a conversation between the Doctor and the White Guardian, who has tasked Doctor Who with finding the six segments of the Key To Time, and the consequences should he fail. Great setup for what is to come. Subsequent tracks, like “The Ribos Operation” and “Pirate Planet” all masterfully blend selected dialogue samples with the music and beats to produce something magical, a hardcore breakbeat concept record that actually works.
“The Stones of Blood” is a highlight of the disc, featuring a killer bass tone, a bpm that seems well over 180 and a coherence in its melodic element and dialogue samples that furthers the story, and maintains a musical quality that demands repeat listening. And that is its greatest triumph, that it is interesting, that it demands your attention.

Everything leads up to “Armageddon Factor,” in which the Doctor and his companion Romana gather all of the segments of the Key To Time and are confronted by the Black Guardian, who wants to use the Key for his own nefarious purposes. And it begs the question, with everything that has gone on before it, as intense as this record gets in places, where is there to go? When you’re over 180 bpm and the bass can move your bowels to vacate, where can you go? “Armageddon Factor” answers the question once and for all. It ends here. Nothing is more intense and satisfying. It is aural adrenaline.

Detroit’s Low Res records is responsible for releasing this, but it is the artist who has requested that The Key To Time be a criminally limited edition of 100. That’s right, one hundred copies. Act now.