by Dean CarlsonAfter Tomas Jirku had worked on ambitiously marketed theme cycles (Variants) and Mille Plateaux-style ambience (Immaterial), fans were interested to find out if he would eventually favor one or the other or move ahead to something else entirely. At first, early cuts like "Cyclic," "Isochoric," and "Entropy" suggested a return to the hollowed-out rhythm piling of 1998's Immaterial. The beats are used exponentially, not sequentially, particularly on the thorny, slow-building "Isentropic." The album shifts to a straighter approach as things progress, and this tends to weaken the album's microscopic techno template. It's not as if Entropy merely revisits past successes, but nothing about Jirku's formula (democratic basslines, rich hi-hats, glitch-based halts/pops) sounds fresh anymore.