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Ade Fenton – British DJ and producer, mainly connected so far with the techno scene. A person I would never get interested in, if he hadn’t co-produced Gary Numan’s last album, "Jagged" (2006). The collaboration did so well, that Ade invited Numan to sing on his first solo album. The godfather of electropop gave his distinctive vocal to four songs on "Artificial Perfect". One of them is the opening – and also it’s biggest highlight - "The Leather Sea". Catchy, industrial rock composition in style of the last Numan’s records with mindfucking scream from the chorus, noise solo, but also – paradoxically – a very nice melody. Also the lyrics suits Numan very well – the verses like "Your God is nowhere, your God is nothing" could have been written for "Exile" or "Pure". Unfortunately, the whole album isn’t so good as the first song. Definitely the best tracks are those with the Dark Messiah on vocals – known from the first single, dark wave "Healing", a slower one called "Recall" with dark backgrounds of the synthesizer and actually the least interesting "Slide Away", even if the piano part is quite nice. Those tracks could be released on "Jagged" and don’t lower it’s value. The other worth listening track on "Artificial Perfect" is a melancholic ballad "Everything Changes" with guest appearance of Helen Tilley. Nice female vocal with nice piano melody – very pleasing to the ear. The rest are just more or less successful rip-offs of Nine Inch Nails. It’s easy to see that mister Fenton is a big fan of Trent Reznor’s music (his last DJ sets were composed mainly from tracks from the "Year Zero"), but he could have leave the inspiration for himself. "Burn" (another song sung by Tilley) cites the lyrics from NIN’s "Eraser" ("I wanna need you, I wanna dream you, I wanna find you" etc.), although the whole song is closer to some dark trip hop like Recoil. The closing track "Machine" is an obvious rip-off from "Gave Up". "Artificial Perfect" would be a good choice for someone, who likes industrial / dark wave sounds, but it’s nothing new. Let it be a nice thing to listen to, waiting for Gary Numan’s next release (which would be produced by Ade), because collaborations with this man are his best.

Tracklist:
1. The Leather Sea
2. Truth
3. Healing
4. Everything Changes
5. One Day
6. Recall
7. Slide Away
8. Burn
9. Machine 

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