Exclaim on-line magazine (Canada, 2003)

Crystal Method meets Scanner meets WTO and Anti-U.S.A. Protesters with a strong dose of the Muslimgauze approach. Funky beats, loads of layered news audio footage, samples and groovable sounds make up this manifesto. Bush Doctrine addresses the injustices perpetuated by the American government, in particular the aggressive foreign and economic policy. Like another musical dissident, the late Muslimgauze, BioChemical Dread’s samples, liner art and track titles denote the artist’s agenda but the music itself is not overtly preachy. Interestingly the two also share the commonality of a predilection for beats, dub sounds and instrumental fragments. The music and rhythm of the album tends to be fairly slow and consistent until towards the end where “Indiana Cuba” is located, there the recording picks up and follows into the next track, “Zanderix” and finishes sounding like the Crystal Method with “I Got Weapons.” This is one Bush Doctrine I can agree with.

I. Khider

Logo on-line magazine (England, 2003)

Reputation can precede an artist, casting undesirable shadows born of unrealistic expectations and unachievable glories, submerging the here and now in the there and then, disappointing those that cannot move on, disavowing those unable or unwilling to embrace the new. Know Biochemical Dread by his new name, forget his past, embrace what he is now. In the here and now Biochemical Dread is a traveller, journeying through an exotic headspace in which delta blues is a close cousin of Bhangra, where the coarse rumble of technology is submerged in the warm, luxurious bosom of processors and filters, where silicon has been replaced by wood and water. Biochemical Dread is Richard H. Kirk. Richard H. Kirk was Sandoz. Richard H. Kirk was Cabaret Voltaire. Richard H. Kirk is dead. Long live Biochemical Dread.

Gillian Nash

WTM-Paris on-line magazine (France, 2003)

Un manifeste "explicite" de Richard H. Kirk qui prouve une fois encore, comme David Thrussell aka Black Lung, que la musique instrumentale est aussi une forme d'engagement. De Cabaret Voltaire à la B.O. d'Agents With False Memories, Richard H. Kirk n'a jamais cessé de dénoncer les travers de la société occidentale, sur le plan politique, économique et technologique. Actualité oblige, l'Oncle Sam est dans sa ligne de mireS? Musicalement, on retrouve, au travers de certaines petites virgules sonores et du traitement des samples(extraits de discours, d'émissions radio et TV), la couleur de ses productions du début des années 90s. On pense en particulier à l'album Virtual State, paru à l'époque chez Warp, et à celui d'Electronic Eye, Closed Circuit édité par Beyond Rec. Il y a toujours ce mélange d'electronica groovy et veloutée mêlée d'ambiances lourdes ("False Kings of the Earth"). La basse et les rythmiques accentuant cette profondeur avec parfois des dérives tribales ("Thief of Baghdad") et dubisantes ("Zero democracy dub") qui rappellent Sandoz, un autre projet de ce vétéran. Mais la tonalité générale reste très actuelle sous l'impulsion de breakbeats assez marqués ("Zanderix (pt1)", "Where is Mr. Sam?", "Indiana Cuba 7"). Les titres, copiés-collés, forment un ensemble dense et cohérent. Excellent.

Laurent Diouf