Solely listened to, D.N.A. is an incomplete experience. With the exception of two tracks, the audio component was designed primarily to accompany a series of short films by various directors. Having not seen any of these films, I can’t comment on the effect of combining them with the music; having heard the music I cannot recommend it.

John Foxx‘s history with electronic music is not insubstantial; as original lead singer with Ultravox (then known more emphatically as Ultravox!) he has the best part of forty years’ experience with the kinds of synthesizer-based work D.N.A. contains. Far from Foxx’s populist side, however, this is a much more ambient, experimental, and freeform work, as befitting its artistic purpose. Generally speaking, the music here ranges from a subtle, bleak electronica heavily reminiscent of Vangelis’ famed Blade Runner soundtrack to extremely sparse and formless ambient style.

The latter style, divorced from a visual reference point but making up most of the record, is essentially quite vacuous. As meticulously thought out by Foxx this may be, there is an enormous volume of ambient music available for free download online, much of which is more or less indistinguishable from the calming wash of Foxx’s synth waves.

During an era in which a superb and distinctive ambient record like Röyksopp’s Senior has been recently released, D.N.A. seems like a hollow substitute. Devoid of its visual backdrop – which for all we know, isn’t necessarily all that hot in itself – this record is for the most part just another barely-there ambient record accompanied by too little genuinely interesting material to recommend it to anyone but aficianados of Foxx’s rather characterless experimental style.