the JoMoX Xbase09 and MFB-522 were also used to record replications of sounds from the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 as well as slightly reduce the "experimental" instincts of the duo for a more "codified" sound palette. Murray explained, "Maybe it was a subliminal goal of ours, to create sounds that we hadn’t heard before and to be able to get that away from a purely experimental context and bring it into a club setting.” Composition As the RVNG Intl. press release for Syndrome Syndrome states, the album follows an unconventional and "uneasy" techno style where beats enter and disappear at unexpected random moments, the "harmonic architecture forms cavernous canopies in place of metronomic melodies," and the structure "may or may not crumble on contact." This open-ended structure is more akin to RVNG Intl.'s FRKWYS series than the label's regular set of albums. Dummy critic Steph Kretowicz described the LP as exploring the "hidden" sound art stylings of electronic music, examples including the "swinging, manic rhythm and vicious clatter" of "One on None" and the sub bass textures on "Success in Circuit." The music of Syndrome Syndrome is very harsh, which reflects the social environment and weather of where Gardland recorded the album. As The 405's Corao Malley analyzed, it contains a couple of tracks which are slightly darker of the album's overall tone, suggesting "hints of a different world creep[ing] in from time to time." Murray described making the LP as "searching exploration" in the places they were in at the time, and Kretowicz, while interviewing Murray for Dummy, described the album as having an "earthy feel" in its otherwise electronic sound. RVNG Intl. noted the use of human and machine-produced textures on songs like the title track, "Katarakt" and "Hell Flur," stating that they give the music a "paradoxical unity" and a "deranged power." Critical reception Resident Advisor stated Syndrome Syndrome has an "unpredictable, wandering spirit" that makes it worth listening to its otherwise "monochrome" sound. XLR8R highlighted the album's use of a false "illusion of forward movement" on tracks like "Magicville" and "Ode to Ode" and praised its use of improvisation with common electronic music formulas. Malley called the LP "powerful while rarely tipping over into outright ferocity, which makes its darkness all the more unnerving," also spotlighting its "purity of sound that disorients one moment and dazzles the next." The more mixed reviews of Syndrome Syndrome mainly