Your first impression of the Male or Female: Primitive Reflections Twisted From Sound DVD is that the title font on its cover is just at the edge of unreadable. This DVD's going to be a tough sell, for that reason alone. It took me long minutes to determine that the seemingly foreign characters were actually English. But once you get past your first confused glance and plop this strange specimen into your player, you're in for a very odd but spectacular-sounding animation-and-surround-audio experience.

Male or Female is the name of the band that provides the disc's music, in case you're not familiar with them, and the members are Daniel Bressanutti, Patrick Codenys, and Elko Blijweert. The songs feature guest vocals by Rudy Trouve, Yvi Smits, Daan, Marc Meyers, and Amy Chandler. The animation is by Etienne Auger, Rod Chong, Nicolas Kadima, William Morrison, and Casey Ringley. You might call this interactive DVD experience a collection of music videos, or you might call it a high-resolution audio experience that happens to have accompanying animation. It's a collection of industrial electronica that's quite varied, going from quiet disturbing synthesizer to crashing drums and electric-guitar screech-feedback.

From the Main Menu, you can choose Play All or Interactive Play. I first chose the Play All function and was presented with the following two-page Play List:

1) Automat (Mix 1)
2) Skeleton Toy (Mix 1)
3) I Could Love a Pair of Wings (Mix 1)
4) Louder than Silence (Mix 1)
5) She Kissed an Angel (Mix 1)
6) Girl Drowning
7) Eyelid Surgery (Mix 1)
8) Amplifier (Mix 1)
9) Rain Yellow (Mix 1)
10) Prayback (Mix 1)
11) Skeleton Toy (Mix 2)
12) I Could Love a Pair of Wings (Mix 2)
13) She Kissed an Angel (Mix 2)
14) Louder than Silence (Mix 2)
15) Amplifier (Mix 2)
16) When Everything Was in Black and White (Mix 1)

Automat starts things off by introducing the recurring character of Pixelman, wandering through a surreal, animated sepia landscape. The music is understated percussion but with an immersive surround quality based on synthesized sound effects. The combination of animation and music is compelling, almost hypnotic. Skeleton Toy goes for synthesized mayhem, ratcheting up the annoyance factor for this listener and providing a red, spastic, screensaver-like animation that quickly wears out its welcome. I Could Love a Pair of Wings is probably my favorite piece on the disc, marrying a strong, techno-rhythmic, drumbeat tune with vivid, colorful geometric animations involving flying CG centipedes. Louder Than Silence introduces male vocals to the presentation—to the DVD's detriment, in my opinion. I prefer the wordless tunes as animation accompaniment. The animation here is pixel-happy and focused on human facial movements. She Kissed an Angel is a feedback-heavy dirge that swirls around you somewhat cringingly, featuring female vocals, and the animation is like a strobing, red-and-silver superhero motif. Girl Drowning is a haunting piece whose animation is washed-out and grainy, with a ghostly female apparition appearing out of the dirty flicker. The song is a slow, acoustic piece with vocals that don't seem to quite fit. Eyelid Surgery is a slow-building but ultimately harsh crash of synthesized sound, set to industrial live action combined with wobbly line animation. More vocals. Amplifier puts Tom Waits-style vocals against wacky drums and synthesized beeps and screams, and the animation is simple cloud imagery and patterns. Rain Yellow adds rap stylings to the presentation, against an urban, wordstrewn animation that strobes at you. Prayback is similar to I Could Love a Pair of Wings but harsher in its music. The animation has an almost Dali-like feel. When Everything Was in Black and White ends the disc on a Pixelman note, a decidedly odd, wobbling wander. The music, when it comes, is more traditional than what we've had so far. You'll notice that five of the songs are remixed later on the disc, and their animations are pretty much the same as with their first incarnations—variations on a theme.

I decided to try the Interactive Play next, a feature that lets you discover the above songs through a press-and-click interface that follows Mr. Pixelman. Apparently, you can learn about this character's history and such, like some kind of adventure game, but I quickly grew tired of this mode and returned to the Play List instead. Either way you experience this disc, Pixelman is a strange companion as you travel through it, but I never really bought him as a unifying symbol for the music and animation.

HOW'S IT LOOK?

Dance.com Media presents Male or Female: Primitive Reflections Twisted From Sound in a terrific anamorphic-widescreen transfer of the presentation's 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The animation boasts wonderful detail and vivid colors, all across the varying palettes.

HOW'S IT SOUND?

The disc includes both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, and I can't imagine anyone going for the 2.0 track. This is a surround experience if ever there was one. And the presentation is flawless, with cool directional effects coming from all around. The bass is tight and body-shaking, and surround use is very immersive.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

Beyond the above-mentioned Interactive Play mode, you also get a separate CD that contains eight of the songs featured on the DVD.

WHAT'S LEFT TO SAY?

You might find Male or Female: Primitive Reflections Twisted From Sound more headache-inducing than entertaining, but there's no denying that it's unique. I could have done without the Interactive Play feature, and I would have created cover art that's actually readable, but the disc offers many weird pleasures.