Minimal electronic duo XENO & OAKLANDER are back with their eight album ‘Via Negativa (in the doorway light)’.
Albums over the past 18 years like ‘Vigils’, ‘Sets & Lights’, ‘Par Avion’ and ‘Vi/deo’ have demonstrated and reinforced Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride’s talents as the Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg of synth. From their Connecticut laboratory bubble, the new album sees a further refinement to their precise yet spirited productions.
With songs starting as embryonic piano sketches before McBride applied his modular and vintage synth knowhow, the opening title song makes a powerful statement in a cacophony of synths and percussion while the call and response duet between Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride provides the fitting contrast of sweetness and starkness to play with the mindset. Less in your face but no less effective is the moodier ‘Mercury Mind’ with brighter hooks doing battle with far grittier distorted interventions.
Despite a seemingly impenetrable wall of synthetic sound, ‘The Unknown Side’ is gloriously bouncy, with Liz Wendelbo providing her alluring Je n’sais quoi to offset Sean McBride’s flatter snarl. ‘Lost & There’ takes XENO & OAKLANDER unexpectedly into a stuttering backdrop and the end result is something almost psychedelic as Wendelbo and McBride harmonise with their blend creating a Neil Tennant stylisation.
‘Actor’s Foil’ adopts a more rugged industrial synthpop template for some EBM sensibilities while with an immediate rhythmic bounce, ‘Magic of the Manifold’ is classic XENO & OAKLANDER reminiscent of ‘The Staircase’ from 2011’s ‘Sets & Lights’ with its squelchy bassline programming being a prominent feature.
A bilingual ode to bloodstones which are said to clear out negative energy, the speedy ‘O Vermillion’ is more minimal compared with other songs on the album and brings in Cossack chants for that Cold War edge that is suitably fitting with the spy drama end. The album concludes with the steadfast ‘Strange Fellows’ which lowers the tempo and plays around with shoegaze impressionism as Wendelbo and McBride vocally delightful spar.
This is another accessible and enjoyable XENO & OAKLANDER record that utilises technology and poetry with spikiness and sweetness, to present the dystopian and the utopian in a cerebral study of “what not to do, a negative image of a positive, the other side, the other”.
Geneva Jacuzzi is an artist whose oeuvre includes music, live theatre, installations, set design, costume, makeup and set decoration.
Released recently by Dais Records, ‘Triple Fire’ is her third full-length album, following her official debut ‘Lamaze’ in 2010 and 2016’s ‘Technophelia’. Based in Los Angeles, Geneva Jacuzzi brings a collaborative approach to ‘Triple Fire’ while vocally she continues to recall the delightfully odd mannerisms of Gina Kikoine, Lene Lovich and Jyl.
Quirky and fun, ‘Triple Fire’ presents a hit parade of playful avant pop and sly post-apocalyptic camp across 12 songs, each possessing an immediate if occasionally chaotic burst of energy. Geneva Jacuzzi spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about her artistic process and her take on the state of the modern world…
You’re an artist with many facets, what attracted you to making music and particularly electronic music?
When I moved to LA at 18, I was fortunate to meet some incredible people who were true music heads, a little bit older, record collectors, book collectors, philosophy quoters, tellers of stories, owners of 10,000 rare obscure books and records kind of people leftover from the 80s and 90s art and music scenes who co-mingled with the hipsters of LA. Mind you, this is the early 2000s, no YouTube or internet music so prior to that, the only electronic music I had heard was 80s pop and disco (which I loved but always felt so produced and unattainable)
Then all of the sudden I was exposed to early CABARET VOLTAIRE, THROBBING GRISTLE, KRAFTWERK, LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, CHROME, HARDCORE DEVO, THE STRANGLERS, early CURE and HUMAN LEAGUE, WIRE, KRAUTROCK, SUN RA, CAN, THE HOMOSEXUALS, LOS MICROWAVES, PALAIS SCHAUMBURG, DER PLAN, DAF and Kate Bush. It all blew my mind because I had never heard anything like it before. But the minimal synth was what really hit my core at the time. I think because it was so simple, my little brain was like “I can make this” so I tried it… and was hooked.
I didn’t have money to buy gear but I would run thrift store keyboards through pedals to manipulate sound and sometimes friends would loan me synths and I would spend hours just designing sounds. I had no intention of being a musician. I was just playing around and challenging myself… for fun and escape. It became a compulsion. I think my lack of musical skill combined with a passion for sound manipulation and inclination towards pop melody started to yield interesting results and I discovered I had a knack for composition.
Did you have an epiphanal moment with a synth, and if so, with which one?
My first real synth I experimented with was a Sequential Prophet One and I feel really fortunate to have had a friend who loaned me one for a couple of years. I remember jamming on it and turning knobs without any knowledge of what does what until I got to the point where the synth would make no sound and I had to figure out WHY?? It literally forced me to learn about what each knob is doing. But it was a great way to learn. It was like being lost in a foreign city with no map and you have to go around asking for directions and looking at the position of the sun and buildings until one day, you just know where you are and how to get to where you wanna go instinctually.
Your first official album release ‘Lamaze’ in 2010 was a collection of 4 track and 8 track recordings as well as demos, what inspired you to issue them “as seen” rather than polish them up?
Honestly, I didn’t think I had any other way of polishing them up. I didn’t own a computer and the songs were accidents trapped in tape so recreating them in a studio didn’t seem like an option. It’s not like I had a record advance or money to go into the studio either. I was just experimenting with music and then eventually someone wanted to press it on vinyl. I’m pretty sure at the time, I thought they sounded perfect as is. It didn’t occur to me to fix or change anything. It’s like having a kid with a crooked nose. What, are you going to take them to a plastic surgeon at age 6? I suppose you could but that would be weird. And what if the kids face grew and the fake nose stayed small? It would just be a bad idea.
Your second album ‘Technophelia’ took a few years and was much more of a produced record, how do you look back on its gestation?
That’s so funny. I recorded Technophelia on GarageBand and the vocals were done with the little microphone above the screen on my white MacBook. Not kidding. But I never used soft synths. I think Chris Coady levelled up the sound in mixing though. He’s a total boss.
I don’t know why the record took so long. Now that I think about it, all of my records take a long time. Not that I’m sitting and working on them for years or anything. I’m just recording songs and playing shows and making art and living life and things come together when they come together. I’ve never been one to wait for ideal situations before I do things. I’ve got my paws in lots of different projects and things come together when they do. My new record coming out is the first in 8 or 9 years but only because I was working on video projects and live performances for a few years. Then I came back to the music again only in the last two years.
The songs on ‘Technophelia’ ranged from synthpop like ‘Casket’ to dysfunctional disco like ‘Cannibal Babies’, could these be now seen as blueprints for where you are now with ‘Triple Fire’?
A little bit, yes. Except I had originally planned to do something totally different. Then when I got started, it sounded like the same kind of stuff that I’ve done in the past. Which is cool but not very interesting to me. I think I realized that I have my way of doing things and if I expect different results, I need to start including different people.
‘Technophelia’ was just me in my room and ‘Triple Fire’ was me with my friends. I brought in other producers and songwriters to collaborate on this record. My friends Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs who have a great band REPTILE TILE in Virginia Beach. The three of us worked on the majority of the tracks together and it was fun blending skills and styles. Also worked with Josh da Costa on a track and Andrew Clinco from DRAB MAJESTY produced a track as well. This was my first time collaborating like this and it was really fun for me to move out of my comfort zone.
Many of your musical influences appear to be European?
It’s true. Love me some kraut and Italo disco. I don’t know what drew me towards that part of the world. Perhaps there is a depth to it that reflects a culture or history that Americans have yet to achieve. But many American bands like CHROME and DEVO hooked me as well. I think because there is a sense of humor and self-awareness that pokes fun at the insanity of America that I can really appreciate. After all, I am American and I am f*cking insane.
Quite a bit of time has passed since ‘Technophelia’, so has there been any changes in your creative and recording process for ‘Triple Fire’, be it from tech developments or collaborative opportunities?
It’s all about collaboration. ‘Technophilia’ was the peak of my loneliness’. Which I find beautiful but you can only go so far on your own before you start sounding repetitive. I also don’t feel the need to prove anything as far as my musical abilities go. I could of course become a better musician but I don’t think that song writing is about musical skill. It’s about sublimating a moment in time or an experience. ‘Triple Fire’ was me expanding into a collaborative space (which, honestly is a huge challenge for me because I never ever felt comfortable doing that in the past), Roderick has an amazing studio in Virginia Beach that we recorded at so having access to all of those synths also expanded the sound quite a bit. Andy brought in a bundle of synth racks so we had a bountiful bank of sound to choose from. It was such a fun experience working on this record.
‘Art Is Dangerous’ celebrates the subversive potential of all art, what inspired you make such a statement?
Funny enough, it was an accident. Roderick (who co-wrote) misread something on the TV screen one night after our recording session and yelled out “ART IS DANGEROUS?!?!” We looked at each other and both knew that it would be the title to the track that we were working on. Then the lyrics started flowing. I co-mingle with the art world and it was fun to play around with the absurdity of it all. Industry, ego, sensationalism, commodification, celebrity. The bridge vocals are all clichés. “All is fair in love and war”, “All that glitters isn’t gold”!
Cliché is a big theme on ‘Triple Fire’. We have songs like ‘Rock and a Hard Place’, ’Take it or Leave it’, I felt like pop music relies heavily on simplicity and stupid lyrics so I thought it would be interesting to go all in on using the most mundane phrases of the English language to describe something mysterious and deep.
You’ve said ‘Dry’ is about being ghosted after a date but is there a wider metaphor?
There always is lol. “Set it and Forget it” is a catch phrase from a 1990s infomercial selling a mechanical appliance. I suppose I felt that the modern approach to love via technology sort of mechanizes the magical. Not to say we are being dehumanized by dating apps or anything lol… But shopping for love on a cell phone can definitely alter amount of value we place on our human interactions thus creating a tricky landscape for a type of love that celebrates coincidence and the sweetness of imperfection. I’m an over thinker so when I get my heart broken by my cell phone, I tend to find the absurdity of it all and can’t help but see how funny it is when the mere chime sound of a text message is enough to ignite a Pavlovian flood of emotions… or in this case… No text message!
How did Andrew Clinco come to produce ‘Speed Of Light’? How was his approach compared with your own and was there something you learnt that you will continue with your own productions?
Andrew and I have been friends for years and have collaborated on different projects and bands in the past so when I told him I was making a new record and hoped to work with him on something, he was super down. I’m pretty sure he sat down one night with me in mind and cooked up the track to ’Speed of Light’. When I heard it, it was a definite “Yes!” And I heard the vocals / lyrics in my head almost immediately. I recorded the demo vox then we finished it up together in his studio.
Andrew is one of those special kind of humans that can do everything… but unlike me, he does it quickly and has some incredible production tricks up his sleeve that I have yet to master. He is a machine who compulsively makes music non-stop and I witnessed the effects of his skill with production. It’s almost effortless and our personalities really get along so it was super fun and easy to work together. When it comes to collaborating, it’s important to pick the right people. I’m fortunate to have friends like Andrew who are incredibly talented and funny who totally get it.
Is there a key track or favourite on ‘Triple Fire’ which summarises what you were hoping to achieve on this album?
It changes. ‘Art is dangerous’ and ‘Dry’ feel the most “Geneva Jacuzzi” but I definitely strayed from the box with tracks like ‘Heart Full of Poison’, ‘Rock and a Hard Place’ and ‘Keep it Secret’ which I love. But ‘Bow Tie Eater’ , ‘Nu2U’ and ‘Yo-yo Boy’ are secret favorites. I wish they were singles. ‘Laps of Luxury’ is also a strong track and I’m really excited for it to come out with the release.
Who is ‘The Scene Ballerina’? Has this “main character syndrome” become worse since the advent of social media influencers or has it always been one of those social diseases particularly prevalent in the entertainment industry?
I think everyone knows a “Scene Ballerina”. That person who loves to make it all about themselves and craves drama. It’s so funny, I never really thought to write about those sorts of people but Andy and Roderick invented the term and we just ran with it for fun. I wasn’t expecting it to be a single but it ended up so poppy and fun that it made the cut. I don’t think that social media has anything to do with it. There have been Scene Ballerinas since the beginning of time. It’s just a weird personality type. So silly and obnoxious.
Before ‘Lamaze’ was released, MySpace was the social media of choice while Facebook and Twitter were beginning to gain traction but now, there’s TikTok and algorithms prioritising reels on Instagram… do you find this aspect overwhelming or does this all slot in nicely with your artistic ethos?
Yeah, it took me two and a half hours yesterday just to announce a show because I had to log into 20 different apps and tag everyone lol. So yeah, that can be overwhelming but I’m not ungrateful!!! Social media, like anything else has its pros and cons. It’s just bigger and faster. You can reach more people but good luck holding anyone’s attention. I think every artist over the age of 25 has a love-hate relationship with it because it’s real / not real and emotions and expectations get tangled up into algorithms and AI. I find it to be neutral in the artistic sense. Good and evil depending on how you look at it. I think it’s just an energy, like money. Best to not overthink it and play with the fun of it all. Because as much as I like to talk shit about it, my Instagram feed is full of probably the funniest memes on the planet and I find it deeply entertaining at times so there you go. I’m a tool like everyone else.
Walter Gropius said “Today’s luxuries are tomorrow’s norm” but has the world become more culturally ignorant despite it getting smaller due to the indirect consequence of smart tech becoming ubiquitous?
Great question! It’s such a fascinating phenomenon. Things getting smaller when everything gets bigger. Or slower when the world speeds up. Isn’t it crazy to think that art and music looked and sounded sooooo drastically different between the 1960-1980 verses 2004-2024. I think technology is creating the illusion of things speeding up but everyone is oddly slowing down as a result. At least as far as culture goes. And when it comes to ignorance? I don’t know if people are more ignorant as much as they place less value on things because of the amount of accessibility we have to it all at any given time with little effort and little investment.
Yeah, everything is going to shit but it’s always been going to shit. I think the pendulum swings but now the swing will be more subtle and unconscious / abstract. I believe that we will start to crave a deeper and more meaningful connection to things and each other which will tip things over in time. It will never be like how it was in the past. I’m rambling here. Probably not making any sense but I do believe it is the duty of the artist to keep making art regardless of it all and to strive to be authentic. Otherwise humanity is lost.
Have you any fears as an artist with the advent of AI and seemingly more conservative attitudes being shouted out louder than ever?
So much of that is outside of my scope. But I think about it often. I’m fascinated by it all.
Back to the pendulum, it will always swing left and right as long as we believe in the binaries of good and evil. Duality processors lol. I’m convinced AI is nothing more than parasitic intelligence or a self-cannibalising mechanism of the collective unconscious feeding back and eating itself alive.
What are your hopes? Can music, art and chaos energy save mankind?
Music and Art is the only thing that can. It is the only thing that has this far. Without it we would have destroyed ourselves thousands of years ago.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Geneva Jacuzzi
Additional thanks to Frankie Davison at Stereo Sanctity
US independent label Dais Records are on a roll with a roster now including acts such as KITE, TR/ST, ADULT. and DRAB MAJESTY; the latest signing is Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Geneva Jacuzzi.
With a detached Eurocentric poise reminiscent of Gina X, her oeuvre includes not just music, but performance art, live theatre, installations, set design, costume, makeup and set decoration. Her full length debut came in 2010 with ‘Lamaze’ which was assembled from various lo-fi recordings and demos made over the years. Featuring the eerie synthpop of ‘Casket’ and the dysfunctional disco lento of ‘Cannibal Babies’, her second more polished long player ‘Technophelia’ followed in 2016.
‘Triple Fire’ is her third full-length album which she has primarily written and produced with the additional input of a cast including Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs. It is something she has described “as a hit parade of wildcard synthpop and sly post-apocalyptic camp” as well as “the record that’s going to save mankind”. While all these cheeky proclamations are in the name of art, what Geneva Jacuzzi does definitely possess is catchy hooks in her own surrealist world.
With chunky New York disco influences, the opening salvo ‘Laps Of Luxury’ presents propulsive art pop in the sultry vein of Jyl. More detached but revealing some squawky guitar, ‘Art Is Dangerous’ is Geneva Jacuzzi’s joyous celebration of the art community and its potential for cultural subversion.
Produced by Andrew Clinco of coldwave exponents and label mates DRAB MAJESTY, ‘Speed Of Light’ is jagged and more nonchalant vocally while displaying an enigmatic demeanour, ‘Nu2U’ introduces a deep groove. Brilliantly catchy, ‘Dry’ is alluring danceable synthpop but although it goes weirdly discordant halfway through, it works as it highlights the song’s lyrical gist about dating disconnection following being ghosted.
In ‘Scene Ballerina’, there are cascading modular lines and even jazz piano inflections over the strong rhythmic centre while ‘Take It Or Leave It’ provides glorious new wave pop. ‘Keep It Secret’ adds mystery and a chill to an offbeat bounce with a feline touch recalling Eartha Kitt.
With a vintage drum machine backbone and understated vocals sections duelling with a bizarre gothic backdrop, ‘Rock and A Hard Place’ is oddball and fun in the manner of Lene Lovich, before ‘Bow Tie Eater’ gets some electro funk in to provide another flavour.
The playful ‘Heart Full Of Poison’ parties like its 1983 and could be a synthier Cyndi Lauper but then there’s a sax break to authenticate that desired effect. ‘Yo-Yo Boy’ provides a moody conclusion to ‘Triple Fire’ with cascading synths and Geneva Jacuzzi’s vocal both appropriately soothing.
With Geneva Jacuzzi herself saying the album is “Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually it deconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft”, ‘Triple Fire’ is enjoyably quirky in its delightfully odd mix of accessible electronic pop and energetic art chaos.
Since releasing their first EP in 2008, Sweden’s KITE have steadily grown in stature with fans including Vince Clarke.
After six acclaimed numbered EPs, the most recent being ‘VI’ in 2015 and live appearances in Germany, China and North America, the enigmatic pairing of Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg were on the cusp of a huge international breakthrough having been “Sweden’s best kept pop secret”.
While the striking Stenemo is a charismatic front man capable of the occasional high kick, the more reserved Berg paints a Rick Wakeman-like figure in charge of his multiple keyboard stacks; the latter comparison is quite apt as the ‘KITE On Ice’ spectacular at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena in February 2025 has already sold out.
However, with their first record label seemingly intent on playing at arrested development with their prize asset (something that other acts on that same label subsequently suffered from) and then a stress related illness afflicting Stenemo in 2017, KITE had to cancel activities and their inevitably career stalled.
After a period of recovery and recuperation, KITE made their triumphant live return in 2019 with a three night residency at Stockholm’s Slaktkyrkan. As momentum was steadily regained, the duo released ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ in 2020, their first new material since ‘Demon & Shame’ in 2017; another five singles have since followed.
Now after prestigious appearances at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Dalhalla open air amphitheatre and the Amphi Festival, with European + US tour dates arranged for 2024, it is timely that KITE finally release their first full-length studio album on the American independent label Dais Records. As their seventh body of work and following on from the numbered series of EPs, the appropriately titled ‘VII’ contains music from their seven most recent singles released over the past seven years.
Four of the tracks were co-produced with Benjamin John Power, best known as Scared Bones artist BLANCK MASS and a founder member of experimental electronic duo F*CK BUTTONS. Despite being more associated with a much heavier aggressive instrumental sound as exemplified by his own ‘D7-D5’ and ‘Death Drop’, Power appears to have relished pushing a couple of his own pop buttons.
‘VII’ starts with an extended drone intro that may initially confuse listeners, but ‘Remember Me’ is a strident lengthy opening salvo, as if a return to innocence. It documents a battle for hope and resilience born out of “the struggle” of the worldwide pandemic that morphs into an exhilarating epic.
Another pandemic song, ‘Changing’ refers to a “Destination unknown / Without a vision”; reminiscent of ‘I Can’t Stand‘ from the ‘V’ EP, it owes its rumbling backbone to BLANCK MASS. Continuing the theme, ‘Hand Out The Drugs’ provides a huge wonderwall of synthesizers, throbbing beats and full of majestic melodies, it’s another BLANCK MASS co-production which captures the longing for fun and escapism in a locked-down world.
Named after the two small towns in the historical Swedish province of Småland that Berg and Stenemo respectively grew up in, ‘Tranås/Stenslanda’ possesses a lush introspection. And when an emotionally charged Stenemo hits the high notes and responded to by Berg’s gorgeous swirling synth, there is a melancholic grit that is also strangely uplifting in a manner that Scandinavians always seem to excel at. It celebrates the liberating escape that music provides with the profound line “now headphones can cover that hurt”.
A song about “the war between energies”, ‘Don’t Take The Light Away’ places Stenemo’s wounded croon over a tide of stabbing strings, galloping percussion and surging bass, the chanted chorus simultaneously coming over desperate yet triumphant.
Dominated by a melodic stabbing riff, the celebratory pop rave of ‘Teenage Bliss’, sees KITE explore youthful innocence and reminiscences, recalling their earlier songs like ‘Ways To Dance’ and ‘Jonny Boy’. The dynamic combination of KITE and BLANCK MASS is wonderfully hymn-like, with Stenemo’s bittersweet revelation that “life is not like your first kiss…”
Now if Ennio Morricone composed music for Nordic Noir dramas, it would sound like ‘Demons & Shame’. Shaped by a ritualistic drum mantra and brooding bass drones, it confronts the despair that life occasionally throws up while pursuing visions and dreams as Stenemo screams his frustration over Berg’s epic soundscape.
Then like a slice of Nordic gospel, ‘Glassy Eyes’ confronts the turmoil of existential anxiety while befitting its title, ‘Bocelli’ is almost operatic, sombre yet impassioned with backing from the symphonic school of Vangelis.
The hypnotic ‘Bowie ’95’ takes in midlife angst where you are “Supposed to know politics when you’re 46” but are “some light years away from this”; it was 1995 that David Bowie regained his artistic credibility with the ‘1.Outside’ album co-produced by Brian Eno after his ‘Glass Spider’ sins. With an intense BLANCK MASS assisted wall of sound, it is a call to return to self-expression rather than continuing to satisfy others to one’s own detriment.
Self-produced by KITE with Daniel Fagerström, ‘Panic Music’ is fierce. But while the neo-gothic textures are present and correct, Christian Berg further explores his fascination for electronic drones and swoops while there is also the surprise of a guitar solo in the middle eight.
Almost acapella at its start, ‘Losing’ is shaped by doomy piano chords to accompany an anguished vocal from Stenemo in deep harmony with Henric de la Cour as they see “dark skies on the rise”. As immense rhythms and synthetic sweeps creep in, the haunting canvas is dominated with fraught ad libs from Anna Von Hausswolff.
Originally recorded as the love theme to Titus Paar’s dystopian action thriller ‘The Perfect Weapon’ starring Steven Seagal, ‘Hopelessly Unholy’ is aesthetically cinematic, making fine use of traditional orchestrations arranged by Jonas Valfridsson. There is the emotive air of Hans Zimmer in the majestic arrangement, although a fading metronomic pulse of synth coming over like a tracking beacon provides an offset.
Photo by Jonas Andersson
As the wall-of-sound mood piece ‘Hum Hum’ closes proceedings, the question must be asked whether this collection of seven singles works as an album? Documenting a period of trials and tribulations for a duo who have endured an existential crisis, then ‘VII’ does the job and tells a story via its aural diaries. Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg are now back where there should have been.
In that time, KITE’s sound has got bigger and more ambitious, so naturally it is time to experience their mystic wonderland within bigger and more ambitious settings. Across its 70 minutes, ‘VII’ more than showcases the power and the glory of KITE.
‘VII’ is released on 9 August 2024 by Dais Records as a double vinyl LP in a variety of colour combinations, CD and download, available via https://found.ee/kitevii
KITE 2024 US + European dates include:
Richmond VA Fallout (28 August), Baltimore MD Metro Gallery (29 August), Brooklyn NY Murder of Crows Festival (30 August), Boston MA Middle East Upstairs (31 August), Berlin Hole 44 (18 September), Bielefeld Forum (19 September), Hamburg Reeperbahn Festival (20 September), Copenhagen Vega (21 September), Dortmund JunkYard (24 September), Cologne Gebäude 9 (24 September), Frankfurt Nachtleben (25 September), Nuremberg Club Stereo (26 September), Prague Futurum Bar (27 September), Atlanta GA The Masquerade Altar (9 October), Tampa FL Absolution Festival (10 October), San Francisco CA DNA Lounge (11 October), Los Angeles Cold Waves LA Showcase (13 October), Portland OR Star Theater (15 October), Chicago IL Beat Kitchen (16 October), Austin TX Elysium (17 October), Dallas TX Tassel (18 October), Minneapolis MN Ground Zero (19 October), Madison WI Crucible Madison (20 October), London Downstairs at the Dome (21 November)
With nine acclaimed long players to their name, ADULT. issued their most recent album ‘Becoming Undone’ as a doomy discordant statement capturing “something that’s falling apart”.
In a 23 year career, Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus first came to wider attention with ‘Hand To Phone’ in 2001. Presenting a stark response to their surroundings, the dystopian demeanour of ADULT. remains as vital as ever as their living art project continues to evolve.
Although 2013’s ‘The Way Things Fall’ possessed an unexpected accessibility and 2017’s ‘Detroit House Guests’ saw the Detroit synth-punk duo open their doors to outside collaborators, this new body of work is more personal, embroiled in pain and bereavement while created in isolation during a state of flux with a healthy acceptance of destruction.
ADULT. kindly took time out from a hectic and intense European live tour to have a quick chat with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about ‘Becoming Undone’ and the development of their dark dance aesthetic…
Thematically and conceptually, how does ‘Becoming Undone’ differ from previous ADULT. albums?
In working on a new album, we always try to approach the process differently. For instance, the last album ‘Perception IS/AS/OF Deception’ was written in a black void with minimal equipment at hand for the demos. ‘This Behavior’ was written in a remote cabin in the woods. ‘Why Bother?’ was more soundtrack oriented and based on serial killers and cult leaders.
In our latest album ‘Becoming Undone’, it was literally written out of pure necessity to try to emerge out of the liminal state we were put in through the pandemic. We did not control the concept on this record – the world did. So there is a lot more dissonance and looping motifs in this record, rhythm is stronger than melody as there was no harmony in the world as we wrote it. This album was a mirror to the world land life in general.
‘Becoming Undone’ has been described as capturing “something that’s falling apart”?
Well, we wrote the album during the pandemic when everything was falling apart. Massive amount of people were dying of the virus and Nicola‘s father passed away (not from Covid, but during the pandemic). We had lost all of our tours and all of our income. Then as we were trying once again to get into the writing process, the ex-loser President of the United States decided to try to do his big lie and steal the election, followed by the insurrection on the US Capitol – sooooo everything really was falling apart and we felt to album should mirror that.
As well as synths, ‘Becoming Undone’ sees vocal loop pedals added to the tech armoury, what attracted you to using these?
One of the main things we like about analog equipment (which is 97% of our studio) is the different interfaces they have and the different abilities to move between control and arbitrary experimentation. We both find vocal loop pedals very non-intuitive (as opposed to something from Roland, which we understand easily the way the gear works). So for us, the looper gave us a chance to not be in control, to come up with some layers or parts to songs that we normally would not come up with. It added randomness to the songs.
The music has ramped up percussively and ‘Our Bodies Weren’t Wrong’ comes with a fitting EBM backdrop, had there been any inspiration from having worked previously with Douglas J McCarthy of NITZER EBB?
NITZER EBB has always been a major influence for the both of us. It was one of the few bands when we met years ago that we really had in common. The music on the new album ‘Becoming Undone’ has become more and more percussive because we included electronic pads, not only to the writing process, but to the live set as well. This came out of many different reasons, but one was that we figured after the pandemic, people were going to be ready to rage and as London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities have proven – that is very true!
THROBBING GRISTLE have been cited as an influence on the album with ‘Normative Sludge’ examining the delusional nature of the Instagram / Tik Tok generation, why was this such an inspirational source for you?
THROBBING GRISTLE is one of our favorite bands and it not only comes down to the quality of the songs but also the way they do not fit into any single genre. They came up with a name for their own genre (Industrial) which must have been very liberating until it was stolen from them for idiots like Marilyn Manson. Going back to this idea of things falling apart, THROBBING GRISTLE is so good at having songs that sound like they’re falling apart. As we wanted to discuss the ideas of collapse, they were an obvious inspiration.
Although there is less melody this time round, do you think ‘Undoing / Undone’ and ‘I Am Nothing’ could be considered quite classic ADULT. songs?
The only way to know if something will be classic is to allow time to pass. For us, everything on this new album is too close to us right now to dissect.
Industrial S&M looms on ‘I, Obedient’, is society too submissive now?
Society is an awfully big word. Of course there are parts of society that are too submissive and there are parts of society that are resisting. Always resisting.
‘Teeth Out Pt. II’ is a doomy aural collage of drones like a symbol of decay, how did the track come together?
This is one of those magical tracks where we got the new looper and we had absolutely no idea how to operate it. Adam always reads manuals but Nicola never does and that brings two different approaches to the song writing process. So Nicola just started immediately working with the pedal and suddenly there were three or four really beautiful layers counterpointing each other. When we came back to the demo months later, we were shocked it was almost complete as it was. We even tried adding drum machines to the song but in the end it became our first song ever without any beats!
What are your hopes and fears for the future, you have talked about how “Humans have always been pretty terrible”?
We have no hopes for the future and we have many fears like everyone right now, but at the end of the day we just have to be present – at least try to. Living in the moment seems to be the most important thing right now. We played a pretty insane show in Brussels two weeks ago and there was this 9 year old girl that was the daughter of one of the volunteers at the venue that befriended us during the evening and after the show she came up to Nicola and said “Do you know what I liked about your show? You just went for it!” That’s our current motto for this time and place in time.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to ADULT.
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