NEMETHFilm(Thrill Jockey)
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Nemeth, who mainly uses synth in Radian, plays electric guitar here too—though everything’s so processed it can be hard to tell what’s what. His washes of controlled feedback and thick, luminous waves of humming resonance hover, throb, and burst, underlined by a hypnotically regular pulse that’s either hammered out on percussion or gently implied by electronics. Bits of dialogue and ambient sound from the films add an extra layer of activity here and there, but the core of the music is a matrix of beautiful long tones on synth and guitar, flecked with subtle repetitions like the clinks of tuning-head harmonics on “Field.” Many of the loops are slippery, snaking through the dominant pulse in a way that makes it hard to pin down when each cycle begins, and this complex interaction between rhythms gives the music its center of gravity—an approach that recalls This Heat, one of Radian’s key influences.
A few passages on Film approach the conventionally cinematic—the tense pileup of piano notes in “Soprus,” for instance—but while I was listening to it, I never once thought it sounded like soundtrack music. That might not seem like a compliment, considering that it actually is soundtrack music, but it’s high praise in my book. —Peter Margasak
Synthetic Division sound more stripped down than many fellow DM disciples, with an unfussiness that sometimes suggests Kraftwerk. Their lyrics are similarly streamlined, and often imply a contempt for people who spend too much time examining themselves or parsing philosophical questions—unusual in a genre that’s so tolerant of sentiment and self-pity, but certainly consistent with Decker’s backstory. (In the chorus of “Count Me Out” he sings, “No need for the divine / No feelings to describe / The suits behind the afterlife can count me out.”) Even “Been There, Done That,” whose title contains most of its lyrics, manages to make a point about spoiled, bored kids—it’s not hard to see why Decker would have so little patience for anybody pissing their precious hours away acting jaded. Synthetic Division don’t make self-indulgent music, and it doesn’t seem they’re too interested in attracting self-indulgent fans either. —Ann Sterzinger
For more on music, see our blogs Crickets and Post No Bills at chicagoreader.com.
