Automelodi
Cavallo
Young & Cold Records
It’s been a long wait for the newest release from Montreal synth mavens Automelodi, but bright and densely packed EP Cavallo pays dividends in short order. If one fault could be identified in 2019’s Mirages au Futur Verre-bris, it was that Automelodi main man Xavier Paradis’ finely tuned ear for arrangement and sound design was sometimes too coy, sidestepping pop immediacy for the sake of enveloping moods. There’s no such beating about the bush here, with tracks like “Tout Arracher” going right for the melodic jugular while still keeping all of Automelodi’s points of reference (synthpop, coldwave, italodisco) in the mix. The elan, production, and delivery of the titular lead single brings the likes of art-pop royalty like End Of Data and YMO to mind, while its rushing chimes and melodies point to peak-era Cure. Paradis isn’t married to the past, though, and in the modern freneticism of “Riquet Ne Chante Plus” and the tight minimalism of “Western Sans Serif” one can hear the bright new shades he’s brought to recent production work for Bootblacks and Silent EM. Hooky but with plenty of depth, Cavallo is a masterclass in synth decadence, new and old. Recommended.
SNAKEATSNAKE
Order and Discipline
Balkan Sprachbund Records
Your EBM might be minimal, but is it one digital synth and some metallic percussion minimal? Such is the question posed by Balkan body music act SNAKEATSNAKE on their new LP Order and Discipline, which even by the standards already set by the project is steak tartar raw. That’s not a bad thing though, as the particularly hard-edged sound of the synths, drums and vocals when matched with the lo-fi recordings brings out the charms of SNAKEATSNAKE’s take on classic body music. “Trauma” is little more than one single looping bassline and some clanging sounds placed in the stereo spectrum when stripped down, but it’s also a song that doesn’t need ornamentation. Of course minimal doesn’t always mean simple; there’s a deceptive depth to these arrangement choices, such as how vocals in differing ranges are doubled on “Concrete”, or how the drop to half-time on album closer “Steel Thought” gives the song more carriage. Indeed, the groove on the brief “Grease” has so much grime heaped onto it that it becomes far more than just an insterstitial number, but a tension enhancing lead-up to the breakneck pace of “Final Degree of Tolerance”. Order and Discipline is as rugged as body music gets in a digital age, and lives and dies DIY, as convincingly tough as anything we’ve heard in the style in recent memory.
