Divider
Zero
Re:Mission Entertainment
Intermittently active LA act Divider’s sound and style remain deceptively complex as ever on their new record. On the surface it’s always been easy enough to parse out and track the classic bass and rhythmic programming of their read on EBM, with their arrangements never feeling cluttered. But the closer attention you pay to how Bryon Wilson and Peter Beal build and adorn their compositions the more you appreciate how they slowly tweak and warp the fundamentals of EBM to a degree rarely heard stateside, a mission which continues with Zero.
One of Divider’s distinguishing strengths continues to be feathering in subtle production choices which’ll be catnip to EBM trainspotters while still keeping things stripped down and immediate. A great example is the combo of acidic filter bass scribbles and boxed in, slightly metallic vocals on the appropriately roaming yet claustrophobic “Cavernous Enclosures”, which feels like a callback to vintage Complete Control Productions releases as well as they heyday of machine rock stoics like Motor. If you either reconnected or got on board with Divider when 2017’s Europäisch-Amerikanische Freundschaft signalled their reactivation, it’s easy to draw a line between that EP’s rock solid minimalism and cuts like “Burning Concrete” on Zero. But again, the devil is in the details, and whether it’s the psychedelic clutter swarming around the lope of “Iodine” or the way the arrangement of “Unmititigated” slowly creeps towards gluttonous excess as more and more tracks are added, Divider’s confidence in bending rules with which they’re intimately familiar makes them all the more distinct and strong.
Zero marks Beal’s first full length as part of Divider and as its vocalist, and he both fits in with the project’s existing ethos and adds a new sense of personality and chaos to it. The meandering yowls and invective which he adds to “Reciprocate” and his laconic stylizing on “Debased” (the latter of which connotes any number of lo-fi garage rock revivalists more than EBM) add a decidedly American cast to a sounds which has previously been indistinguishable from the the European tradition Wilson’s acknowledged his debt to since beginning Divider.
Unlike many contemporary acts who slide classic EBM and techno signifiers in and out of their delivery, there’s no questioning Divider’s deep roots in this thing of ours – having a track on the infamous Deathkey comp should tip you off to their bona fides and milieu. But as Zero proves, Divider aren’t content to stay pat with decades old North American tropes, nor even the motorik approach to body music we’ve heard from their European influences like Haujobb. Zero‘s a great test case for estranging EBM from commonplace assumptions about it while still drawing nourishment from its roots.
