Antigen Shift
Verified Unidentified
Artoffact
The product not only of a reworked incarnation of longstanding Ottawa act Antigen Shift, but also of that incarnation lying fallow for eight or so years before reactivating, Verified Unidentified feels like a twice-compounded distillation of the project Nick Thériault began at the turn of the century. Time, consideration, and effort have clearly gone into its varied approaches to a range of (predominantly instrumental) post-industrial sounds, but it’s also a record that is built upon the years that Thériault and fellow member Jairus Khan (Ad·ver·sary) have spent in the industrial trenches as both fans and producers, and the result is a career high-water mark for both men.
While the album’s yen for bright timbral colour and snappy dynamics between synth programming and rhythm (eschewing the august solemnity of much Tympanik-era technoid) will be familiar to those who checked out Brotherhood, the pair’s first LP together back in 2014, you don’t need to have any preceding experience with Antigen Shift to appreciate all of the different sub-genres and niche styles they spin their approach towards. The genomes which crossed over into powernoise from Dutch hardcore and its ilk in the early 00’s can be caught in the fluttering high-BPM gallop of “Orokana Guru”, while the most cinematic and ambitious outgrowths of electro-industrial take flight on “ResiStance”.
Sounds much more proximal to Antigen Shift in particular are also excavated on Verified Unidentified. The title track’s expert interplay between bright leads and finely chopped rolling toms feels of a piece with friend and erstwhile collaborator Yann Faussurier’s work in Memmaker, while fellow Ottawan Matt Gifford sounds right at home in the slinky, harmonic soup of “The Fog”, recalling the savvy build and release of any number of Encephalon slow-burners. To wit, there’s something distinctly Canadian about Verified Unidentified, and Antigen Shift proudly show that “Canadian” doesn’t have to be a synonym for “Vancouver school” in industrial.
Despite its madcap tour through just about every sound and style to have made a dent on the collection industrial consciousness since Thériault and Khan each began their own work, there’s enough personality and colour in Verified Unidentified to keep it unified and reflective of their shared history. That samples from Villeneuve’s beautiful Arrival sit alongside those from the dude of Ancient Aliens meme infamy (yes, exactly the guy you’re thinking of) might seem a glib point, but there’s something to be taken from that about how Thériault and Khan connect personally to the history of bleepy music that’s interested in aliens and robots. Yes, it’s ambitious and grand, but it’s also ultimately human and grounded. Highly recommended.
