CZARINA 06/09/2021 CZARINA 06/09/2021

IRVING FORCE - Sedatives

IRVING FORCE is a synthwave-adjacent artist from Stockholm, Sweden. His style has been a characterful mix of influences from 80s soundtracks, contemporary electronic music, rock and metal, with his black metal roots occasionally showing through. His music has offered an unique mix of kicking rhythms, hard riffs, memorable synth leads and a certain kind of playfulness and ability to smoothly incorporate sudden twists and turns to his music. His work has leaned alternatively on more cyberpunk aesthetics or 80s splatter vibes.

Starting from 2015 onwards, Irving Force has built a rather extensive discography consisting of the Violence Supressor EP, a great many singles, and soundtracks to the adventure game Awaken Alone and the tabletop RPG SIGMATA and a single LP. The 2018’s Godmode album showed Irving Force’s talent at making powerful, fun, cool music that seamlessly wove together a diverse set of influences for an experience like no other. It remains one of my favorite albums that has come out of the synthwave movement.

Sedatives is Irving Force’s newest...yeah...what exactly is it? A single? An EP? Something else? Irving Force himself speaks of “the yellow glove sequence” of tracks which consists of Sedatives, Backroom Surgery, Touch the Corpse and Waste Management Confidential which Irving Force released over the course of several months. At Bandcamp they are their own singles, but at Spotify each release had incorporated the previous tracks, building upon each other, with Sedatives reaching an EP length and being labeled such at Spotify.

It’s an interesting solution, albeit perhaps a bit confusing one, and one that certainly breaks old conventions. But in a digital world, do the old conventions even have their place anymore? One could accuse this kind of approach of catering to algorithms, but with the music being as abrasive as it is and how Irving Force released the slow-burner, obvious-outro feeling Waste Management Confidential first, I find it hard to believe that he is catering to anybody or anything but his own vision and fans.

Due to the way it’s structured, I find myself mentally treating Sedatives as an EP, or at least some kind of cohesive whole, as the four tracks of the “yellow glove sequence” each have similar sounds, themes and, indeed, artwork. The visual aesthetics are fantastic, harking back to Godmode’s effective choice of colors and very stylish arrangement of images and text. At the heart of all the covers is a photo of a hand clad in a long, yellow glove grasping an object: a bag of waste, a bloody skull, and in the case of Sedatives, a very, very large syringe. There is a big bio/gorepunk vibe to it all, and indeed, the “yellow glove sequence” feels like something grown at a lab, the DNA of one track diving and mutating into another.

Production-wise, the release is top notch. I had felt like the couple of singles he had released before the “yellow glove sequence” were decent enough, but that Irving Force really wasn’t bringing his A-game. On Sedatives he is back at full force. The songs hit hard but retain dynamics and a certain intricacy and attention to detail. The choice of sounds are strong yet fun and varied, and each track has a distinct yet coherent sonic identity of its own. It’s as good as Godmode or perhaps even better.

Sedatives begins with it’s titular track, opening with pulsing, oozing basslines, swirly synth sweeps and a down-tuned speech sample. A kick drum comes in to carry the song, and ominous spoken word lyrics begin pouring out, the voice occasionally mutating into snippets of speech samples, painting gloomy pictures of bio-mechanical, psychological, corporate horror: “You are a funnel, aspiring asset....wither away in the absence of adversity, manifest stress, depression, anxiety...stocks plummet as the muscles convulse, timing the heartbeat to a post-human pulse”. A repeat of the word “anxiety” leads to the first chorus of the song, with the line “and they sell you their sedatives” repeating over and over again, a slurry of ultra detuned synths, blasts of heavy percussion, sharp guitars and voice samples of agony bombarding the listener. The second verse retains heavier percussion, leading into the second chorus which features the wailing, tortured, detuned synths in a prominent role. A brief interlude leads into the last chorus where Irving Force now screams over and over again “and they sell you their sedatives”, another quick interlude giving a brief pause before one last repeat of the chorus before the song abruptly ends with a choppy, glitch sample of a man yelping in pain. One of my favorites from the EP for it’s wonderfully inventive and sinister sound.

Klangy, rolling, metallic bassline opens up Backroom Surgery. A steady beat carries the song through it’s intro and a curious synthline occasionally looms in the background. The song lurches forward in starts and stops, samples punctuating it’s biomechanical march that builds into a sinister mix of propulsive bass, panicked samples and machine noises. Soon enough the song finds itself in a section that blasts the listener with a mix of orchestra hits and hard rhythm guitars which leads into an even harder section with ultra gnarly synths and guitars marching over a pummeling beat. A brief buildup featuring a mix of earlier elements and a resonant synth arp that races upwards follows, leading into another very heavy section, which leads into another section featuring the orchestra hits. The song ends with an ultra heavy pummeling, this time with new percussive elements and distressing, breathy swooshes lurking in the background. A perfect example of Irving Force’s ability to weave interesting song structures and subtle background elements into very hard hitting electronic metal tracks.

Touch the Corpse is the most metal-influenced track on Sedatives, opening with a computerized male voice insisting that he wants to “touch the corpse”. The song wastes no time, blasting into an extreme-metal influenced mix of rapid beats, chuggy guitars and screamed vocals. Buzz Saw-like synths back the guitars and drums. Irving Force screams about some kind of an AI-entity that wishes to gather information from the human dead. The relatively brief songs convulses and contorts through faster and slower passages, with occasional robotic voice samples and sound effects punctuating the track. A simple but powerful track, with the relative lack of audio flourishes giving space for Irving Force’s bone-withering vocal delivery.

A slow, pulsing bassline and passes of ambient sounds opens up Waste Management Confidential, a track that features a slow, steady buildup towards it’s climax. A steady beat joins in, as do distant, choir-like pads and brief passages of high-pitched synths. A different kind of bassline takes the place of the previous one, and down-tuned, lo-fi synth chords pulse in the background. The chords fade away and a resonant synth arp takes their place. The drums drop away, and after a while the song starts building up energy again. A moment of silence follows the buildup, and the song explodes into life with new vigor, this time joined in with guitars and passes of synth hits that almost sound like the whistle of a steam train. A breakdown follows, featuring a more chuggy rhythm follows, only for the song to build into its steady course again, this time featuring another resonant, sharp synth arpeggio alongside the guitars and drums. With this the song ends, and the EP with it. Another favorite from the release for it’s wonderful atmosphere and how it builds up.

Sedatives is a brief, but wonderful release from Irving Force. The grimy bio-punk aesthetic is fresh and wonderfully executed here. Irving Force has managed to coax out an entirely new realm of dystopian sounds in a scene that has been exploring the cyberpunk flavored sonic territories for quite a while now. It really doesn’t sound much like anything else out there at the moment.

I would have loved to hear a full-length album of this type of material. To my ears, this is the best material Irving Force has put out since Godmode and one of the best releases of 2021 so far. Extremely recommended for all synth heads who can also digest the metal influences, and for all the metal fans who can take the synth influence. Fans of industrial music might find some similarity, perhaps even influence, within the chuggy machine rhythms and tormented voice samples of the EP. This is a release to be celebrated and cherished.

For more IRVING FORCE, visit irvingforce.bandcamp.com

CZARINA 26/08/2021 CZARINA 26/08/2021

DRIVER86 - True Romance, Pt. 2

DRIVER86 is a retrowave producer from Finland. His style leans towards the dreamwave style, a slower, emotional, atmospheric subgenre. Driver86’s music has a very strong nocturnal, romantic, slightly melancholic vibe to it, often feeling like slowly cruising in a car with your lover at night while it’s raining. He has produced both instrumental music and tracks featuring guest vocalists, with some pieces also featuring guest saxophonists. From 2019 onwards he has released a handful of singles and two EPs: True Romance Part 1 and 2, with a planned third and final part of the trilogy coming sometime in the future.

True Romance Pt. 2 sees Driver86 move towards a somewhat more synthetic and vocal-driven direction compared to the first EP. The saxophones are still present but play a slightly less prominent role than on the first EP, and this time around we are treated to two tracks featuring a guest singer. The overall sound is still very laid-back, but also slightly brighter than on the first EP.

The production side of things is perfectly competent for the style, rather minimalistic and definitively on the retro side of retrowave. This sounds for most part music that could have well existed in late 80s. The vocals on the tracks with them are very forward, but the performances are so good that they deserve it. On a purely personal level, I think a more lo-fi approach and really leaning into the late 80s vibe could have worked well. Running this to a cassette and then back could have given the music a bit more texture. But even as this is, it’s a marked improvement production-wise from the first EP.

The aesthetics of the album art lean on well-established retrowave tropes, but are done with taste and are absolutely on point for the music. There’s a car parked amidst mist, impossible to tell quite where exactly, the mist blooming the lights of the environment into a hazy light show. I think it captures the vibe of the album very well.

The album begins with the soft synth strings and heartbeat sample of Heartbeat. Hollow, plucked synths, bright arps and a slow steady beat and bassline come in. A high-pitched synth plays a wistful melody for a while before the song strips away the drums, leaving a mix of plucked synths, bass and synth strings to float. After a while the beat comes back, and this time the track is joined by a saxophone serving as a lead instrument. The sax and synths sketch a romantic mood perfect for seaside evenings before the track ends after a while.

1000 Miles Away opens with an airy up-and-down synth pattern and bass arps. The singing of Jeremy Rowe, the guest vocalist, comes in and the track blossoms to life. Twinkly synths sparkle in the background. Working on an inverted pop formula, the song begins with the chorus. After each chorus the verses strip away some instruments before building up to the chorus again. Jeremy sings of longing after a loved one who feels, as one can gather from the title, “a thousand miles away”. The last verse and chorus feature saxophone. A fantastic cut of soft 90s style pop. Jeremy has a great voice that fits the music very well.

A bass arp that is much heavier than anything before on this album and kick drums serve as the intro to Heat of Love. The track is a bit faster and more energetic, featuring a bouncy synth line that sketches a kind of bittersweet, slightly melancholic mood while the bass and drums keep the pace danceable. The choruses feature a bright lead dancing with the bouncy synth. The track builds up various extra elements along the way, flourishes of twinkling arps and alterations to the bouncy synthline. Eventually the bassline drops out, then the drums, and the track fades out.

Like Crazy begins with bassy synth pads and sweeps of synth strings. The tender singing of Olivia Zulke, the guest vocalist on this track, come in and is then doubled by another vocal track. Drums come in, and Olivia puts a bit more force behind her voice. The track alters between these heavier sections and lighter ones where she sings in a bit more airy, tender way. Her performance and the way the vocals have been layered is top notch, conveying melancholy and pain of a romance that is not working out. The instrumental side of things is very minimal, but for the better as Olivia’s performance is so good.

The album ends with You. Sparse hits of bass synths, swirly synth strings and plucked synths lead to the track. A slow beat comes in, and high-pitched crystalline synthline backs up the plucked synths. Here too, the vibe is of bittersweet melancholy. The track strips down some elements, a different, lower, melody comes in, and the track starts building itself back together. Eventually saxophone comes in, casting a melody over the synths and drums for a while until the track strips down the drums, leaving just the saxophone and the synths before the track ends and with it the EP.

With True Romance Pt. 2, Driver86 has evolved his sound while retaining the identity he established with his first EP. He also has demonstrated skill in choosing guest artists and producing for them, giving enough space for their performances. Dreamwave might be the name of his game, but I think he has the makings of a retro pop producer in him.

I recommend checking out at least 1000 Miles and Like Crazy if you are interested in vocal synth pop. As for the EP as a whole, fans of dreamwave, those looking for something laid-back for the coming autumn and those who remain true romantics at heart will enjoy this EP.

For more DRIVER86, visit driver86.bandcamp.com

Press Release 17/08/2021 Press Release 17/08/2021

US3R - Colors

Seattle-based electronic artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Kristian Alexander, aka US3R, has been hacking pop music by creating unconventional sounds and weaving them into dystopian lyrical themes. Described as a combination of Justice, Daft Punk, The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, and Disclosure, his music feels familiar yet counters conformities and breaks fresh grounds. He also has a striking approach to his visuals and live performances — particularly the most recent one at the Static Realms’ Synthamania festival, where US3R cloned himself several times to perform each instrument in his songs.

US3R’s recent album INFLUENCE was created as the “Black Mirror” of electronic music. The other-worldly, grungy concept album explores social commentary about modern love, acceptance, and belonging in the era of social media, where people’s worth is measured by likes and followers.

In early 2020, the INFLUENCE Tour saw US3R playing shows across North America, before the global pandemic forcefully shut down the live music industry. Ever since, musical innovator US3R has leveraged his background in tech. Recently, US3R decided to use AI technology to explore a new frontier of AI-generated music, giving “hacker pop” a whole new meaning. The result is in his latest single, “Colors” - a smooth, vibrant electro pop track that brings holographic and colorful spectrum of images to mind, leaving a sonic trail of Aurora Borealis. We asked US3R to write about this unique experience.

About ten years ago, I set off to write a piece of software that would perpetually improvise music according to a variety of input parameters. I could change the beat and tempo, the genre of the music, the backing chords and layered lead melodies. My vision for that project was to be able to generate royalty free music as a service. Back then, my toy software project seemed innocent. I had no idea what would happen in music just a few years later.

Over the last couple years, there has been an explosion in the pace of advancement in machine learning and other AI technologies. Now, apps predict our every move, ML generates the articles we read, and sophisticated predictive modeling helps us rapidly find new treatments for diseases. Naturally, the creative technologies in the world wanted to apply this technology to music. With projects like Google Magenta AI, researchers were able to generate a whole new Nirvana song by using data from past Nirvana lyrics, chords, and melodies to train the new models. The scientific and music communities were shocked and amazed by the rapid advancement of music AI.

But what will we do when AI generative music is used for less benign purposes? As we saw in 2021 with the #FreeBritney movement, we learned that teams of people are more than willing to exploit artists with their likeness, their brand, and their fan bases to create a product to sell, even when the artist themselves do not consent to it. Like something straight out of Black Mirror, I believe we are at the edge of a new horizon in music where computers are no longer just tools to produce music. Instead, we are rapidly coming to grips with a new reality where AI may be, at best, accompanying the songwriting process, and at worst, replacing the artist altogether.

I wrote Colors to plant a flag in the ground and get a conversation started about what it means to use AI in music. Specifically, in Colors, I used neural networks to generate sets of lyrics that I could use in a new song. Once those lyrics were solidified, I attempted to compose music and feelings around those lyrics. In other words, US3R was the accompanying artist, and the AI was the centerpiece. At times, the phrases used in the songs felt alien; they contained phrases and sequences of words that I would never say as a human being. But, resisting the urge to polish the lyrics too much, I embraced these weird moments as evidence of the uncanny valley in the music - weirdness that is itself a byproduct of the robot - it was something unique that the AI was bringing to the table that I could not.

For more US3R - Visit us3r.bandcamp.com

KIZUNAUT 16/08/2021 KIZUNAUT 16/08/2021

KIZUNAUT

I am Oskari Lappalainen, aka KIZUNAUT, a 32-years old musician and writer for Absynth among other things which include my administrative dayjob. I started Kizunaut in 2017 as a side-project to my back-then two-man band which never really got off the ground. I have been making music since 2008 or so, starting with a solo project, moving to a band that produced a mix of industrial rock and electronica, before moving to another solo project, before moving to another attempt at a band and finally Kizunaut.

These years included a long hiatus during which I mostly focused on my studies. I graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2017 as a Master of Social Sciences, majoring in sociology, with science and technology studies and computer science as minors. I entered the academic world wanting to understand the world and humanity, and left with a sense that neither of these are truly understandable. Nevertheless, I have retained the curious and analytical attitude that led me to my academic detour. These years also gave me experience in writing, both within the courses and to several student magazines. I have utilized these skills in my later ventures.

I am a producer and a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, guitar and singing. I picked up the guitar in late 2020. I had tried to learn guitar from 2011 onwards, but never found the time to do so during my studies and had convinced myself that I could not do it. But one can not escape one’s dreams and inspirations forever, and the Covid isolation had proved the perfect opportunity to learn the guitar. Picking up guitar was an extremely revitalizing experience, and I enjoy playing it tremendously and it has brought new blood to old ideas.

My discography as Kizunaut includes two albums, several singles and the Crisis 2033 EP. This Was The Future (2019) was an album which dealt with dark retrofuturism, hauntology, and a feeling of lost future, a kind of attempt at making sense of the craving for nostalgia which pervaded the cultural atmosphere. The City by the Sea (2020) was about the struggles and joys of modern urban life, an attempt at connecting my emotions of feeling disenchanted with urban life to a larger social sphere.I enjoy making music with some kind of a bigger idea or concept behind it.

My music as Kizunaut has constantly been moving towards a more rock-oriented style. I started off with pure electronic music as at the time I was really inspired by it and had grown somewhat frustrated with my attempts at making industrial rock with other people. This Was the Future incorporated singing and a style of composition that mimicked synthpop and industrial rock while using synths as stand-ins for guitars. Ever since 2021 I have included guitar in my music. I like to have a solid electronic basis in my music, but I also like to incorporate human elements to it. It keeps it from becoming too sterile and stale.

Beyond making music, I enjoy videogames, science fiction, anime, delving into the crazy creative vortex of modern net culture, learning, pondering about the mysteries of existence, reading, eating and spending time with my friends.

My new single Leave Humanity Behind deals with humanity’s dreams of achieving a kind of transcendence through technology, the old dreams of technological singularity. Or perhaps it is technology itself whispering these promises to us? Whatever the case, I find myself critical of such far-fetched dreams so reliant on a force that has proven so unreliable, so impossible to predict, and with such great externalities.

Technology has destroyed as much as it has given, and it has pushed humanity into an unprecedented dialectical spiral: technology creates problems and then creates new technology to try to solve these problems. This has given humanity never seen before advances in many sectors of life, but also irrevocably altered the global biosphere and human culture. Is it all really worth it? Is more technology upon technology really the answer?

Musically it’s inspired by synthwave, synthpop and industrial, with an ever so slight hint of shoegaze and modern electronica in its DNA. Spiraling bass arps, echoing piano, shimmering arps and gritty guitars serve as the instrumental backbone. The track features a heavy layering of instruments, building constantly upon itself much like technology constantly builds upon itself in it’s eternal forwards-going spiral.

The vocals are heavily effected by a mix of a crude autotuning software and extreme distortion: it serves as a sonic counterpart to the lyrical themes of struggling with and doubting technology; a computer program seeking to overpower the human voice. The heavily modulated lead in the chorus also utilizes the same crude autotune software in a way rarely seen. These last creative touches were inspired by Oneotrhix Point Never’s extreme vocal edits.

As for musical inspirations, in general, I draw from several different strands: the 80s pop and 90s eurodance that populated the airwaves of Finland during my childhood, metal music which I got into during the huge metal boom in Finland during early 00s, the oldschool industrial music I discovered through Laibach, which I discovered through getting into Rammstein and Fear Factory as a teen.

I am also influenced by synthwave, which I see kind of encapsulating all of these inspirations and also influences from video game music, and other forms of contemporary music. I particularly enjoy music with strong rhythms, a kind of dark passion, good hooks and depth beyond the surface. There’s such great music in almost all genres, from traditional rock to EDM, dubstep and techno, and you can hear splashes of influence from surprising genres in my music.

Individual artists that have served as major inspiration to me include Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, New Order, HEALTH, Perturbator, Dan Terminus, Carpenter Brut, Irving Force, Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk, Skinny Puppy, Haujobb, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Haujobb, and Nitzer Ebb. The videogame composer Frank Klepacki deserves a special mention. His soundtracks for Command & Conquer and Red Alert introduced me to music that I would later understand to be influenced by 90s industrial and electronic music.

As for the future, during 2021 I have been mostly wrapping up various pieces of music from my vault that would fit to be released as singles. I have had various conflicting ideas for future albums, but there have been also a number of tracks that, while I think they are solid, just do not necessarily to fit into a larger whole. Covid has put life into a kind of pause, and I have tried my best to make use of it and releasing singles and building up connections and expanding the potential listener base have seemed like a good way to spend the time.

More concretely, I have a fun darksynth influenced thing coming in time for Halloween. After that, I have 1-2 more somber, personal pieces coming for the winter, and perhaps a small surprise for the early spring if timetables allow.

Beyond that, I have reached a solid idea for the next album. It will deal with humanity’s relationship with technology through metaphors of attraction, addiction, love, dependency and craving, treating technology as a kind of a living, breathing thing with an almost occult, invisible, but very real power. I feel like humanity’s relationship with technology has become painfully intimate and very confusing, with it shaping much of our relationships and perceptions in ways that we rarely seem to really reflect upon.

I think the dry, academic, economic, ways of talking about technology and its impact on society have failed humanity. The way people reacted sarcastically to Black Mirror which made a valiant attempt at shedding light on potential future courses is symptomatic. We are creatures of narrative, belief and myth, of social relations and personal sentiments. It’s one thing to say that computers have become detrimental to our happiness; another to sing that we are in love with the wrong things in life. I hope I can reach not only fresh musical territory but also perhaps find new ways to speak about certain things with the coming album. If nothing else, it will be a valiant, defiant exercise in being human.

For more KIZUNAUT, visit kizunaut.bandcamp.com