Toronto-based Night Slugs-affiliated producer David Psutka (a.k.a. Egyptrixx) is back with his second effort, A/B til Infinity, following 2011's much praised debut, Bible Eyes. Described as a "multi-media collaboration with Berlin-based visual artist A.N.F.," the album took shape as a soundtrack to A.N.F.'s graphics depicting "molten off-planet environments, strange underground realms and volcanic caves lined with arrays of fluorescent light tubes."
The finished product features a darker, more oppressive sound than Bible Eye's warped synth pop. With atmosphere, repetition and texture given priority over traditional ideas of narrative and song structure, A/B til Infinity is an exercise in sound design more than songwriting. Though precise and at times cold and glassy, the album is by no means a minimalist evocation of a future world of urban decay: standout track "Water" is club-ready, pairing clattering percussion with a liquid bass line, yet remaining within the album's tense atmospheric framework; "Alta Civilization" pulses and builds with lines of icy waveforms all underpinned by a weighty house groove; while the industrial synths on "Bad Boy (reduced)" pound then evaporate into the ether just as quickly as they came.
By shying away from some of the less artful touches of Bible Eyes, A/B til Infinity is more focused, seamlessly enveloping its listener into a fully formed sonic world — one that's at times tense, scary and daunting, but in the end a world that offers many payoffs to those open to fully exploring it.
(Night Slugs)The finished product features a darker, more oppressive sound than Bible Eye's warped synth pop. With atmosphere, repetition and texture given priority over traditional ideas of narrative and song structure, A/B til Infinity is an exercise in sound design more than songwriting. Though precise and at times cold and glassy, the album is by no means a minimalist evocation of a future world of urban decay: standout track "Water" is club-ready, pairing clattering percussion with a liquid bass line, yet remaining within the album's tense atmospheric framework; "Alta Civilization" pulses and builds with lines of icy waveforms all underpinned by a weighty house groove; while the industrial synths on "Bad Boy (reduced)" pound then evaporate into the ether just as quickly as they came.
By shying away from some of the less artful touches of Bible Eyes, A/B til Infinity is more focused, seamlessly enveloping its listener into a fully formed sonic world — one that's at times tense, scary and daunting, but in the end a world that offers many payoffs to those open to fully exploring it.
