The Cure – Disintegration (1989)

A return to form. Robert Smith, The Cure’s frontman, constructed Disintegration with a defeated acknowledgment of his band’s mainstream success. “We’re popular, so let’s make a classic,” seemed to be the thought process.  Released on May 2nd 1989, Disintegration represents the culmination of a cultivated decade – the novel sounds of goth rock born from The Cure’s twangy guitar and exaltive gloomy vocals. In poetic fashion, Robert Smith was torn apart by the inevitable success of Disintegration and wound up trying to piece himself together through rampant hallucinogen and tropane alkaloid use.

The self-fulfilled tragicomedy lives on 29 years later as a seminal goth rock masterpiece worthy of a review. It’s an album with a clear beginning, middle, and end tied together by each song’s evocative instrumental prelude. These preludes average over a minute each in length and assert the album’s charm over previous Cure records with their symphonic violins, synths, and brilliant guitar riffs. The unifying theme behind these instrumentals are the poignant emotions supplanting Smith’s own vocals that burgeon into fully realized anthems after 90 seconds or so of contemplation.

Disintegration opens with the sluggish yet celebratory sounding “Plainsong”, a fitting title for an opener that the rest of the album seems to borrow from and build upon with its various soundpieces. Relaxed dark guitars picking and sliding, chimes and synths, and vocals retrieved from Robert Smith’s deepest ventricles.

“Pictures Of You”, one of three songs on the album that achieved airplay, descends upon the listener with windy chimes.
   I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you
   That I almost believe that they’re real
Smith realizes that, sometimes, love is best realized within one’s head and that the honeymoon phase of internal infatuation can almost feel better than the thing itself.

Inarguably the biggest hit of the album, “Lovesong” is Robert’s wedding gift to his wife. Not a bad gift considering it’s been covered by artists like 311 and Adele. Behind the personal lyrics plays the church organ synth line (reminiscent of “Here Comes The Bride”) backed by the drums playing at 140 BPM which cement the track as a radio hit for years to come.

Next highlight and personal favorite track, “Lullaby” sports a quintessential “college” sound that is perhaps owed to its indie jangle-pop guitars, or perhaps it’s my own personal experience of “right time, right place”. What sounds like a plucked string section is fleshed out by a waltz-esque violin melody – a tight orchestral arrangement of a pop song complemented by lyrics about Spider-Man coming over for dinner.

“Fascination Street” is credited for being perhaps the only banger on the album. The aggressive bassline strikes first and induces five minutes worth of head-bobbing. Around every corner sustained chorus-effect guitars try to break through the bassline barrier but never take center stage.

   Oh, I miss the kiss of treachery
Title track “Disintegration” is a memorable one. Some of the lyrics on this one are so insane that The Cure requisitioned backing vocals from a children’s choir just to make the track sound more human.
   I’m crying for sympathy, crocodiles cry
   For the love of the crowd
   And the three cheers from everyone
   Dropping through sky
   Through the glass of the roof
   Through the roof of your mouth
   Through the mouth of your eye
   Through the eye of the needle
This is the clearest glimpse into Robert Smith’s mind that we’ll ever get.

The darkest hour before dawn, “Homesick”, feels like it’s being yanked out out of Smith’s soul who sounds like he is about to puke from sadness before he can finish the album. I’d be surprised if a single Major key is played during this seven minute track between the compressed, crying guitar and movie-credits jazz piano.  Just one more, Robert, Just one more track.

Which brings us to the final track, “Untitled”. This is what I imagine played for Odysseus and his crew when they returned from the Trojan War. Accordions produce a sea-faring exaltation backed by a relaxed, simple guitar riff glued together by reverberating hi hat rhythms.

For some fans, it’s the album that started it all. For certain The Cure members, it was the beginning of the end. Disintegration’s distinction lies in its instrumentation and Smith’s return to his best self; a dark and moody one. It’s an album that has endured past its gothic-era aesthetic and will continue to endure for years to come.

HKE – HK (2015)

This city has been run by shadow brokers for years now. Mega-city XX’s skyline crawls upward like a tectonic plate, slowly, and appears to arc in on itself with a fisheye lens type effect. Pillars of glass and steel scrape the sky, attempting to leave the biker gangs and gene-splicer syndicates behind. You haven’t seen the sun in days. You’re desperate for cash after your last Old City urbex scrap & sell went sour. There’s only one thing you can do; listen to Hong Kong Express – Hong Kong (2015).

The album opens with a sing-song sort of dialogue between a Chinese man and women perhaps taking a shower together or maybe caught in a lower city downpour. Then suddenly you’re thrown into a hypnagogic dreamstate of teetering tremolo synths – “Ghost”. The production on this track is stellar and best listened to with a pair of headphones as to hear the synths rotating around you in full stereo. “Ghost” is the most intense track on this album with its hard-psych influence and it paints the cityscape perfectly as a cyberpunk head trip.

*Phew* Nothing like a little rainfall ambiance to wash off the uncensored cyber aesthetic from the last track. Second track “Window” plays like a late night downpour with a Tron rendition of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” intro repeating throughout to remind you that you’re still in the future.

The third track “Return of Dreams” is akin to a mega-corp CEO looking down upon “his” city from an impossibly elevated corner office. He watches the red and white veins of traffic miles below and senses the creep of decay rusting away at Mega-Corp HQ. He grows dizzy and falls to his knees. Just then, a cloud rolls over the window…

You finally let the city take you. You’re just too damn hungry and your neighbor has had her TV switched to static for way too long. Into “Shanghai” you go. Distorted traffic signals and night club thumps pound your ears but your tunnel vision aligns you with the noodle stand three blocks down. Pleasure androids and neo-gypsies blight your path but, damn, do you just want some noodles.

Now this buzzing concrete purgatory REALLY has taken you and a “City Killer” you become. This cyberpunk anthem really hits on all points of HK’s concept. Massive doom synths and stereo phasers send you spiraling into trans-humanist imprisonment by the city’s corruption. You can break free, but first you’re going to have kill.

Of course, the motive to kill comes with a price. Upon arriving at the noodle stand you pull out your empty pocket. Neo-gypsies. Six minutes and forty eight seconds after you thirsted for their blood you are shot dead by Thought Police Officer 29178. But as you lay dying, the final track “HK” comes on and gives you one last dose of scintillating deep future sound. You think, “Heh, that wasn’t so bad after all,”. After all, you had just lived a cyberpunk dream.

burger/ink – [las vegas] (1998)

You’d be hard pressed to find a more civilian sounding album than this. [las vegas] plays like a reified traffic-stop and suburban-crawl dreamscape. This is a trip down the road to Target to pick up a new book you’ve only heard good things about. Only pleasure here. No stress of missing a turn or that acrid smoke from the pick-up in front of you turning your eyes red & fiend-like. A real feel-good minimal techno record with beats and textures that’ll make your shoulders shimmy like Kevin Durant.

There are a few nondescript tracks on this one that don’t share the genre-bending leaps into godspace that the highlights have. Filler tracks? Maybe. Record label sanctions? Perhaps. I’ll just stick to the highlights down below.

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“Elvism” catches you emerging from a community pool like a mermaid seductress a la the hottie from Christmas Vacation. The intro sounds like underwater steel drums played by the current itself. The groovy bass comes through about a minute in to get you moving before pebbles start getting skipped across a liquid quartz lagoon in some pastel porcelain cave. Keep in mind these tracks are abstract and so will this review be.

“Flesh & Bleed” fires in next sounding like a cosmic laser gun fight. Dueling green and red sonic blasts firing from 50’s atomic age pistols trade shots to open the cacophony of bouncy blasts that is this song. This is an interesting track in that the drums and melody are sometimes indiscernible lending hand to an encompassing single layer of rhythm and texture. Really groovy beats on this one. 

(image via Doc Atomic’s Attic of Astounding Artifacts)

Next is “Twelve Miles High” coming in at an amusingly dissatisfying eleven minutes and thirty seconds. I may have lied about this album being a totally stress-free exploration of suburbia. This track is tense. Familiar American storefronts and contemporary townhouses are now Bauhaus quadrangles and Brutalist bureau monoliths. Things are intensely neutral and an indistinct paranoia begs you not to talk to anyone. Good track though.

Personal favorite “The Jealous Guy From Memphis” is on the tail end of the album. This track just builds and builds and builds. Every measure adds one more nuance, one more subtlety. Excitement mounts itself like a Neumann pancake stack. An intense headspace of comforting civilian feeling, no images really come to mind with the subdued piano riffs growing like an overdue volcano. The drums just slap concrete floors from long range and you’re fine with it.  Only justice, only pleasure.

Great for getting work done, great for a solo drive through your neighborhood. Minimal techno without a droning sense of doom. Masterful production working as texture – This is [las vegas] from 1998.

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)

The first time you listen to Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (SAW) you might feel unsettled, not by the artist’s intention but because you’ll be wondering, “Where have I heard these sounds before?”. The sounds of SAW evoke nostalgic memories of late 90’s – early 00’s video games, visions of industrial England and all the time you spent wondering what a rave inside of a drum machine might look like (the ravers in this case being sentient silica components).

Like any self-respecting classic, SAW opens with a hot track ‘Xtal’ which sounds like waking up from a long forgotten dream. Your friends are waiting for you to get in the car so that the night can finally begin. The next highlight is ‘Pulsewidth’ which welcomes you in with reverberating, slapping synths. This is your ticket into the rave. The synthetic bass repeats itself until building into a mini funk solo before the song fades out the same way it opened, letting you know that you’re in friendly familiar hands.

Hot track after hot track! The next track ‘Ageispolis’ is arguably the catchiest song with its cutesy crystalline chimes. Doppler effect synth keys carry the rest of the song. Vaguely mysterious yet catchy, this song foreshadows one of Aphex Twin’s definitive sounds enthusiasts would come to love. A couple of tracks later, ‘Heliosphan’ fades in with rapid fire drums that are surprisingly non-abrasive before cutting the drums to spotlight almost tear-jerking cascading synths.

The final highlight ‘Ptolemy’ is a dance anthem that any respectable disc jockey could really tear up and mix with. The impeccable drums do most of the talking here but the main synth lead shines as well, sounding like a distant car horn harmoniously barking at you and reminding you of the album’s urban British roots.

Aphex Twin A.K.A Mr. Richard David James really does a bang up job on this one, coming onto the British electronic scene and inviting the masses to enjoy some newfangled genre known as “IDM” or Intelligent Dance Music. The sounds on Selected Ambient Works 85-92 would inspire a decade of artists all of whom hoping to create the same rhythmic dance beats through ambient techno roots while capturing charming and almost innocent vibes. A must-listen for fans of electronic music.

Boards of Canada – In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (2000)

Can music sound dark and childlike at the same time? Sure. Welcome to Boards of Canada’s “In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country”. Coming at us with just four tracks is this concentrated EP of bucolic textures dripping with blue wavelengths, silver train horns and green treelines. In a genre known for its “Intelligent” Dance Music, this IDM piece is all emotion and no thought.

“Kid For Today” opens the show with its pervasive synth melody that feels wide and spread out like jam over whatever landscape this track transports you to. Nuances like the ‘blowing wind’ flanger effect that sounds about 5 layers deep below the surface synth attach vision to feeling. Put yourself in America’s heartland giving witness to a rusted playground decorated with shimmering indigo filters. That might begin to sum up “Kid For Today”.

More shimmers on this next track. The second track “Amo Bishop Roden” plays a teetering act of cold chrome synths played over a ticking clock drumkit that never seems to actually tick forward. A track stuck in time but never growing stale. Something to note here is the track’s title. Amo Bishop Roden was the widow of a rival of David Koresh. This is the same Koresh who lead his Branch Davidian cult to a deadly firefight with authorities in Waco, TX back in ‘93. This theme is explored more thoroughly in the next track.

Third and title track “In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country” is a banger. Not a head banger but really a gorgeous track. The ultimate in mysterio technology. Vocals on this one are beyond robotic and straight brain drilling. Synths sounding like a distant train signaling departure after autumn’s first frost. Boards of Canada combine their peak nostalgic sound with godlike drum progressions to birth this EP’s highlight. Come out and live in a religious community in a beautiful place out in the country.  

Finally “Zoetrope” draws the curtains with cascading cheerful icicles. Wherever the previous tracks took you, it is now time to leave. You can’t help but feel satisfied as the building reverberation amplifies your fondest memories of the last 20 or so minutes. This one feels ahead of its time, like an upbeat minimal techno track you would find in Berlin a decade after this EP’s release.

In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country bridges the gap betwixt Boards of Canada’s foundational classics Music Has The Right To Children (1998) and Geogaddi (2002) as a focused 24 minute EP acting almost as an intermission of the two albums. Sounds from both LP’s can be heard merged into their own signature wavelengths that still enscorcell me after a dozen listens.