Atonalist feat. Gavin Friday — Atonalism
This album begins like a kind of delicate, melancholic experimental pop not unlike later Einsturzende Neubauten. Friday's emotionally charged baritone utterances are tunefully, sensually spoken over an understated backdrop of Satie-esque piano and clinking micro-beats, with an occasional appearance from another instrument such as a piano, cello, saxophone or guitar. The instrumentation and timbral selection are thoughtful and varied.
As the album continues, it amasses density and energy, becomes openly gothic in sound and theme, the spoken vocals replaced by wailing tenor singing, drenched in chorus. The beats have increased in volume, the kick drum not far from the throbbing 4/4 of EBM. The hardcore vintage drum machine workout of "Spin 2.0" is straight out of 1997. The lyrics of these tracks are blatant, raw emotionality. "Your love is wrecking me" is the chorus of "The Road to Perdition".
The album returns periodically from pounding electronic rock to understated ambient environs, making for a diverse recording. "The Philosophers' Argument" and "Final Prayer" are beautiful tracks featuring the haunted and luminscent soliloquys for horns, delusional fever dreamings in free rhythm. Gavin Friday sits these tracks out, making for a pleasant abstract reprieve.
"Our Fearless Leader" includes fiercely militant snare rushes and punkish snarls of "give me all your money". The thoughtful latter half of the song is an instrumental marvel, chunky staccato guitar chords paired with glitchy percussion and a winding bass clarinet solo. The intensity continues with the feedback squall of "Realistic Answer", the following track, a classic 'industrial' instrumental piece in the sense of being a repetitious beat with free noise overlaid.
The particular blend of esoteric ambience with gothic pop and industrial beats on this album indicates that it is an homage to the British art post-industrial scene, with this particular album sounding most similar to Coil and Thighpaulsandra. These groups took the abrasive, martial palette of industrial and expanded it to be more ambient, psychedelic and spiritually affecting. Their niche was never large enough, in my opinion.
Gavin Friday makes such a natural addition to Atonalist that they really ought to include him in the project permanently. His lyrics and presence define the personality of the album, in many ways. One of the greatest things about industrial music was the way the presence of the human voice gave narrative and poetic emotional character to sounds from noise, avant garde and musique concrete. It's great to again hear music with this sort of poetic, intelligent take on what industrial means.
The closing portion of the album perhaps fails to live up to the dramatic flair of its initial few pieces, devolving into a series of instrumentals after a fiercely expressive multi-genre progression. Though nothing embarrassingly weak is presented, there is nothing particularly climactic about the meandering free jazz of "Persistance #1", or the heavily distorted grim rhythms of "Massacre of the Pretenders". Friday's lyrics are noticeably absent from this part of the album, and it isn't near as distinct.
All in all, a satisfying art industrial throwback which recaptures the inventive side of this music which pioneers like Coil and Skinny Puppy exhibited. It is both tuneful and chaotic, refreshingly new and odd and yet thoroughly emotional and directed. I highly enjoyed this album. I would particularly recommend it to those who love Coil's "Horse Rotorvator" album, art industrial or experimental post punk.