ABSOLUTE. - Harmony EP

April 13, 2018 - Twin Turbo

Turbo Records have done it again. They’ve released more music. The music is fine, not great. Great music is hard to come by. With sway gained through We Hate Music’s intellectual and emotional opulence, I’ve brought in a neuropsychologist to explain why. Not to you, to me. 

You don’t have to be a flower child to recognize that most of you are children of the Earth. As such, ya’ll are beholden to a particular alignment with earth’s magnetism. We’ll come back to this common neural threading shortly. 

Their latest release comes from ABSOLUTE. who I assume they venerate to some degree, and has produced mostly a backdrop for rotating techno beats. Classic modular stress noises peal the EP open in what is at least an aptly named first track “ ‘Harmony’ “. What sounds like a vocal riff, “on me,” is likely “harmony.” But that’s the fun of the distorted vocal; “follow me?” no probably not, but it’s a pleasant mulling. And it comes in reliably at least every seven bars. So what this track and the others do offer is stability.

The vocal sample doesn’t quite ignite the fronto-straital circuits, but comes closer than any other aspect. For those of you unaware, we are coming back to the neuroscience. The fronto-straital, for those of you further unaware, are straights in the brain involved in the anticipation of reward and surprise as well as intense pleasure when listening to music. Sadly, the only parts of my brain that are lighting up now are my derision centers and my sense-of-duty cortex which obliges me to bring you the truth about Turbo Records’ latest release by ABSOLUTE.(.)

ABSOLUTE.’s second track ‘Not Tonight’ offers some square-wave arpeggiation and some B-List action movie synth climbs. The track is well produced and does not damage my speakers. However, little reward makes the journey through, and I wonder if any was intended at all. Thematic cohesion may not be a positive, but it’s here. The titular phrase brings to mind the archetypal unenthused couple—pillow talk which dead ends. Fewer elements to this songs means fewer things to meditate on: the tambourine is nice. I’m a sucker for a tambourine and it never goes away in ‘Not Tonight.’ This song belongs in a video game based on the movie Drive as a song on the radio. The titular vocal sample, though less mysterious and less versatile, does add a certain UK moodiness to what is otherwise an Ableton sample pack. 

The final track ‘Not Tonight’ (Vakkuum Remix) does a little to buck the monotony. Structurally more interesting and with more production flair, the Vakkuum remix brings a sense of growth and evolution to ‘Not Tonight’. It’s a playful cowbell track that suffers from the trappings present in the two previous tracks. There’s not much to say, but the sound is richer and the beat less numbing. Typically when a song is emotionally effective at all, it triggers with varying levels of vividness autobiographical memories. With these tracks I am locked firmly in the critical present. ⛰️