- (AM)
- Deadbeat Summer
- Laughing Gas
- Terminally Chill
- (If I Knew, I’d Tell You)
- 6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know)
- Should Have Taken Acid With You
- Mind, Drips
- Psychic Chasms
- Local Joke
- Ephemeral Artery
- 7000 (Reprise)
Electronica music walks that fine line between being understood and merely written off as messing around with technology. Mixing sounds and effects to create both songs of rhythm and intriguing melody is something that has been perceived to only be created by that human element within the musician. The problem is that that has fast become quite incorrect when looking at recent electronic music.
With the likes of M.I.A., MGMT, Frou Frou and The Presets, that electronic sound has become commonplace on the airwaves. Sure, pure-blood electronica is far more illusive than the likes of the aforementioned but with growing appreciation for the genre and a growing understanding of the elements of electronica audiences are fast becoming responsive to electronica artists.
Like any music, however, success depends largely on purpose. Whether or not that purpose is related to entertainment, information, experimentation or merely expression it is what will unite a listener with the material. For that common ground will determine a starting point where the listener is ready for what is about to be experienced.
In the case of Psychic Chasms that common ground, in this listener’s case, is never met. For a pointlessness pervades each track that ends up feeling repetitive and nothing more than a collection of sounds. Even when they’re on point like in the case of the title track, ‘Psychic Chasms’, which is a fun and bubbly foray into their music world, that sense that there is nothing new being said here still shines through. With a grungier edge to track 11, ‘Ephemeral Artery’ and an interesting funkiness to the closer, ‘7000 (Reprise)’, there are points of interest here. It’s just that they come far too infrequently and far too late.
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