New Music – The Black Void

The Black Void, a vast array of nothingness that continuously spans over centuries of time. The Void that stares back at you, the Void that sees through the soul and pierces into the deepest sector of your psyche. Adrian Younge is ready to explore the pits of the human body, the emotions, the failure, and ultimately the complication that is human beings.

The Electronique Void is a primarily synthetic work of art that challenges the thinking’s of man. The opening track, “Black Noise Interlude” begins with a rippling synth and a dominant voice describing St. Elmo’s Fire, the power of electricity and magnetism, and “Tesla’s warning to Edison, entailing “Beware the Black Noise.” The “Black Noise” is often referred to as silent noise. opposite to white noise, it allows the listener to hear nothing and eventually fall into a descent of madness.

The following track, “The Night” is a crunchy sounding synth ballad that acts as a tribute to the glory days of the 80’s. It has no lyrics, and The Electonique Void focuses primarily on the music of Younge. “The Night” is a creeping track, that follows a minimalistic approach to the percussion. The simple 1-2 step between the bass and the snare hits keeps a steady near hypnotic march. The synths that then follow behind and add almost horror-like elements to an already eerie track was outstanding. It feels like this track could reside in an old Hammer Horror film, with the gothic scenery and the way the synths keep a slow but rising tone.

“Fly Away” is the next track and it is seamlessly blended from “The Night.” “Fly Away” has more of an uplifting tone and the center of focus is still on the synth leads that take the place of horns and different stringed instruments. The way Younge used synthesizers to control the tracks and constantly changes up the sound from track to track was a substantial way to keep The Electronique Void feelings fresh and unpredictable at every turn.

“Systems” follows and this is in similar sound to the previous track “The Night.” This synthetic crawl of a track uses a rattling hi-hat, riveting synth work, and ultimately, a warping overlay that continues to echo throughout the track. Younge then finishes the track by letting the sound fade from every instrument and then launching into the next song.

“The Concept of Love” begins with what sounds like warped static before eventually becoming an assault of bass and ear-piercing synths. The white noise continues through most of the track, fading in-between the track’s foreground and background. “The Concept of Love” goes through several stages where the track feels lucid through the whole near 6 minutes. It traverses ear piercing instrumentals, to a bass focused section, before finally coming to a close with a strange near Morse code style of bouncing synths before succumbing to silence.

The Electronique Void then comes to “Voltage Controlled Orgasms,” a track that uses a boom-bap, near disco style of instrumental. The only difference here is that the instruments are much more artificial sounding, and the track contains these rising synths that build to the anticipation of the climatic ending. The ending of this track is a frantic wail of machines that cascades and has this great amount of flow about it. The instruments slowly fade out into silence, leading into “Linguistics.”

“Linguistics” is a rather short track that uses the same spoken narrator from “Black Noise Interlude.” Both tracks are the shortest works on The Electronique Void, only lasting 45 seconds each, but they still add an additional element to the record as well. They act as breathe to the tracks, instead of being simply filler on the release, they make each song stand out that much more.

The track that follows, “Black Noise” is a rather familiar sounding track that uses similar elements of “Systems” and “The Night.” While “Black Noise” is related, it still has elements that differentiate the track from its predecessors. The use of vocalization and a more authentic sounding drum kits allows for the track to feel more human-esque. The random lightning bolts of synth chords that flash in the background, and the warped sounding synths again add to the tracks mood, making it feel like more of a journey than an actual song.

“Patterns” is then segued into and the flow is instantly slowed down to a near halt. “Patterns” starts with a low tuned frequency bass that resembles an 808. The narrator returns and acts as the primary moving force behind the track. “Patterns” resembles something along the lines of Clipping.’s Splendor and Misery with these gigantic, synthetic space sounding instrumentals that reign through background. Rather than focusing on the vocalization like Clipping., Adrian Younge makes the instruments the star of his show. The track then falls into this second half where it becomes rather minimalistic and eventually like the other tracks, fades into a crushed silence.

The last track “Suicidal Love” uses a snare beat and a rising bass line that slowly changes pitch and becomes this high pitched machine that echoes through the track. It then launches into a beautiful instrumental that uses imitation horns and these subtle sirens that give the rest of the track more depth and an additional layer to the track. The narrator returns and ends the track with the quote “Everything and Nothing exactly at the same time.” The reoccurring silence comes back, and Younge leaves the listener back in the Darkness.