Conformist - Piad To Fake It
Before we begin I'd like to blame Commodore and Atari for this genre of music. If your computers didn't crash every 2 hours we would have never learned what paperboy sounds like in slow-mo.
Conformist combines electronic noise with rock guitars and drumbeats to create a soundscape of noise; this is not dub-step, it could possibly be described as post dub-step, taking those synthesized noises one step further, breaking the already broken to create a new dimension that is less aggressive and more scattered.
The album is titled Paid to Fake it and I wonder if that is more a reason for this albums existence than a political statement. Other than to cause serious mental damage to someone high on drugs I don't see any need for such hard to listen to tracks. This is Ross Gellar remixing at its worst, attacking pre-settings and smashing repeat until something vaguely interesting appears.
And yet, at some level this work is genius. It takes a number of marks to make a masterpiece and Michael Simmons has chosen his media from a wide range of sources and sampled the dregs of TV. Natural comparisons are drawn with Aphex Twin purely for the awkward feeling you get when you listen to it. I'd describe it as random but it is anything but; each sound clip and each sample has been carefully put into place. A better comparison may in fact be Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts collection, which was a response to Trent Reznors' thoughts on the end of the world.
Paid To fake it is a soundtrack to the city if the city was under attack from a squadron of wub-wub bombers. The first single to be released from this album was Savages go Modern!, the sampling arrangement leaves a sound that is reminiscent of New Order, combined with rock guitars and slapstick vocals.
This album is not for everyone, its avant-garde music for the digitally minded. Fans of dub-step should understand it better than most and fans of Aphex Twin and retro gaming should give it a look. One thing is certain; it will not find itself sitting in the easy listening section of your local record store anytime soon.