SINthetik Messiah : "Beneath the Surface"

This project is based in Louisiana and is the work of Bug Gigabyte. The first track is a dystopian soundscape that transcends his swampy roots. "Caught in the Grip of the City" is more deliberate in its downtempo thump, with a tense vocal narrative that is broken up by samples. With electronic music, the challenge for artists can be to not get carried away by cool beats and sound, but to tell a story. This is typically forsaken by dance music altogether. This project is geared to the dance floor, though it would take a great deal of Absinthe to get moving to the narcotic throb invoked here. The vocals have purpose when applied, so songwriting is the focus more than booty shaking. I can see psy-trance fans being into some of the dark vibes going down here.

"Idealogical Subversion" makes the most of the samples it uses. I like that while there is a political theme, it looks at the bigger picture, outside of the fihbowl being very aware of the puppet show in motion rather than aligning itself with one team or the other, with a wink in the direction that this is all a game. This is the first song where I hear a trip-hop influence. Perhaps not as dark as say Tricky, but slinky in its midnight grooves. The sampled vocals work well and get the job done without conforming to mainstream songwriting. 

The last song "Life Hack' is a head bobber, it's short and sweet. There sounds like there are some organic qualities like a guitar on it, but it could just be tones sampled into a digital audio workstation. It is more about the beats than the storytelling, though the samples do have a narrative they are unfolding. I will give this album a 9. I have high expectations when it comes to electronic music, as I hold all music to the same standards, no matter if your drums are coming from a laptop or a kit, and this project excedes those expectations making it one of the better electronic album's I've heard this year, granted it's industrial adjacent enough to give my dark tastes what they need. 

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