REVIEW: PERTURBATOR – “New Model”

‘New Model’ is the latest EP from Perturbator (AKA James Kent), a Parisian electronic musician who specializes in synth wave and dark wave. Perturbator’s particular take on the genre is dark, brooding and sometimes downright evil, so it may come as little surprise to find he is known to have a history rooted in black metal, where he played guitar for several bands in his youth.

“Birth of the New Model” opens up the EP with a smattering electronic chimes and droning textures, quickly morphing from a carefree and almost blissful tambre to one reminiscent almost of concern or worry. As the drums a sense of purpose suddenly develops within the music, hard hitting and heavily distorted sub bass lines are overlaid with massive chord pads reminiscent of the wall of sound experience you’d come face to face with in a metal song.

As the track progresses the tone evolves from being simply driven to one of malevolent intent, serene ambience is replaced by harsh and stuttering dissonant synthesizers.

“It isn’t radio friendly, and it doesn’t celebrate anything. As it was written during the most depressed and nihilistic period of my life, it was important for me to create a very raw, sometimes chaotic, slithering atmosphere that would take the listener through a short but exhausting digital nightmare – similar to the one I felt while composing it.” Kent states.

“Tactical Precision Disarray” continues this intensity, opening with short bursts of shrieking ‘noise’ and industrial beats which pound relentlessly. Synthesizers which are so distorted you may wonder if your speakers are broken shoot machine gun-esque patterns straight at the listener before the song suddenly opens up into an almost blissful soundscape of gentle chords and simple bass-line, however the sickening feeling of something ‘being wrong’ still permeates the track which everything occasionally warbling as if being played on a cassette tape that has been chewed up by the machine.

“Vantablack” is the only track on ‘New Model’ to feature vocals (Provided by OddZoo) which seemingly depict a sexual liaison between woman and robot: “Poisonous eyes, Lay your poisonous eyes on me, And taint me if you dare… Yeah taint me if you’re so smart. Scotch and soda in my blood. Where can I get some more? I’m taking you home, I’m making my point, I’m taking you, Please allow me to play. With my shiny stainless blade and stroke your marble skin.“

The vocal performance for the most part is gentle but ominous with the music also reflecting this notion, maintaining a steady beat and structure which up until this point was not particularly apparent throughout the chaos of the previous songs.

Whilst not particularly diverse, ‘New Model’ does manage to create and maintain a universe which takes the audience on a journey for the duration of the release and whether you’re being assaulted by the crushingly heavy ‘riffs’ of “Tainted Empire”, nodding along to the bouncy melodies of “Corrupted by Design” or contemplating a bleak mechanical future landscape, in which humanity is on the brink of extinction throughout the 10 minute cinematic closer “God Complex” the music all has a distinctly cohesive vibe about it.

‘New Model’ is cold and dark trip through surprisingly lush synth soundscapes where gigantic walls of sound are softly illuminated by gentle melodies before being smashed to pieces and replaced by ambient and moody passages and then being rebuilt all over again. This is the electronic answer to progressive metal.