After breathing new life into Gary Numan's oeuvre as producer on last
year's Jagged, Ade Fenton, perhaps more widely known in the dance
music world for running two specialist techno labels, has branched out
and begun recording his own compositions. Numan returns the favour
(Jagged was edgy and very well received) by contributing vocals to
four tracks on Fenton's first solo album, Artificial Perfect.
Artificial Perfect is an album of abrupt twists and turns, punchy
beats giving way to elegant piano lines, huge, bombastic arrangements
dwindling to spare drum and bass. Songs alternate between adventurous
compositions and repetition. The overall sound is harsh, but never
thin, rhythmic complexity underpinning the grimy, chunky forcefulness
of many of the songs.
Yet there are softer moments too, thanks to Helen Tilley's whispery
vocals on Everything Changes, the sweetness of her voice belieing the
theme of betrayal, and Burn (certainly not a gentle song either).
Tilley seems to have appeared out of nowhere - Fenton describes her in
one interview as a friend, but she seems to have no track record
previous to this.
Artificial Perfect opens with The Leather Sea, an anthemic tune built
from jerky drum machines and metallic sounds, perfectly matched by
Numan's sharp vocals; no longer affecting the cold tones of a robotic,
his singing will nonetheless always have a harsh strength about it
perfectly suited to the nihilistic message: "Your God is nowhere, your
God is nothing."
We're clearly in Nine Inch Nails territory here, but with an almost
playful attitude to overlapping sounds and then suddenly stripping
everything out to really bring forward the vocal. The second Numan
song, Healing, is much more complex, layer upon layer of sound
creating a dark, swirling mass of sound.
Grinding techno motifs and sparky piano melodies give all the
different aspects of the album a central aural theme, and it ends in a
glorious blast of hissed vocals, rocking guitar, electronic bleeps and
pounding beats which build into a hypnotic loop on Machine. It's not a
long album, and leaves you wishing for more, definitely one to return
to again and again.
Tracklist:
01. The Leather Sea
02. Truth
03. Healing
04. Everything Changes
05. One Day
06. Recall
07. Slide Away
08. Burn
09. Machine
Ade_Fenton-Artificial_Perfect-2007-SER
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