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Carlos Giffoni, "Adult Life"
While his name may be most closely associated with the No Fun Fest he curates and the abrasive noise that is usually featured there, Giffoni’s own work tends to focus less on the harsh and more on the minimal electronics. On this album, he continues his focus on rudimentary analog electronics in a highly structured set of works that is arguably TOO structured.
The five pieces that make up this album all range around nine minutes, with the final, longer track clocking in at a bit over 12. Considering the ridgid structure each track is built on, the individual tracks tend to follow similar blueprints that unfortunately don’t vary too much from piece to piece. Opening track "The Endless Mirror" starts with a rattling set of synth notes that eventually lock into some sense of rhythm as lower pitched notes kick in. As the layers begin to pile on, the early rhythm almost becomes a traditional 4/4 kick drum as rougher square wave frequencies pierce through the mix. In essence, it feels like the soundtrack to a primitive Atari video game.
"A Son With No Father" similarly starts out with an odd electronic warbling chime that repeats, building a sense of rhythm as radio static enters the mix, giving the track an extremely textural feel. Even once the slicing white noise elements come in, it remains a restrained and cautious piece as opposed to an overly chaotic one. "This Is How You Pull The Trigger" opens with a pulsating old school analog synth that could have been lifted from any techno track, but the synthetic spaceship sounds and highly controlled noise parts keep it more in the abstract realm of sound, especially as it eventually transitions into harsher noise work.
"Comfort and Pleasure," however, shows the shortcomings of the disc. The repeated engine revving synths and phased noises call to mind the early days of power electronics, which is only increased by the rumbling bass sequences. While it is an interesting listen, it also feels about five minutes too long. All of the tracks follow this similar pattern of a stripped down introduction that slowly builds and builds in complexity before breaking back down to the introductory sounds.
The plus of this is that the mixing allows one to pay closer attention to the electronic textures that make up the songs that stay fundamentally raw: there’s not a great deal of effects or other processing going on here. The problem is that structurally the tracks all feel too similar and that leads them to being a bit too predictable. While I’m not saying it has to break into pure noise and end up in total chaos, it just feels too formulaic. Overall it’s a good album, but just a bit bland compared to what it could have been.
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