 |
|
Ensemble Economique, "Melt Into Nothing"
Although I absolutely loved 2011's Crossing the Pass, By Torchlight album, I had a hard time keeping up with the flood of divergent releases Brian Pyle has unleashed over the last year or so.  As far as I can tell, however, Melt Into Nothing continues along Fever Logic’s path towards darkwave and '80s goth, which is a very curious move.  As noted by Denovali, that arguably makes this Pyle’s most accessible album, but only because it has some vocals and occupies a niche that some people are interested in right now.  In a broader sense, however, I think Brian's weirder, more abstract material is much more attention-grabbing and rewarding than any of the mostly forgotten bands that he is paying homage to here.  That said, Pyle is not one to go for mere pastiche and he still managed to strikes gold with at least one piece.
That one unquestionable success, "Your Lips Against Mine," conveniently opens the album.  In a broad sense, it is not terribly different from the rest of the album, approximating a dreamy/hazy/shoegazy take on melancholy 4AD-style goth pop, but the presence of guests DenMother and Sophia Hamadi make a dramatic difference hook-wise.  DenMother's soft vocals, for example, imbue the piece with a very sensuous (if bleary) Romanticism, while Sophia Hamadi's burbling, ascending synth motif gives the piece a propulsive sense of forward motion.  If Pyle were completely absent, it would probably still be a perfectly enjoyable bit of synthpop heaven.  Taking a good song and then Brian Pyle-ing the hell out of it seems to be an excellent recipe for success, but that first bit is generally missing for rest of the album.  Pyle tends to work best when he has a collaborator or creative foil, as he does in his new Naked Islands project–he is definitely more of an idea man/studio wizard than a hit machine.
Unfortunately, Brian's collaborators are generally absent for rest of Melt, which proves to be a bit exasperating: the textures and details are often quite wonderful, but they tend to be in service of pieces that sound like lesser bands from a '90s Projekt compilation.  For the most part, the remaining songs are a hookless array of near-instrumentals featuring plodding drum machine rhythms, funereal organs, echoing guitars, and a bleary haze of heavily processed vocals and subtly employed field recordings.  "Fade For Miles" comes closest to being an actual song, as it features a comparatively upbeat groove and fairly prominent vocals, though Brian's singing is too floating and hallucinatory to approximate anything like a melody or hook.  There are some nice touches though, as the guitar moans sound wonderfully tortured and the drums unexpectedly become backwards near the end.  I just wish there was more actual content to the song.  "Make Out in the GDR" is another stand-out, bolstered by eerie female dialogue snippets, warped synth, and gnarled guitars.  Again, however, it is far more of a stylistic triumph than a great song.
The remaining songs are all different flavors of "dirge," though the woozy, narcotic guitars in "Hey Baby" constitute another minor album highlight.  Ultimately, however, Melt Into Nothing is a somewhat disappointing and frustrating effort as whole, particularly after such a promising opening.  I suppose Pyle's goth pastiches are a bit better and more imaginative than most music in that vein, but they are not nearly as compelling as the better Ensemble Economique albums.  Though this will probably appeal to some other people a lot more than it resonates with me, this no-man's land between abstract experimentalism and retro-goth is not a particularly fertile place for Brian's impressive talent to flourish.
Samples:
 
