Gliding through the dirty glitchiness of Autolux’s latest experimental release “Pussy’s Dead,” listeners will find themselves lost in a malfunctioning matrix of defective yet oddly intriguing sounds, tones, and misfiring rhythms – the album is gritty and imperfect, and therein lies its strange and peculiar appeal.
“Pussy’s Dead” is a medley of textures drawing from shoegaze, electronic pop, jazz and psychedelic influences. It’s a dark, moody album that layers disoriented trip-hop bass hooks and aggressive percussion on top of ambient-esque tender, synthesized chords.
The opening track “Selectallcopy” sets the off-kilter, cynical and melancholic feel of the album. The pensive drone from Carla Azar as she rings off iterations of “It’s so, so sad, to be happy all the time” strongly serves as the album’s dispassionate manifesto.
Furthermore, with this track’s initial line singing “Everyone’s interchangeable and we’re all just hollow to the core” over an ever-expanding synth line, echoes the detached, chaotic and languorous undercurrent framework the album’s remaining tracks build upon.
The lead single “Soft Scene” pants and throbs unevenly as Carla Azar’s vocals slither over a dizzying array of mutating electronic jitters adrift a digital dystopian-like landscape. It’s an uneasy and disjointed listen with an inventive rhythmic interplay that offers a melody within the madness. Azar’s frenzied drumwork adds a human pulse to the icy robotic backdrop ever-present on this song and throughout most tracks found in “Pussy’s Dead.”
Following tracks “Hamster Suite” and “Junk for Code” are Massive Attack meets Portishead with its fusion of trip-hop beats, heavy percussion, dreamlike smoke-filled atmospheres and sultry singing. The abstract timekeeping Azar constructs around “Junk for Code” is a refreshing alternative to the stiff resonance of drum machines commonly found in electronic music.
The latter half of “Pussy’s Dead” plunges listeners deeper into Autolux’s sonic rabbit-hole, but it fares slightly less noisy and airs more harmoniously. Tracks such as “Brainwasher” and “Listen to the Order” assume a conventional, more accessible indie-rock psych groove but with the flair of turbulent verses and occasional layered crescendos.
The tense, disorienting and ready-to-explode overtone throughout the album is countered and cut by the final track’s Beatles-esque calm. “Becker” is a comedown from the wild trip Autolux took all listeners on, a gentle, acoustic and soothing voice appears to ground even the most confused and bewildered ears into a dreamy field of plucked strings. It’s a kaleidoscopic closer to a enigmatic album.
“Pussy’s Dead” is an eclectic collection of tracks that embraces numerous genres and takes Autolux further in that tripped out electronic direction, alternating between sluggish and jittery. The work, at its highest point, evokes intrigue, while some tracks offer a failed experiment in the name of musical exploration.
Regardless, it’s a curious album that stretches and expands and coalesces several genres into a single cohesive and novel sound certain not to be found elsewhere.
Dimitri Kandilanaftis is a third-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at DK838967@wcupa.edu.