Poladroïd packs eight lean, muscular tracks with throbbing bass, fat drum-machine punch and just enough EBM grit to keep the whole thing moving.
Lean, mean and mechanical
Poladroïd drops this lean eight-tracker of electro industriana, fusing lino-friendly aesthetics with European body-music gloss and a distinctly modern tech-funk sensibility. The moods are taut and tensile, the bottom end throbbing in post-Moroder blasts while the drums come in big and fat, all Roger Linn punch and TR-909 muscle. The result is an album that understands restraint but never sounds restrained.
“Norilsk” opens proceedings with clean-air funk and a diabolically wiry synth topline that cascades like digital waterfalls. Warm pads gradually move into the frame, adding color and perspective as the track develops into a convincing soul-and-machine coalescence. “Lyuberi” follows with straight-up EBM propulsion, its hard pulse surrounded by huge string synths that give the track a cinematic glow without softening its physical impact. “Leningrad” reveals Mr Droid as someone not inclined to follow the routines of the pack, bending familiar electro and industrial grammar into something more individual and elusive. “Sochi” twists and turns through helter-skelter synth melodies, constantly changing direction while maintaining its muscular rhythmic center.
We are now only halfway through as Roentgenizdat—The Soviet-era practice of copying banned Western and émigré music onto discarded X-ray film to evade state censorship—begins its closing moments
“Girls From Omsk” digs deepest into the groove, riding a simple, infectious refrain that becomes increasingly impossible to shake. “White Boy Funk” steps forward on a clipped rhythm and wiry bassline, its fogged-out strings creating a sense of pressure and anticipation. “Doomer” brings the industrial vocal miasma, gruff and ominous, with proto-paranoia steadily gathering behind the beat. Closer “Escape To Tbilisi” finally lets everything off the leash: a stomping, skewed belter that sends the album out at full mechanical tilt.
Roentgenizdat is available on Roulette Rekordz. [Bandcamp]
