(02.01.09) As the festive season comes to a close, Secondhand Daylight introduce some minimalism to strip away the excess glut. The label, the birth child of Rigeck Rodgers, has been on the go since 2006 with its style of analogue centred despair. The imprint has a pared back aspect, with luke-warm synthesizers and peeled beats. The latest record is a new undertaking by Rigeck Rodgers, Alpha Sequenz. The release sees a turning point on the label, vinyl output. In true new wave form, Secondhand Daylight are moving back to plastic with Axial Equilibrium.
The LP opens with “Dawn Lines.” The track is true to its name, with rays of repetitive synthlines sliding to slot a melody as spears of snare pierce through the keys. “No Meaning” swerves into new territory. Coldness crosses the vinyl grooves as metronome beats accompany a haunting soundscape. The track has a soundtrack eliminate to it, fitting into dystopic future worlds such as Blade Runner. The dark melancholy extends into “life + death = 0” but the concrete coldwave grey is lifted by the painfully uplifting “Overcast Sky.” “Cybernetic Chess” has a sombre chill to it, a downtempo greyness with shards of synthesizer light penetrating here and there before despondent samples amplify the solitude. The A-Side comes to rest with “E^2” which moves into more complex grounds. Vocals float and haunt in the backdrop was an almost playful bleeping synthline raises its head from time to time. Yet the piece is unsettled and disturbed, like eyes over a shoulder or a shiver down the neck.
Analogue blurps and bleeps bring the B-Side to life. “Mehr Licht” has a greater positivity to it than some its predecessors, with the notes having a more uplifting aspect. “Cerebral Retreat,” with its shower samples and powerful piano synth lines, has all the makings of a cerebral horror soundtrack. This “Psycho” style work is haunting, but not menacing. It hasn’t the power of a Goblin or John Carpenter piece, but a rising a falling nature to put the listener ill at ease in their headphones. “Ad Nauseum” hovers further down the eerie analogue lines with unnerving film samples and a slow sliding pitch. The anxiety levels rise as the listener is forced to shuffle down the menacing darkness of “The Empty Street” only to arrive at the whirring uneasiness of “Etheral Integrity.” Axial Equilibrium comes to rest with the discord of “Chrysantheme,” a peaceful end of scene work that implies, despite appearance, the shadows have not settled.
Alpha Sequenz has created an interesting piece of synthesizer music. For the most part the record reads like a film. The tracks gain pace and stumble into slowness. They bear power, then twist to become fragile and distant. The LP has the sound of an analogue psychological thriller. Sometimes the sound feels as if it might touch the likes of a Goblin work like Suspiria, but it never reaches the energy of a Argento slasher. Instead, Rodger’s Axial Equilibrium is the synthesizer portrayal of the unsettled, the unnerving and the unwanted aspects of the mind, but it is the movie mind. The record is a depiction of a loner, a stalker of a crumbly 1980s production. This is what excites this piece of vinyl, Alpha Sequenz is doing what no-one else is doing; he is doing what people did do, and he is doing it with all the guile and detachment of a director. Be weary with what lurks behind the headphones, as it may not let you come back.
Axial Equilibrium is out now on Secondhand Daylight.
