(05.04.07) Ersatz Audio was an excellent imprint, a label that gave us great electro
releases by Le Car, Lowfish and DMX Krew to name but a few. Sadly Ersatz is
no longer putting out records, but the label’s founder, Adult., are still
going strong. After releasing on Clone and Ersatz, Adult. have found a
permanent home on Thrilljockey Records. The electro pair of Adam Lee Miller
and Nicola Kuperus are back now with their fourth album, second on
Thrilljocky, entitled Why Bother? So how have the partnership’s latest
outing faired up in comparison to the quality they are renowned for?
The album’s artwork is by Nicola Kuperus. The artwork is a collapsing into
consumerism. The inside cover is Adam and Nicola in what might be a basement
with sickles hanging from the roof, the sickle theme can be found on the CD
too. The back features an axe next to some wheat. Something is becoming
apparent with the photography and the title. “Why Bother?” Here’s the
sickle, but where’s the hammer? “Why Bother?” Crime is up. Employment is
down. Pollution is up. Inflation is steady. “Why Bother?” The album’s press
release reads like the manifesto of a disgruntled fututrist, sick of it all
and putting out a final defence; music. Yet how does Adult.’s disgust work
in audio?
With this instalment, Adult. have moved into much more unsettling and
claustrophobic ground. “Red Herring” opens the album with worrisome tones,
uncomfortable vocals and alienating beats. The clean sounds of the Ersatz
days have been fed through the photocopier, faxed, stamped and shredded. The
music is taut and pulled, with vocals adding to the tension. The idea of the
pack is central to the track, and is raised in the press release; the
concept of safety within the herd is spat on, there is not security within
the collective or within the individual: it is a Red Herring. “The Mythology
of Pscychosis” is a brief interlude before “Good Deeds” is driven into life.
V8 charged beats scraped and fly before electro punk lyrics are shouted out.
“I Feel Worse When I’m with You” could almost be a sub titled for the album.
The beats are fast with some bass strings with lots of distortion shot into
the concoction. The vocals are fast, aggressive and bleak. The track is
passionate, even a little unsettling, but a real distorto punk epic. The
fragmentation, even shattering, of people is continued on into “The
Importance of Being Folk pt1.” The track is strung out and haunting, warped
and twisted; reflecting Adult.’s belief that their music is an uneasy folk,
that the concept of folk is a means by which to live. Perhaps volkish ideas
are not the most popular, for obvious reasons, and the modern impression
that folklore is redundant since its manipulation into patriotic agitation;
but Adult. know that their folk is one of horror movies and highways, red
lights and propaganda posters, a folk of the “weird.”
“Inclined to Vomit” moves into full throttle attack mode. The bombs are
falling as a blitz of electro glitzch is dropped and torn with Nicola’s
lyrics peppering the population in shrapnel words. “You Don’t Worry Enough”
moves in with tortured guitars creating an immediate rock feel to the track.
Keyboard stylings are floated in, adding new aspects, as Nicola’s vocals are
pours down the microphone. Powerful and aggressive piece. “Cultivation” is a
computer terror coaster of metallic punches, speed rushes and synth; a short
track that leads into “Head Me.” “Herd Me” brings back the theme of the pack
and gregariousness again. “You’re your own special brand” are the lyrics
which open Adult.’s commentary on modern tribalism in society. The track
talks of man’s need to be lead, the general will being central, and the
problems, and horrors, that can occur from humankind’s want to follow;
summed up in the chorus of “Herd me/They’re mindless.” A track of anger and
disdain with a punx edge.
“R.S.x” moves into the realm of death, both figurative and literal. Be it
corporal punishment or office life, the daily corrosion is illustrated in
the ghoulish synths of this track. “Plagued by Fear” has the same rock
elements of “You Don’t Worry Enough” as guitar strings bring the piece alive
whiles keyboards play in the background. The track seems to be more uptempo
than some of its predecessors, with the synth lines having even a playful
element amongst the sharp lyrics and urban poverty. “I Should Care” is the
last of the vocal tracks, with the title being emblematic of what Adult. are
trying to get across. The brief “The Importance of Being Folk PartII”
screeches past before “Harvest” brings the album to a close. “Harvest,” a
lead on from “Cultivation” one might assume, is a lulling, haunting
synthesizer composition. Undertones of distorted sound loom and menace the
light waves of sound, with the two pushing and rebounding off one another
but somehow managing to keep their identities.
Why Bother? is Adult.’s commentating on cultural, social and political
aspects of our world. The album’s title is a mantra for the ultra
consumerist, ultra impersonal and ultra career orientated world we find
ourselves in. Adult. always had this element to their music, a shining
lipstick anger at the advert, a teenage angst against the licked window, but
“Why Bother?” pushes this absorbed distaste into a gritty electro punk’s
diatribe. Adult. believe, as the lyrics of “Plagued by Fear” promulgate, is
that man has “been taken over,” be it by greed, poverty or sheer desire we
are not our own in Why Bother? The album echoes the futility propounded by
writers such as Kafka, Pinter or Beckett, whilst adding elements of
postmodern criticism, such as the concept of brand importance, and
post-structural beliefs like the failure of language, with lyrics being
shouted through distortion creating an indecipherable anger. For Adult. the
experiments have failed, science has been unsuccessful, liberalism is dead,
John Stuart Mill was wrong and so was Heidigger, philosophy and sociology
have cured nothing, the attempts have lead to nothing but hypermalls. The
new generation has no great calling. War is no longer nation versus nation,
but personality versus personality. The cult of the fist has returned, be it
made of iron of filled with dollar bills. Either way the gaps between the
fingers have grown, squeezing millions tighter and tighter. But what can be
done? If all has already failed, “Why Bother?” This is Adult.’s answer. In
this disinterested state, in the non caring folk, there is something
salvageable. An interesting and, despite some bleak elements, idealistic
concept. Adult.’s electro past was inspirational, but this new aggravated
sound is just as promising and august. They have created something that is
contemporary and conscious, all encased in a sound that is theirs (and
maybe even partly belonging to the herd.)
Why Bother? is out now on Thrill Jockey. [Purchase
