I’ve been listening to Jason Amm’s music since his first Solvent
release and, through the tumultuous flash of the electro audience’s
infatuation with electro-clash, I wondered if Amm would be seduced by
the dark side and leave his innocent analog synthesizers behind for
the momentary glitter of public adoration. As it turns out, I’m the
cynic in the audience. After well-received turns on Morr Music, his
own Suction Records and Ersatz Audio, Solvent has found a home on
Ghostly International and his latest release, Apples and Synthesizers,
is a hearty reiteration of his core musical tenet: happy electro
makes happy listeners.
While Amm’s focus is on the delicious warm and organic sound that he
can draw out of vintage analog equipment, he doesn’t spend any effort
pining for the old days. Solvent is all about applying modern
approaches and musical theories to the older equipment and he’s even
come round to the possibilities of vocals. Amm channels the spirit of
the pioneering days of Kraftwerk for “My Radio,” where an
electronically distorted voice tries to seduce you in high 1980’s New
Wave fashion while synthesizers sweep in broad strokes across a
backdrop of analog drum loops. Amm throws in processed hand claps for
good measure because, frankly, if you’re going to wear your love for
this period of electronic music proudly, you might as well go all the
way. Amm’s been outspoken about the fact that Solvent isn’t about
being “retro” but about being “timeless,” about creating pop tunes
that withstand the ebb and flow of the public’s fascination with the
latest electronic buzz-word (or sound, for that matter). Amm doesn’t
ape the past; he uses its tools to make his own future.
Solvent’s music is transparently crystalline: the melodies are pure
and simple arrangements that become instantly attached to the pleasure
centers of your brain and the programming isn’t wall of noise dense or
fractured into a thousand pieces. Songs like “Poly Ensemble” flirt
with an elegant simplicity but, when you put your ear beneath the
dancing melody, you find complex rhythmic structures that clearly
indicate Amm has been listening to music other than old school synth
pop. The underlying programming is far from the electro-clash
predilection of one-finger presets. The warped voice of “Think Like
Us” becomes skewed and cut-up as the subject material becomes more
ominous — as the narrative voice loses its humanity and becomes just
a pre-programmed vocal loop. “First Step” shuffles and hiccups with
rigorous disregard to techno’s floor-filling imperative as the beats
lurch and stumble around a series of vocal samples.
“It doesn’t seem so long ago when I loved you, my radio,” he sighs in
“My Radio.” “You promised me so much but now you’ve changed.” The
radio in question is a station that Amm used to dial in for many years
and has now become just the latest Clear Channel mouthpiece for Lowest
Common Denominator Rawk. There is a whiff of nostalgia about
Solvent’s work, but it isn’t an ache to turn the musical clock back to
the heyday of synth-pop, it is the same nostalgic urge we all have
towards childhood: a referencing to that time when colors were
brighter, our relationships with the world were simpler and we found
it easier to laugh at everything (oh yes, “Background Noise (Don’t
Become)” strikes straight to the heart of this ideal in a way that
leaves one gasping for breath). Solvent loves the old gear because of
what its sound invokes in him and, as Apples and Synthesizers ably
demonstrates, he’s making pop songs that can light a happy smile in
any listener, regardless of age or their level of affected cynicism.
Apples and Synthesizers is out now on Ghostly International.
