Each track on They Can’t Be Saved is unique and rewarding, taking the listener on a journey to another part of an imaginary place. Fans of Skam, Warp, n5MD, and related music will enjoy this as will pretty much any electronic and experimental music head.
Tracks swirl, swoon, and glide across the stereo spectrum
While some artists release music like clockwork at least once or twice a year (or more in the case of say Cathode Ray Tube) others release less frequently. There’s something to be said for releasing music on an irregular schedule. The Fear Ratio’s last full length—Refuge of A Twisted Soul (Skam)—appeared five years ago and wowed this reviewer with its varied soundscapes and clear attention to detailed composition. With so few full length releases over the past 9 years since their first, The Fear Ratio have created an “absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder” situation but it’s well worth it. Through those 9 years they’ve released consistently engaging, captivating, and highly experimental tracks which reward repeated listenings with newly discovered facets and gems.
The Fear Ratio’s newest release They Can’t Be Saved is worth the wait, appearing in the dawn of 2020 and not a moment too soon. Tracks swirl, swoon, and glide across the stereo spectrum. Abstraction blended with solid beat-crafting and arrangements are a signature of The Fear Ratio’s sound.
“Exile” chugs along with a smooth, hip-hop lope and downtempo pad swing through murky lands. The frenetic arpeggiations flitter of “Grey Code” over is sparse drum tracks like gnats in a spring bloom while steely synths float along in the hazey gauze laden background of reverb drenched tones. “Small World” renders slowly forming ambience piercing a reverb-driven veil while sharp bass tones and a beat form the vehicle driving the track into a slow and easy meditative pattern. “The Invisible Girl” opens with choppy, jagged samples of a female voice morphing into an acidic slo-jam of burbling bass synth with more sliced and diced samples giving the track an anxious feel despite the slow tempo and gentle Rhodes-like keyboards and pad washes. “The Curse” is a dark affair with obscured bass tones wobbling under sharp jabbing synths like metallic bees banging against titanium flowers until the abstraction takes over moving the track into full on soundscapes of ambiguous timbres and tones like a dub track from hell. “LM3” skitters into one’s ears with off-kilter rhythmic arpeggios and a simple kick/clap beat while reverb reflections ping and pong off the back wall of the brain. “Captive” is what trap-hop might sound like if Autechre and Scorn got together over some absinthe and schwarma some lone Saturday night with its 808 beat and incoherent wash of synths.
Each track on They Can’t Be Saved is unique and rewarding, taking the listener on a journey to another part of an imaginary place. Fans of Skam, Warp, n5MD, and related music will enjoy this as will pretty much any electronic and experimental music head.
The Can’t Be Saved is available on Skam.
