Staff Reviews

Violens - Amoral

Review by Amanda Farah

Violens have achieved their sound and successfully executed their technique, but are still wanting for purpose. »

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rough trade exclusive with a bonus 15 track mixtape from summer 2010 featuring a host of violens mixes, tracks with washed out, a cover of nite jewel and classic cuts from chapterhouse, unrest, dead can dance etc. david lynch, stanley kubrick, nobuhiko obayashi, roxy music, sonic youth, 60s harmony psyche-pop, thrash metal and miami freestyle are just some of the influences that swirl around jorge elbrecht's mind; the resulting effect they have on him is violens. after three years of honing their recording and production skills, releasing their self-titled ep in october 2008 and touring europe and us with the likes of mgmt, grizzly bear, white lies and handsome furs, 'amoral' is violens' debut album. self-released, self-recorded, self-produced and self-mixed, it's a masterpiece of the diy aesthetic; a collision of comfort and violence, of cushion and crunch, of attack and embrace. utilising the synth pop sounds of 80s acts such as omd, simple minds, the pale fountains and 'tin tin'-era stephen duffy, violens bend, stretch and distort them into psychedelic sonic collages. from the sumptuous seduction-synth of their earliest track 'trance-like turn' - a multi-harmony glisten pulsing through with 'loveless' sound-aches - 'amoral' takes in dream-pop meanders with crescendos of desert metal fuzz ('are you still in the illusion?') and epic washes of lush looping melody ('generational loss'), all inspired by the vocal and production atmospheres of roxy music's 'avalon'. whilst gothtronic recent single 'acid reign' is what depeche mode would have sounded like if nick heyward had been singing.
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