“Won’t you enter, please take your shoes off.”
Normally I’m open to such requests when entering another person’s abode. However, the unnerving portrayals of such an apocalyptic, dystopian world from the Finnish electronic duo, Ville Haimala and Martti Kalliala, on their sophomore LP, Tearless, made me think otherwise during these already trying times.
Returning with another LP just two years after their debut, Another Life, which felt “apocalyptic so much as it suggest[ed] the end was already happening” - has ultimately deemed itself as the continuing premise here, too. As if this year couldn’t be any bleaker, Amnesia Scanner have refused to relinquish their established rhetoric, seething with ubiquitous rage artistically plastered onto the LP cover which looks similar to a nightmarish, Dennis Rodman-inspired doll.
At its very best, the LP translates this rage into a cacophony of Health-esque, metallic electronics contrasted against the clamouring vocals from Lyzza and Lalita on their respective features for ‘AS Acá’, ‘AS Going’, and ‘AS Tearless’. Swirling synths, scurrying beats, microtonal clutches synthesise together in these insatiable backdrops which inevitably drew me into this group’s repertoire in the first place. What’s more, these singles seem pertinently grounded amongst the turmoil sweeping through the world of this year: Covid-19 pandemic; protests against police brutality; as well as the brazen bushfires in Australia.
Nefarious, cannibalistic visages consume our screens for the aforementioned singles, as if eerily creeping back into the concluding scenes of the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola film, Apocalypse Now. Yet Marlon Brando won’t feature to calm matters down. Instead, Amnesia Scanner embraces this apocalyptic backdrop showcasing the stark similarities between the ‘us’ and the ‘them’ we see in these music videos, never relenting the fact that we ourselves could one day turn into these stricken characters.
It barely needs stating, however, that this particular premise has been covered before - notably from The Doors’ track ‘The End’ used in the aforementioned film forty-odd years ago. And I’m afraid to say this duo bring little else to the table - unwilling to explore the descent into hell and instead find a bland comfort bobbing along the fringes of dystopia. Beyond the electrifying synthetic hooks on their singles, their stunted evolution epitomises itself within the LP's latter half including ‘AS Too Late’ and concluder ‘AS U Will Be Fine’, burdened by incoherent vocals persistently enraptured by tasteless vocoder effects.
If someone mapped out Amnesia Scanner’s sound on paper - including the electronics of Arca, industrials of Nine Inch Nails, and caressing touch of Björk, many people would be thrown out of my way to hear such a sound. Unfortunately, beyond the impressive dystopian landscapes painted by this set of artists, Tearless does little to draw you into the finer details of an environment which strikes a fiercely foreboding note to this turmoiled year. While Amnesia Scanner plays host to this world, one sprinkled with crushing cynicism but succumbing to stunted expansion, I feel as if I might keep my shoes on as I won’t be staying long.
5.5/10
Amnesia Scanner's latest LP, Tearless, is out now and can be found here.
Comments