Imagine a world where Porcupine Tree and Massive Attack collide. An ambient world, one full of whispered voices and melodies tantalisingly dangled within your reach only to be snatched away again; a world where stuttering electronic percussion is occasionally bolstered by paranoia inspired bursts of guitar and where, for all the superficial calm, nothing is ever quite right. This is the world PMDS inhabit and where, if you’re willing, you can spend your downtime thanks to their latest effort.
It’s hard to explain exactly what genre PMDS inhabit, although if one were to be pushed then dark ambient wouldn’t do the music a disservice. Elements of the aforementioned Porcupine Tree and Massive attack are both evident, but there is much more here than that. Fans of the nascent electronic scene that flourished in the mid-nineties will recognise nods to Orbital and the orb, Aphex twin and leftfield amidst the clustered beats and throbbing bass-lines, but far from being a straight take on that scene it’s as if PMDS took strains of their DNA and infused them with a darkly progressive feel that sees the songs twist and flow out of shape, melody giving way to blackened clouds of fear and doubt not dissimilar to the early works of OSI. It is an engaging atmosphere that is woven and fans with an eclectic taste will find this disc an excellent addition to their collection.
First track ‘under the door’ sets the tone with its swirling sound effects, creeping bass and hypnotic beats. Voices whisper through the haze, but never solidify into something that you can comfortably hold on to in the darkness, and guitars occasionally flare up, burning brightly in the darkness before being subsumed back into the miasma. ‘100 days of May’ is a softer track, one that gently meanders through ambient environments albeit with an undercurrent of tension that is never fully realised, creating an increasing level of suspense that has you gasping for a release that never arrives. ‘Red wall white dream’ has a subtle trip-hop beat that underpins a half-whispered vocal that veers between menace and sorrow. An inspirational pairing of latter-day Gary Numan (think ‘pure’) and Aphex Twin, few electronic artists make music this intense – a feeling backed up by the crunching industrial inflexions of ’80 steps’, an increasingly agitated piece of work that wouldn’t sound out of place on Trent Reznor’s recent soundtrack work or even on the second half of ‘the fragile’ with its splenetic beats and oddly languid snatches of guitar.
Having run the whole gamut of electronic music over the first four songs, PMDS head back into progressive territory with ‘past tension’, a track that juxtaposes unconventional instrumentation with calm vocals in a manner that fans of OSI will find familiar. ‘Used to be easy’ is underpinned by a sharp industrial beat, whilst guitars gently whisper close to the surface ready to explode at a moment’s notice whilst voices whisper in your mind. It’s another track that places tension above action and as the music envelopes you, the dark feelings of paranoia once again raise its ugly head making it a relief when the track expands out, like an extreme close up view suddenly pulling back to reveal the whole image, and the sound proves to be hypnotic, soothing, almost Pink Floydian, rather than brutal and unforgiving. ‘We VS you’ is darker still – the musings of the lonely wanderer who’s spent too much time on his own in the isolated backwaters of the planet, now rejecting the humanity he’s spent so long trying to reconnect with. Dark and brooding, the synth beats are masterfully wielded to create a real atmosphere of loss and discomfort whilst the vocals rarely expand beyond a low, menacing whisper. Most disconcerting is the outro which mixes the throbbing bass of massive attack’s ‘angel’ with the guitar drones of Nine Inch nails for what is undoubtedly the highlight of the album. ‘Unzero’ opens amidst indistinct, sampled voices croaking in the darkness and then takes a trip through wide open space, the only light provided by glittering stars which are both stunningly beautiful and deadly cold. When the mood is broken… well, shattered may be a better word for the rude awakening occasioned by the burst of droning electronica that suddenly snaps the track into life, it’s like an awakening – banks of instrumentation flickering into life as the guitar wails and splutters. ‘Guitar zx’ is a strange beast that mixes up a gentle acoustic riff with stuttering, distorted beats for another of the album’s standout tracks before being suddenly cut off and replaced with the mechanised horrors of ‘Emerging thoughts’, a track that should have been used as the soundtrack for The Terminator with its remorseless beat and distorted screams. ‘Glamour box’ concludes the album with a hypnotic bass line and heavily treated guitar sound which sees the sound shifting away from the nightmarish elements of ‘emerging thoughts’ towards lighter, more ambient climes.
PMDS will undoubtedly not be for everyone, but for those of you who found Nine Inch nails’ ‘year zero’ to be a compelling listen, or for those with an eclectic taste that ranges to the damaged electronica of Aphex twin and the industrial elements of Gary Numan, then this album will be a treat. With so few artists crafting electronic music of this calibre, this is a daring, adventurous and intriguing album which attacks via stealth, the most effective weapon in the band’s arsenal being the expectation, rather than the realisation, of the musical horrors they could unleash if they so choose. There is beauty and melody here as well as melancholy and pain; and PMDS have crafted a remarkable work from these elements that roams freely over the varied pastures of everything from ambient to industrial. A fascinating and often brilliant piece of work.
You can check out PMDS here: http://thisco.net/catalogo/65.htm
