- When Joey Gonzalez, or Blush Response, first emerged nearly a decade ago, the New York musician was writing dark synth pop songs with vocals. His earliest material was heavily indebted to pioneering EBM bands like Front 242 and Skinny Puppy—a reverence that still holds true today. His first three albums presented a modern take on industrial music, albeit one rooted in traditional rock and pop songwriting. Gonzalez was also touring as a keyboardist for Scar The Martyr, the heavy metal band founded by Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison.
In 2015, Gonzalez moved to Berlin, and the inevitable happened. Records for labels like Ant-Zen, Total Black, aufnahme + wiedergabe and Sonic Groove have showcased a more techno-oriented sound, as much in line with Orphx as Front Line Assembly. Rhythm, groove and mood remain key components in the Blush Response arsenal. He's also broken free from rigid song structures. His tracks writhe and twist through dark and noisy spaces, taming the energy of Gonzalez's fully improvised hardware performances without losing its wild impulse. Infinite Density, Gonzalez's first full-length for Adam X's label, ably captures his musical evolution so far.
Infinite Density's first three tracks carefully ease you in. The industrial soundscape on each one is clear, but the melodies do a lot of the work. A shift occurs about halfway through "No Solace," when billowing synth clouds erupt in noisy crescendos of distortion. It's a premonition of evil things to come, starting with "Aum Shinrikyo." Named after the Japanese doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway attack, the track's stinging synths, grumbling bass and electrified notes quickly evolve into a maelstrom, with vocal samples and dramatic chords caught in the crosshairs. The LP punches hard and heavy from here on in.
"Serpentine" is the only vintage-sounding track here, with its clanking '80s mechanics and synth blasts escaping like stream. The rest of the album works industrial signatures into a more contemporary club vernacular, as on "Infinite Dread," the album's merciless peak-time weapon. Of all the EBM-inflected techno records to emerge in the past year, Infinite Density is one of the best.
Tracklist01. Infinite Density
02. Panic Stricken
03. No Solace
04. Aum Shinrikyo
05. Survivor Guilt
06. Painkiller
07. Serpentine
08. Infinite Dread
09. Tryptamine
10. Tesselate
11. Dead Still Air