- Music for after the end of the world.
- Amnesia Scanner billed their last album, 2020's Tearless, as a "breakup album with the planet." Written as an ode to the looming climate catastrophe and released—as luck would have it—during the first wave of a global pandemic, Tearless swapped the group's grimy, euphoric nu-rave for doom metal guitars, pounding industrial percussion and mournful, cryptic lyrics that practically screamed "end of days."
After three years of holding our collective breath, life has returned to some semblance of normalcy. But after a period of collective trauma, the new normal arrived with uncertainty, with what once seemed like fictional dystopian narratives settling in as quiet backdrops of reality. We're not the same—a lot has changed. Reappearing for the first time since Tearless, Amnesia Scanner have changed, too.
STROBE.RIP, the Berlin-based duo's third full-length (and first with longtime collaborator Freeka Tet), reflects this uneasiness. It finds the group in a raw, impulsive state, playing with extremes and ending up with music that sounds, if jaded and nihilistic, oddly personal. Amnesia Scanner cast STROBE.RIP as "a reverse hero's journey" through a world that should have ended, detailing the post-traumatic emotional rollercoaster that ensues. The group signals their return with excitement. Blown-out blast beats and bent alien vocals kick off the record, but before the first track ends—and for the two that come after—the record is stricken with grief. Heavy pads coat the percussion like mud, and samples of laughter are detuned until they sound like sobs. From there, the mood pivots again into "Ledge," a gut punch of angry, brutalist trap where whipping snares stumble into relentless 160 BPM kicks. Here, Tet groans, "On the ledge / Push me down / I'm on the ledge / I'm going down."
The pendulum swings back and forth at a nauseating pace throughout the LP, reaching highs on the chugging nu metal of "Damon," or on "Merge," which sounds like it was spit out by an AI trained on grindcore and Nine Inch Nails—to wondrously gruesome effect.. But for all of STROBE.RIP's moments of intensity, the album also finds Amnesia Scanner at their most subtle and melodic, finding a sense of playfulness through the chaos. Lead single "Ride," for all intents and purposes, is a Balearic summer anthem, complete with floating guitar lines and a sensual, tongue-in-cheek saxophone solo. These sounds might seem like a peculiar choice for a duo that thrives in experimentalism, but they pull it off. "Ride" has one of the group's most instantly catchy hooks. Filtered through Amnesia Scanner's grubby lens and accompanied by a video of a startup-employed delivery cyclist, Balearic's carefree, seaside vibe quickly turns ironic and eerily uncanny. Imagine being able to "unplug" or forget your troubles, in this climate.
On the back half of the album, these mellow moments turn to mournful ambience. Tet muses about losing himself in the club over soulful trip-hop, and on "Scorpion, Bats & Spiders," a nonlinear monologue repeats the phrases "deconstructed" and "panel discussion," asking DJs to "take a seat" while a digital choir coos in the background. They may be poking fun at the over-intellectualization of their music, but it's surprising to hear Amnesia Scanner deliver these messages over instrumentals that push towards bliss, even transcendence. Stripping their music down to minimalist fragments, these tracks suggest the death of a former identity while hinting towards a type of renewal, as if to say, "Cut the fat, move forward."
This feeling is equally present in their live show. While Anesthesia Scammer, the ill-fated live version of Tearless presented at Kraftwerk in Berlin, was fashioned as a large-scale dark carnival—complete with a full cast of vocalists, metal guitarists and a top hat-donning MC—STROBE.RIP's show is pared down and lean, consumed by a monolithic screen strobing through thick clouds of fog. Amnesia Scanner hang to the back, but Tet haphazardly stumbles across the stage, shining floodlights onto the crowd, one arm elongated with a gruesome prosthetic.
Reflecting the lethargy, confusion and emotional weight hanging over the world in 2023, STROBE.RIP can be brutal, even punishing, but it's also woven with a sense of triumph. Irreparably damaged and irreversibly changed, Amnesia Scanner, like the rest of us, trudge into the future.
Tracklist01. Tongue Demons
02. Giggle
03. Bounds
04. Ledge
05. Disperse
06. Ride
07. Damon
08. Clown
09. abandoned.club
10. Scorpions, Bats & Spiders
11. Cat
12. Merge