Portland continues to establish itself as a critical northern outpost of digital music with the release this month of Vik44's Was Never White. As the genre matures and evolves, it's some of the most interesting music to listen to because there are no rules. If an artist wants to fire out a warm guitar tone, as Vik does on the melodic rock-infused number "Lessthanthree," who's to stop him? And the opening "X" is a gorgeous polyrhythmic piano piece that stands like a monolith over a building synthetic drone. As an opening track it's certainly a change of pace from the driving techno of Panic Attack!, his debut album from last year, and a reminder that a digital artist like Vik44 can and will be whatever he decides in the moment.
"Her" is all stripped-down snares, a graceful vocal snippet in repeat paired with dreamy synths. Everything falls into traffic noise, the beach, the barest of essentials in keeping the song moving forward. It's a digital portrait of an elusive girl. Yet the title track is dark and mean, snide synthesizers paired with an industrial beat.
This playfulness and series of surprises may mean you'll never know for sure that a Vik44 song has come on the stereo, but it has certainly produced some memorable tracks. For me the standout here is "Modicum," which opens with crystalline synths, like sounds bubbling up out of mercury-filled lakes, then is joined by space-aged laser blasts that come to dominate the song's front, echoing like horns in a P-Funk song.
White is the absence of color, and Vik44 never fails to sample liberally from a large palette.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
WAS NEVER WHITE | Released by Vik44, available now on Milled Pavement Records | see him at the BelTek Music Festival, in Belfast | July 31 through August 2 | www.myspace.com/vik44
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