Amnesia Scanner is a Berlin electronic duo, who have been recently signed to the Young Turks label that holds many fantastic artists like FKA Twigs, The xx (recently spearheaded by Jaimie xx), SBTRKT, Chairlift, and many others. The group takes very abstract approaches to standard electronic music and give off a sort of post-apocalyptic sound. This debut EP of theirs is pretty crazy, with quite a few very enthralling and abrasive songs on it.
It opens with "Gardens Need Walls," which is a take on industrial electronic that features some grinding, metallic synths and a fast-paced melodic drum beat. It's a little sleepy with not a lot of build up, but it has a nice groove to it. It actually has a bit of a J-Lin feel to it with the way they use the drum machine. "Crust" is a bit of a low-key bump, the way it opens with these long drones, then breaks into these dusty-sounding synths and a pitch-altered vocal melody that makes the track kink of haunting.
It then breaks into these really creepy sounds that almost have an underwater quality to them. The only thing about this track that's a little odd is the random beep during the little refrains. I don't know quite why they included that, but it doesn't really take away from the overall quality. The song "Chingy" is definitely a remnant of dancehall music, with really heavy wobble synths and a very thumping, almost anthem-like beat. It breaks down into these crazy, uncontrollable synths that are reminiscent of SOPHIE, my favorite producer at the moment. If there were clubs in the Mad Max universe, this would be a smash hit.
"Wood Gas" is another crazy song that just has so much going on in it. It has a crazy synth lead to start it off, and then it devolves into this really crazy breakdown that sounds like its being played backwards. It's really a fantastic song. The next one is "Want It," which sounds like a bit of an epic. It has really heavy sub bass, and a very processed vocal melody that sounds great and adds some buildup to the almost cinematic bass line.
The EP ends with "Atlas," which is the most different sounding song on the project. It features a vocal melody that is a little whiny, and it then repeats for the entire song and becomes very annoying very fast. It doesn't build up into anything very exciting, and makes the 4-and-a-1/2 minute track pretty uneventful. Even still, it does have a really cool melody using these Japanese strings that gives it a cool world sound.
This thing is pretty short, but it covers a lot of different genres of electronic music-and gives each one a very nuclear fallout- like sound. They definitely pull from some of the more unique and prevalent producers in the game right now, but I still think they're doing I highly recommend you check this thing out.
Fav. Tracks: "Chingy," "Crust," "Wood Gas," "Want It"
Least Fav. Track: "Atlas"
