Nathan Fake | Steam Days

Border Community (2012)
By RYAN REED  |  August 21, 2012
2.0 2.0 Stars

nf1

Even though it's difficult to feel a human pulse on his third studio album, Steam Days, Nathan Fake's brand of laptop-tronica remains uniquely organic. On "Paean," the disc's opening wash of sound, Fake crafts a blissfully fractured electro-lounge synth groove over percussion that sounds like rattling pocket change and the shaking of spray-paint cans. And unlike many of his beat-heavy peers, Fake knows the importance of melody. Even when the soundscapes crawl along without much sense of purpose, there's usually a half-melted hook bubbling under the surface: "Old Light" sports a nifty synth-bass and lively, glitchy rhythms, but its heartbeat is a glistening synth line chopped straight from the soundtrack of a lost Nintendo classic. With its stutter-stepping beats and hazy, winding keys, "Cascade Airways" sounds like a dubstep outtake from J-Dilla's Donuts, hold the sprinkles. Ultimately, Steam Days could have used a lot more Dilla-esque economy: at 50 minutes, it drags exponentially more the longer it plays; "Rue," a sub Sigur Rós, is a slo-mo doodle interlude stretched out to a painfully long four minutes; and closer "Warble Epics" calls to mind an 8-bit version of Radiohead's "2+2=5" minus catharsis. Steam Days is usually pretty, but it's also a snooze.

Related: Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010, Bearstronaut | Broken Handclaps, Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Arts, Nathan Fake,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY RYAN REED
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   WAVVES | AFRAID OF HEIGHTS  |  March 18, 2013
    "I Can't Dream," the closer on Wavves' fourth studio album, opens in a drunken lo-fi stupor — Nathan Williams warbling bratty, tone-deaf nonsense over hissy acoustic power chords.
  •   THE VIRGINS | STRIKE GENTLY  |  March 06, 2013
    After a half-decade of semi-obscurity, frontman Donald Cumming is redefining his band as the hipster sultans of swing.
  •   ATOMS FOR PEACE | AMOK  |  February 26, 2013
    Kid A , Radiohead's confounding electro-rock masterpiece, is officially hitting puberty.
  •   ATLAS GENIUS | WHEN IT WAS NOW  |  February 20, 2013
    Atlas Genius are schooled students of modern pop architecture, seamlessly bouncing from Coldplay-styled acoustic rock to fizzy Phoenix funkiness to deadpanned Strokes-ian guitar chug. But When It Was Now is more like an alt-pop NOW compilation than a joyous synthesis.
  •   FOALS | HOLY FIRE  |  February 11, 2013
    Even at their most expansive, Foals are digging into more primal territory.

 See all articles by: RYAN REED