nick klein: actor-network theory

Following releases for L.I.E.S, Alter, BANK Records NYC, Viewlexx, Ascetic House and Unknown Precept, Nick Klein makes his debut appearance on iDEAL with a strong album of morose, self reflective productions that will strongly appeal if you’re into anything from Nate Young to Depeche Mode to Nine Inch Nails and Caustic Window. The album marks the end of an era for Klein, his last work recorded in the USA before a move to Europe, and feels like a kind of sad kiss-off to the city, delivered in five parts that drill into a signature style of sourest synths and machine rhythms that revel in the thrill of grinding dissociation, seething with a seat-edge tension with jolts of rawest electronic expression. The thrumming velocity that took Klein up to 2018 feels tempered and chiselled into some of his most unyielding work, offering palpably pensive nerviness to his typically bullish styles in a way that has begun to bleed into his most recent releases on Psychic Liberation and Viewlexx. ‘Tail Eating’ and the fierce traction of ‘Every Move Move For The Monitor’ are countered with keening choral voices and serotonin-depleted strings of opener ‘Choking On Ice’, while the sparing strokes of ‘Pear Brandy’ casts a long shadow of midnight blooz guitar, and bony flutes creep over the stygian flow of ’Spider In Brown Powder’ in a salty balance of his patented, dissociative dryness with more esoteric, emotive urges. It feels like an album tailor made for this moment, full of uncertainty, sadness, staring into the bleak unknown.