Phillipe Roberts
Noah Anthony’s music as Profligate exists in a realm that’s equal parts anxiety and serenity. His voice, dark but warm, drifts with an eerie, dispassionate calm through chaotically buzzing fields of power electronics that constantly threaten to overpower him. Deep listening is a must; for all the firepower he throws into his productions, blasting off with shrieks of noise or milking a disorienting snare for every nauseating hit, the mild-mannered coolness of his delivery forces you to pay attention, continuously adjusting your auditory focus to take in the nuances of his performance. Teetering frantically between total collapse and flow-state ecstasy, Somewhere Else, his latest work, is also his most rewarding and wide-ranging. For the nocturnal headphone-dweller, it’s a scenic mind map well worth poring over. For the industrial club-seeker, Anthony brings a devious set of grooves diverse enough to keep you coming back for more.
Somewhere Else comes into view slowly. The opener (also the title track) sweeps in on steady bass bumps as a grinding synthetic pulse creeps alongside. Other elements unfold dramatically: snatches of guitar, lagging keys, and pixelated electronic distortions flutter in and out at their leisure, giving the impression of a machine chugging across a foreboding landscape. Constantly approaching or departing from these textural landmarks, the words sung by Anthony can only be picked apart with great care. The intent and effect is to pull you deeper into the mix—baiting with familiar tones to assure you that, yes, a flesh-and-blood human is at the controls, programming this strange journey. By the time the song collapses to the finish line at the eight-minute mark, opening up into more spacious territory with a gorgeous acoustic bass and noise duet, there’s a sense of acclimation to the oceanic pressures at which Anthony works.
With the cinematic exposition out of the way, the album leans into the left turns, exploring more hook-centric territory with an industrial flair without turning his mind-altering synth explorations into window dressing. “Jet Black (King of the World)” alternates between blasts of noise and a deep echo dub riff, turning the title phrase into a call and response that becomes the record’s poppiest moment. Expanded electronics aren’t treated in a purely dichotomous way throughout; noise isn’t merely the “shadow” to the lighter hooks. “Enlist” winds glitchy manipulations around a slinky bass riff, creating a series of secondary riffs running alongside the more obvious ones. Channeling the darkest corners of synth pop, particularly Depeche Mode, yields tremendously enjoyable results, and gives Somewhere Else other attractions beyond its mysterious grit.
While this is the first album to fully showcase Anthony’s collaborations with poet Elaine Kahn, she mostly sticks to the background here, harmonizing gently. “Lose a Little,” a skittering drum number that percolates out into nothingness towards the end, constitutes her biggest feature. The brooding instrumentals, hissing with crackling radio static, play well under her voice. “Fucking nature / You delight in getting rid of me,” Kahn spits just before it comes to a halt. Her venomous monologue heightens the tension just as the album begins to take on too much familiarity. The presence of a secondary voice energizes the experience, and more of her features would be a welcome surprise.
Much like its cover, Somewhere Else takes pleasure in small contortions. Anthony introduces touches of chaos to throw you off balance, but never enough to render reality unrecognizable from the hazy dream states into which he seeks to lure you. Approach with caution: its constant dissections won’t quite peel you apart, but may throw your ears into an unorthodox tuning for quite some time afterwards.