Album Review
Gods of Electricity's debut effort, Sundiving, finds their two core musicians, Mike Fazio and Thomas Hamlin, creating an involving hourlong effort that balances varying impulses from prog rock-inspired multi-part complexity to moody ambient minimalism. While a synthesis of a number of approaches instead of a sudden new direction, what gives Sundiving a little extra edge is how cleverly the two establish and then suddenly undermine moods in their songs — a soft drone may suddenly be interrupted with a harsh buzz; a loping, dub-tinged beat can be halted by a proto-industrial synth bassline. As a result, the closest sonic comparison might be the more exploratory instrumental work in the Nurse with Wound/Current 93/Coil axis — the overall feeling, while melancholy, is shot through with inspired chaos and moments of sudden soothing grace. The three-part "Clouds of Granite in a Clearing Sky," which takes up two-thirds of the disc, demonstrates all these qualities in full, with the opening segment, "Dreamland," in particular living up to its title, suggesting both sweet reverie and sudden nightmare. When a sudden, straightforwardly beautiful piano break appears, the effect is almost shocking. The remaining four songs veer between brief experiments (the two-minute-long "The Whole Electric City in Front of Us," which does indeed sound like a murky city soundtrack in the vein of Paul Schütze's work) and lengthier efforts like the title track. Fazio as overall producer does an excellent job putting all the pieces together but Hamlin's role is clear as the percussionist, and it is his rhythms — steady, stuttering, hyperactive, and all points in between — that are the not so secret weapon ("Starstreams" is a great example of his ability). "Slick-O-Phonic" takes the most intriguing turn in ways, its aggressive beats and swooping, elegant keyboards suggesting a route that the Future Sound of London might have taken after Dead Cities.
