Audiobooks – Now!

The more I listen to them, the more I’m convinced that Audiobooks sound more like automatic writing than with a simple voice synthesis engine that reads us a book aloud. First there’s the sensation of being among the dark subtleties of the subconscious mind, where other voices are speaking, yet often unknown.

The tragic synth sounds coming from David and Evangeline’s voice in never-ending turmoil sound out over the soft creepiness of the beginnings, projecting us into lighter, yet still disturbing scenarios.

While at first the composition was defined more by a synthetic and technoide post-industrial sound, they’ve moved towards an artier and dancier synth-pop, like the early Heaven 17, but cleverly contextualized, so much so to remove the risk of looking too derivative.

The priority in “Now! (In a Minute)” is to express the more lyrical side of the two Londoners; it makes for a more enjoyable listening, where before it was a rhythmic network of percussive sounds showing an electronic restlessness.

If “Gothenburg” left us with the feeling of a rainy night spent in hiding from the unknown, of foreboding that our individuality will be persecuted by an insatiable nothingness, the last album gives us a more party and flowery atmosphere. By no means is it free from obscure premonition, however, as magnificently expressed in “Hot Salt”, that conjures up the image of a last desperate feast before oblivion.

Nando Dorelassi