Proem (SCQ's Year-End Questionnaire Part V)

Among the most respected IDM songwriters out there, Richard Bailey’s Proem alias finally reached SCQ’s office with Enough Conflict, a record that challenged and rewarded in equal measure. By the confrontational elegance of his music as well as his personality (via Proem’s twitter), I knew Bailey would have some interesting replies to this feature. In a response that’s quickly becoming customary, Proem doesn’t disappoint… even if I don’t know what VVVV / Processing is.

SCQ: Every list-lover's favourite question: what are your top albums of 2010? Feel free to include any older yet worthy records you discovered this year.

Here’s a pretty solid overview of things I’ve been playing in or “the studio”

Deceptikon - Mythology Of The Metropolis
Buy this if you don’t mind being forced into shaking things that resemble booty. Start to finish. Oh and the artwork is hot (even if i painted it).

Clark - Totems Flare
Clark can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. Some of the sickest, dirtiest, most enthralling deliciously hyperactive production I’ve heard in a long while. I’d call it an instant classic but that would be an understatement.

Car Bomb - Centralia
These guys will melt your brain. Ferocious blend of weird time signatures, polyrhythm and spine shattering transitions. One of my best mathcore/death metal finds of 2010

SCQ: What were you listening to a lot of while recording your impressive Enough Conflict?

Far more death metal than I care to list, sprinkled with a fair amount of Einsturzende Nuebauten, Nitzer ebb, the misfits,... the usual suspects. It’s almost too bad that last.fm doesnt let you search by more strict date ranges, otherwise id just show you
:)

SCQ: Be cocky for once in your life: what was the finest thing you did all year? That moment where you actually thought "shit, I nailed that..."?

Usually, if you are 100% sure of something,... it’s probably wrong. That test you took, the interview you just went on, the song you just finished, the ... etc. All near direct hits, but not “mission complete”. Even in the most extreme cases there is, and should be, some jagged razor sharp shard of doubt poking out of the stinking carcass that has been thrown through the windshield of your day to day existence. If it wasn’t there,... it would probably be time to throw the computer power cable over the support beam and end it all. In other words,... this question: nailed.

SCQ: Effect and Cause: Your record presented me with a learning curve I too seldom invite: to find soft melodies beneath razor-sharp instrumentation. 'she never cries', my first breakthrough track, occurred on a sunny October walk from work, and has since been succeeded by other highlights. Okay, your turn: confess a true tale that inspired one of the songs on Enough Conflict.

The one that comes to mind,... is perhaps the tale of “fall forward”. the name itself is a play on the spring forward / fall backward day light savings rule. About two or three weeks prior to any daylight savings time change my internal clock goes way off the rails of my “normal” sleep cycle. Sleep patterns switch in a matter of days and I wind up falling forward instead of springing forward as it were. Perhaps I’m just trying to get to the future faster... On a production note, and probably more to the point, I wrote the piano part on my very first fathers day three years ago. So,... there’s that.

SCQ: If all the reasonable and implausible ideas in your head came to fruition in 2011, what would they be?

1) I’d make a record that would finally dethrone “socially inept” as “most played” on last.fm
2) my dream of being 99% hardware based would come to pass. This is easier said than done. My wish list is long and expensive.
3) I could play more shows this coming year. Of course any performance would be one more than I’ve done in three years.
4) I’d get enough time around VVVV / Processing to build a light/sound reactive installation piece,...

Enough Conflict - Proem

Enough Conflict

Proem
n5MD Records.

SCQ Rating: 69%

Industrial noise must be a tough drug for electronic artists to dabble in. More often than not, it seems interspersing industrial elements into one’s laptop palette results in an overdose of dark synths that brood over and serrate any notion of a melody that might’ve been. ‘deep sleeping birds’ may be little more than an appetizer to proceedings but its jagged metallic shards repeatedly convinced me to skip those following twelve tracks and play something brighter instead. Little did I know that Enough Conflict’s opener is a red herring, a chrome-heavy chunk of IDM that stands alone in recalling all of those industrial-dependent artists who can’t muster any light to contrast their gloom.

Things take a positive turn from that point on, as Richard Bailey displays electronic songwriting unmasked of its ominous smoke and mirrors. Leave it to a song called ‘guns.knives.lemons’ to first let rays of sunlight upon Bailey’s tough-as-nails beats, but with the help of some acid squiggles and buzz-saw ambience, assenting vibes follow course. Enough Conflict doesn’t ditch its early industrial leanings but balances them more evenly with airy cinematics (‘jiittirrrrriii’) and crystal-clear melodies (‘seafaring velvet waltz’). For electronica fans who find all the doomladen material a bit cumbersome for everyday listening, Proem’s latest acts as an ideal gateway record; still fraught with challenging passages but melded to enticing refrains that, whether dreamy or nightmarish, should give industrial-fearing kids like myself an appreciation for punchier IDM. At times evoking Aphex Twin, Bailey creates concrete song-constructions from the otherworldly ‘she never cries’ and the Drukqs-era ‘a short bit before you go’.

A mixed bag of harsh beat patterns (‘back to fail’) and tender soundscapes (‘kalimba jam’), Enough Conflict, like its title, feels oddly at peace with its scattered ideas. Satisfied letting its unsettled nature drift almost organically song to song, Proem’s eighth LP often feels lacking in narrative, as if each stage of its journey finds disconnected chaos, serenity, or one within the other. Although concise in running-time, the record stretches generously without any major, game-changing highlights – something ultimately more liberating than detracting. It may not be for everyone… but anyone with an ear for IDM would be remiss to pass on a listen of Enough Conflict.